After the contractors left in mid-July 2022, we (read: my handy Mr.) did a lot. A lot. Including: insulating and re-siding the exterior, flooring most of the house, painting almost every wall/ ceiling surface, building the pantry and kitchen island, and installing all new kitchen appliances ! By January of 2023 we were done with all that and in February I was finally able to convince my live-in carpenter to pick up the built-in project.
During our addition project, there was a slight error in the placement of the new foundation. This resulted in a wall jog between the old living room and the new great room, which we had not been planning for. Instead of pouting, or screaming at the contractor -- we decided to make lemonade from our lemons by covering up the wall jog with a beautiful built-in.
Join me for a photo journey of the process. We had such a good experience with our Ikea kitchen cabinets that we decided to use Ikea again to source the lower cabinets for the built-in. This simplified the cabinet making process for the Mr. and guaranteed that it would match the look of the existing cabinetry in the space.
This picture shows the jog that we're working to cover up.
We started by assembling the frames for the lower cabinets.
We sourced some pine board from our local Menards and customized the upper shelving. Each of 4 boxes was built separately and then we affixed them to one another.
This next photo shows how we adhered a backer to each shelf box. We weren't too concerned about using real wood for this since we knew we'd be painting over it.
All four shelving sections with backers in place.
Let the painting begin. In the photo below, you can see that we had added trim to the exterior of the unit, but we hadn't yet added trim to the vertical interior shelving box supports.
First, we primed using our favorite Zinsser 123 primer. After that, we painted it a navy blue color. We took a piece of the Ikea trim that we had left over from the kitchen project and had the store (Home Depot) color match for us. It isn't perfect, but it is close enough.
There was some debate about if we should paint it navy, leave it white, or go a new direction entirely. Since the walls in this open space are all white, I'm really happy that we went with the more dramatic darker color. Kudos to the Mr. who really pushed for this decision.
Here she is painted and ready for cabinet doors.
By the time of this next picture, we had added the missing trim and installed hardware on the cabinet doors, but still hadn't installed the toe kick or replaced the white vent cover with a darker one.
And here we are ! I love this built in. It covers up the wall jog, coordinates beautifully with the kitchen in our open concept living space, and really gives purpose to the old living room space. All that...and it offers additional storage, and who doesn't like more storage?
Project cost estimates.
4 ikea base cabinet frames, doors, and hinges: $752.75
Pine board, trim, paint, backer board, wood filler, vent covers: $544.00
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$1,296.75
*note we had primer, cabinet hardware, and fasteners on-hand
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