Week One Recap
First, no photos on this post and I’m trying not to be grumpy about it. For some reason, even though my iphotos are synced on the cloud they’re not showing up as available to my MacBook – I’m marginal at this tech stuff and rather than scream in frustration about the photos, I thought I’d just publish without photos for now — I can always edit the post later.
If you saw my IG stories last week, you saw how amazingly organized and talented Husband is at planning builds. Sometimes his very detailed questions irritate me but it’s because he’s thinking on a whole different level than I am. He spent weeks researching and planning the bookcase builds and for that, I’m so very grateful. His meticulous planning meant we knew what we needed to get from the hardware store and had a build plan already in place. When Husband has a project he is a dog on a bone, you can barely get him to stop to eat. These first few weeks are going to be all Husband because he’s got the patience, talent, and tenacity to do these things. Me? I just curse and cry in frustration and then end up in a puddle on the floor.
After removing the baseboard and shoe moulding on the back wall, Husband built the base cabinets for the bookcases. The original plan was simply bookcases but Husband suggested base cabinets and it is going to be a great way to hide ugly office-y things like the printer and extra office and school supplies. Changing to base cabinets did cause an increase in cost but since we’re building it ourselves, it is just material cost. We considered other options such as hacking IKEA bookcases and ordering custom from Cabinet Joint but in the end, Husband really enjoys these kinds of projects so we decided to DIY it.
The bookcases weren’t too difficult to build (I think, I didn’t build anything, ha!) but I do suggest spending a little bit on special tools that make your life easier such as the long cutting guide (since we don’t have a table saw) and the special jigs used to help drill all the million shelf peg holes on the sides of the bookcases and the inset doors for the base cabinets.
While Husband was building all the things, I was trying to pick paint colors. I know I want the bookcases to stand out a little (how can you NOT when they’re going to have gorgeous wallpaper behind them?!) so they are going to be a deep gray/black. I want the colors to complement the dining room but not necessarily match. I envision a beautiful taupe-y brownish color for the walls to make the room feel a bit more masculine against the floral wallpaper. So after much deliberation, I settled on some swatches and put them up on every wall in the room and then proceeded to move my wallpaper sample from wall to wall at all hours of the day and night trying to pick a color. I finally settled on Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze for the bookcases and SW Poised Taupe for the room (ceiling included). Finally deciding is a huge relief!
I also want to add that I considered doing a plaid wallpaper over the remaining walls HOWEVER, once we figured out how much wallpaper we’d need for the bookcase wall, I knew I had to scrap the other wallpaper ($$$$$). It’s ok because if I can always add it later on down the road if I really feel like the room needs it. Plus, sometimes restraint is where it’s at and pulling back on some of the elements I wanted to include will, I think, work out better in the long run, we’ll see.
Week Two Plan
It doesn’t seem like a lot when I’m typing it out but week two will include building the wing walls for the desk built in, the desk arch, electrical rough in, mudding and sanding drywall, and finishing items we didn’t get to finish in week one. While Husband is building, I’m going to work on figuring out window coverings and coming up with a design for a floating console/credenza situation (but shhhhhhhh, don’t tell Husband). Again, Husband’s meticulous planning for the bookcases and desk built ins means we already have a material list and build plan for this whole project, which is making things SO MUCH easier – until I add things to the plan, muahahahaha.
Dont Should on Me 