The Old Road Farmhouse: Gorgeous Master Bookcases!

This is one of my favorite projects I’ve done in our new home so far! Our master has this wall with a large niche that was nice, but it was lacking something. I had two dressers there for a while, but I never used them and I just wanted something with storage, but that gave me a bunch of space for decorating! I thought why not add bookcases with storage. Similar projects are on Pinterest, but here’s my version!

Once I got all the materials, it went up pretty quick. Painting was the time consuming part! I could have sprayed the cabinets and shelves before I installed them, but I got impatient and wanted to start!

Here’s what I first did with the two dressers...

I first removed the baseboard in the back so I could reuse it somewhere else in the house that I still haven’t finished baseboard since this would be covered and waisted anyway. I then put 2x4’s the with of the wall and depth of the cabinets so they would sit on top. I found the studs before hand and made sure they were level, then started screwing into the studs and making it snug and secure. I got upper cabinets from home improvement store because I didn't want a deep base cabinet. These are only 12” deep.

Progress...

I like to sneak cute love messages into my projects!

I figured out the spacing between walls and the three cabinets. I used two 30” wide and one 36” wide cabinets to best fit...

Then I added the trim in between and the top to start filling the gaps. I use my trusty Dewalt battery powered nailer!

I found 3 matching bookcases for $10 a piece so I picked those up and just had to cut them down. I took off the cheap backing because I wanted to add shiplap!

I left 1.5” between the ceiling and the top of the bookcase to fit the 2x4 to secure it all. Also to save on cost, I just cut shorter shiplap where the backs of the bookcases were, that way I didn’t have to buy more 9’ pieces that would be covered up anyway.

Ok so I got to this point and I was so excited to paint it the next morning that I couldn’t sleep and started thinking how cool it would be to add lightning...

There’s an outlet behind the cabinets and there are wall sconces that are plug in, so I found two I liked (that had the on switch not on the cord, but the base of sconce) and undid the wiring in the back of the sconce to reroute the cord to the back of it vs coming out the bottom so the cord would all be hidden.