I love to read and as soon as you enter our home you can tell. The first thing you see on our main floor is all of my books. We use Ikea Billy Bookcases to store the book bounty I have collected. They are holding up well, but they still looked very unfinished to me. Lee had installed some track lighting in front of the case, normally I'm not a huge fan track lighting but the effect is lovely enough to overlook the track.
After the lighting was installed they still looked like 3 bookcases pushed together. So clearly Trim was needed. A quick trip to Home Depot and we had our crown molding and base board. A quick chop, and some finishing nails later, voila Built in Billy Bookcases. Oh, and caulk, I almost forgot the caulk. Lee finished all the seams with caulking and they looked fantastic.
We painted the trim the same off white color of the bookcases and I couldn't be happier with the look.
Before: Yes I did pick the ugliest possible picture I could find for the before!
After:
Very nice result!
ReplyDeleteYou have many colorful books. You could arrange them color wise and use accessories in the same or better yet, contrast colors.
I promise it will look even greater than now!
Thanks,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree they would look lovely organized by color, It's much more practical to organize them by genre. All the cook books (over 100) are together and the rest are organized by their topic (ie finance, garden, home keeping, religion, organization etc..) making it easy to find what I need when I need it. It's mostly a reference collection. I completely agree organizing by color would look great for a smaller book collection, but as it stands function wins over fashion! :)
This might be a silly question that I missed the answer to, but what paint did you use to match the bookcases?
ReplyDeleteI'm planning on using these same bookcases in my "mine, all mine" room soon, thank you for the inspiration!
Jenn- That's not a silly question at all I should have put down the color we used. While it wasn't a perfect match to the billy bookcases it was close. I found that all of the billy bookcase whites don't even match each other. We bought two of our bookcases together and a year later bought the middle one and they are all slightly different shades of white as are the extenders (the extra shelves) we have on the top. The Best color match I found was Martha Stewart's TALC color. It's very close. And again we just bought a tester and it was more then enough paint for the trim.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps !!
p.s. Love the "mine all mine" room. Too funny!
Thank you! I can't wait to get started, even if the originals are a bit off I'll just dim the lights! ;-)
ReplyDeleteOh refreshing to see bookshelves filled with OMG, books! Much as I like seeing bookcases with display items, I always wonder where do the actual books go! Every bookcase in our house has books on it - decor items disappear as books appear. Love what you did with the crown molding and baseboard trim to make them look built-in. Very clever.
ReplyDeleteI love books too and these photos make me happy :)
ReplyDeletewhat a great solution to a common problem that folks have with ikea (that unfinished, unpolished look). looooove it!
ReplyDeleteSO pretty - might be a great easy built-in look option for me. :)
ReplyDeleteI've been catching up. Great budget tips! I've always wanted to make my own laundry soap and now I'm going to give it a try! Thanks for the inspiration! Can't wait to see the laundry room - ours is on the DIY to-do list too!
Take care!
Roeshel
What a great idea! I'm putting together seven Billy bookcases for my home office and would like to give them this finish.
ReplyDeleteCould you please tell me how you fixed the top and bottom trims to the bookshelves?
Thanks!
Marianne
Hi Marianne,
ReplyDeleteWe attached the top crown and bottom base with glue and nails. You'll need a good glue (gorilla makes a really good one that expands to fill cracks) and either a nail gun like us, or some small finishing nails and a hammer. The glue is what holds it there long term, and the nails just keep it there while the glue dries!
Hope that helps
This is great! Thanks for sharing. Doing some research for doing this myself and love your example. Can I ask, did you attach the actual bookshelves together before adding the top crown and base? As in, the interior sides of tbe bookshelves, or did they just go together nicely once you added the trim?
ReplyDeleteHi Jess!
ReplyDeleteWe did attach the bookcases together before we attached the crown and base! Just a couple of screws from the inside bookcase to the out side bookcases!
