DIY | WhateverisLovely-Blog

I’ve been so excited to show you guys our new built ins!! They are (99%) finished!! All that’s left to do is caulk the decorative paneling pieces we added, and of course I’m dragging my feet on that. But I’m going to show them to you today anyway, in their almost-finished state. :)

Here’s one!

And the other…

And a shot of both of ‘em…

Squeeeal!

I really, really love them!! They turned out exactly how I envisioned them and were so worth all the hard work we did to build them.

Now, let’s discuss some details. The accessories I decorated them with is a mixture of some things I already had and some new things from Goodwill, HomeGoods, Michaels and Ross.

My husband painted the backs of them the same color as our walls, Benjamin Moore’s Cream Fleece. Then, I went through and did the stenciling with Martha Stewart Living’s metallic glaze paint in Vintage Gold. I picked it because I wanted my design to be very subtle and not overpower the accessories. It turned out exactly how I had hoped it would! In certain lights only parts of the stencil show up well, and they look all metallic-y and pretty. :)

It’s a water-based paint, so it was okay for me to use it while pregnant. I did wear a mask while I painted, though, to be extra safe.

Here’s the stencil I used:

And these are the cabinet knobs:

Sighh… so pretty :)

I gotta tell ya, I’m having a BLAST decorating our little girl’s room. I am such a girly girl at heart. I can’t wait to hang curtains, and set up her crib and the rest of her furniture!!

Our next step is to replace the carpet in here. The current carpet is berber which isn’t so nice on little knees, and it was here when we moved in so we’d like to have a fresh start. We’re going to be looking around at some local stores this weekend to find the best deal. I’ll keep you updated on all of that. Then, we’ll be pretty much set to add the finishing touches!!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Until next time!

Welcome back and happy MLK day!

We’ve made a good bit of progress on the nursery bookcases since I last left you! There are still some finishing touches left to do, but they are looking pretty great so far I must say. :)

After we fitted the toe kicks and base cabinets in, we started building the bookcases out on our back porch [so sorry for the bad-quality cell phone pics...].

This was just a matter of screwing the boards together:

Then, it was time to fit them on top of the cabinet bases!

When we measured from the top of the cabinet base to the ceiling, we had to allow about 1/4″ of wiggle room so that the bookcases would fit. They were still very snug.

Then I put the shelves in! This was very simple because we had used the melamine shelving from Home Depot. It’s a bit more expensive than buying regular wood, but the holes are pre-drilled for you and they’re already white which makes painting them a breeze.

Next step was to add a little decorative molding along the sides and the top. I decided just to use molding adhesive to “glue” them on instead of nailing them in. That way I wouldn’t have to deal with any nail holes.

And now I’m in the middle of adding some simple paneling to the sides and, eventually, to the cabinet faces:

The black marks on the wall are from us using our rubber mallet to get this bookshelf into place. This side was a tight fit even with the wiggle room we gave ourselves. Good thing the nursery’s gonna be getting a new paint job anyway!

For the paneling, I went the cheapest route in the whole world. When I bought the wood for the backs of the bookcases, we had a lot left over. So we just started cutting it up into two inch strips and using it as our panels! Works for me and I think it’s gonna look just fine once it’s all painted white. We’ll also be installing baseboard over the toe kicks to cover those up.

Oh, also! Remember how my husband cut the cabinets in half so they wouldn’t be so deep? Well, we didn’t add new backs to them or anything. We just secured ‘em to the wall using a few of these guys:

And they’re as sturdy as can be!

Well, that’s what we’ve got so far! My sweet parents will be coming over in a few weeks to help my husband with painting the nursery. Before then, I want to get all the finishing touches done to these bookcases and install a chair rail in the room. Very exciting!! :)