Fireplace Built-In Project

Hi, friends!

It’s been a minute since my last house update, but this one’s a doozy! Our custom fireplace and built-in bookcases are finally finished! (Cue happy dance!) I’ve waited two years for this project and now that it’s done I could not be more thrilled with the result.

When we first planned out this project, we came up with a budget of about $1500. Because my husband’s a carpenter, he already had all of the tools we needed, so this amount was basically just a materials estimate. When we found out we were pregnant with Isla, the built-in project was moved to the back burner (because babies are expensive, y’all.) However, we had some seriously good luck fall in our laps when my husband took on a remodel at work and the homeowner wanted to scrap an entire wall of custom hardwood cabinets! We salvaged the cabinets and bookcases, which happened to be the perfect dimensions for our project, and our materials budget was basically cut in half!

With the updated budget and a specific timeline for the cabinets needing to be removed for the remodel, this back burner project became a top priority project over the course of about two weeks. (Keep in mind, this all came about only six weeks before my due date with Isla, so while I was excited I was also a bit stressed about getting everything done before bringing a new baby home!) I’m happy to report that we were able to finish things up just under the wire (and I mean just—my due date is literally tomorrow! Ha!)

The paint color we chose is the same color as our walls: Valspar Bistro White. We got it in a satin enamel from Sherwin Williams. I debated the color at length before landing on white—while I like the idea of going more bold with paint colors, the process of painting these cabinets was so labor intensive that we didn’t want to have to repaint them ever again, haha. And you can’t go wrong with white!

Eventually, we’ll add tongue and groove to the walls around the built-ins and paint them a creamy beige color, so that’ll bring a bit more dimension to the space. I’m also debating adding a venetian plaster to the fireplace. What do you think?

All in all, I’m thrilled with how these turned out! The shelves are a perfect blank canvas for decor and the cabinets are super useful for hiding away kids’ books, games, and movies. And because Hamilton built a hidden space behind the tv, we can keep all of our electronics out of sight too! (Be gone, video game controllers.)

That’s all for today, friends. Thanks for stopping by!