We place the screws just above the top shelf so you wouldn't see them, although all the books covered up the screws anyways :)
hope that helps
Looks great! so great that we are doing them now. But, we are stuck on the angles for cutting the crown molding. Any suggestions on the correct angles to cut would be appreciated and keep my husband and brother in law from killing me. Thanks so much for any advice.
ReplyDeleteHi Rhonda!
ReplyDeleteLee said that cutting the crown was difficult! He said you'll need a good miter saw and you should try a couple of test cuts on some scrap pieces!
And if they don't match up perfectly just fill the seam with caulking :) haha
I hope that helps!
Send a picture our way when you're done we'd LOVE to see it! :)
Lots of Love
Ashli
Thank you so much for posting this!! I'd already blown my living room budget before looking for bookcases and was surprised to find all the ones I like were well over $1500. Trimming out a couple of Billy bookcases is the perfect solution.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember which paint you used to match the trim to the off-white bookcases?
WOW. This is awesome. We have two of those Billy bookcases and wondered if you could suggest something...the cardboard backings are bending/warping and because of that, the sides of the bookcases are moving, thus the shelves are starting to buckle or even fall off the metal plugs that hold them up. What do you think??
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteYou must have some heavy books :) ? ? haha
I asked my husband about this (Lee is the construction expert around here). He suggests you use small L brackets to secure the sides to the wall, that should hold up the sides without the use of a backing.
or
You could use 'hardboard' found at home depot or lowes in the wood section . . . get them to cut it to size for you ($1 a cut) and then nail that into the back.
I hope one of those options works for you. Our townhouse bookcases we didn't even use the cardboard back and instead just secured them to the wall.
These look so wonderful! I'm a renter so I'm wondering how I can attach them so They'll come apart later. (Oh the woes of renting) Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteHi SherRon,
ReplyDeleteWe attached them together using screws, I asked Lee and he said you could definitely unscrew them! But when you move and screw them back together you would have to screw them back together in a different spot!
Hope that helps a bit!
Lots of Love
Ashli
Thank you for responding so quickly! Do you think there is a way I could attach the molding so that it will be removable as well? I was thinking possibly installing it with an "L" bracket?
ReplyDeleteHi SherRon
ReplyDeleteI asked Lee, he said, that you should nail it in place either with an air nailer or little finishing nails and a hammer, DON'T glue it in place, use a limited amount of nails then just pull the molding off when you want to move and re nail it when your done!!! Nails don't hold it in really well they're really just there to hold the molding in place until the glue dries!!
So go ahead and nail it in! You'll be fine!!
Ashli
Great idea to finish them off. As I now look to my right and stare at my Billy Bookcases looking all unfinished.... ;)
ReplyDeleteLove this! Going to pin it now so I can show it to my husband later!
ReplyDeleteAfter putting on the baseboard, there is an 1/8" gap between the baseboard and the shelves along the whole front edge. Did you just use caulk to fill this gap?
ReplyDeleteWe used chaulk! We used thin wood shims about the same size as a paint stick then caulked over them! You could probably just use chaulk but we went a bit overboard!!
DeleteHope that helps
Lots of Love
Ashli
I hate seeing books organized by color, because I know it means the owner has them for looks rather than because they actually read them. I have a 19 foot wall of bookcases, and I organize them by topic and alphabetically by author within those topics. Glad someone with a gorgeous decorating aesthetic does the same!
ReplyDeleteWhere did you find your track lights? I like them.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful job! What is your center bookshelf? Is it the Benno DVD Tower?
ReplyDeletedid you paint just the top of the book case or the whole thing inside and out?
ReplyDeleteYou are a genuis! Seriously. I love every post. This idea is so awesome, I need to do it! Well...I need a handyman first! I am planning on doing the cutlery drawer jewelry organizer this weekend. And homemade cleaners?! You're my new best friend!!! THANK YOU!!
ReplyDelete