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So back in February, we declared the playroom no longer necessary, and decided to make the room into the grown up living room that it was probably always supposed to be. Our house has that living room and dining room right off of the foyer, and for years the first thing you saw when you came through our front door was a mountain of toys on your left.

The first thing we did was remove the carpet and baseboards, and paint a new color. Then it sat for like two months while life got in the way. Then we ordered the hardwood floor, and waited for a month for it to come in. Then it sat while life got in the way. Then it took a month to get it completely installed (let me tell you, it's some serious labor). Then came the really tough part. We had to commit to the built-ins. We sketched and ordered door and stain samples for at least two months before submitting the order.

About a month ago, a FedEx Freight truck arrived with our library wall, completely disassembled, on three pallets. We've been assembling boxes for a couple of weeks, and this week committed to getting everything installed. We ran into several snags with the walls not being plumb, so we've still got two boxes to get hung, and then we need to figure out what we're doing about baseboard. But I'm so excited because I get to start loading them up now! The truly awesome part about this library wall, is that it's 100% customized for SCRAPBOOKS! Yep - the entire wall was designed around the bookshelves being 15.5" deep. The actual cabinet is 17" deep total. So while it's not done, here's where it's at now. The furnishings will be minimal - just two chairs and a table. Then the piano and all of Jake's guitars and amps will move in along the long wall opposite the window. I'm so excited to finally have enough bookshelves to store many more years worth of albums, and NOT having them hang all over the edge.

That is gorgeous!

That's beautiful. I could fill it up with the books that are stacked everywhere around here. One of these days I want a library all to myself.

its exciting when it starts coming together

Thanks all! And now that I've seen it all in person, I've started dreaming about one more finishing touch. The bookcases are the maximum height we could get, which is why there's that open box up top. But now that I see the transition, I desperately want one of those sliding library ladders! The bar could go right across that area where the uppers meet. But research indicates that something like that would run me way more than I can deal with right now. But I'm keeping it in mind for a future enhancement.

I'm just glad I can start using it for storage now. The way we typically DIY is that we get a job 90% done, and then it sits there for literally years without the final finishing pieces. It might be 2020 before we get baseboards. But at least I can gather all of my albums from all of the places they're scattered about and have the in one place.

You are one lucky duck Julie, the wall of shelving is simply grand.

WOW!!!

Absolutely gorgeous!

If you wanted to hide the space until you get
your dream ladder, you could always do a strip
of molding, stained to match the color of the shelves,
at the top

Very nice! Congratulations - and keep posting photos.

I don't mind the space between the shelves and the open boxes. But molding is going to be a another tricky thing to deal with. We ordered the cabinet heights all to perfectly finish with a crown molding at the top. However, to level the base cabinets, the fronts had the be jacked up nearly 1/2" on one side (the floor varied in both directions, and the fronts of the cabinets go from minor shims to 1/2" filler slab). Well, that 1/2" on the floor, plus a non-level ceiling, was enough for one end of the molding to cover the face frame entirely, then span out to where a full inch of the face frame is showing. So I think the molding is un-usable, unless we do something to build it up to where none of the face frame shows across the entire thing. But I don't think that will look good either. So we're not quite sure how we're going to solve that problem.

Like I said, we get 90% done, and will mull over the last 10% of our problematic issues for a very long time. We may not put in a crown for years (though I think it will look better if there's no gap to the ceiling). Who knows.

I will definitely post more pics when the last two boxes are up and there are more things on the shelves.

Thanks for the compliments!

Wow! That is awesome for sure. We need to see the finished product.