Built In Love

We lined up a sitter on Saturday and spent the day finishing all the cuts and gluing/nailing the wainscoting to the 3 walls.  What, that's not your idea of a fun date?  It was messy and tough but here's how we're currently looking:

Each piece is secured to the walls using liquid nails, wood glue, biscuits and nails.  Those suckers better not even think of moving.  Oh and I think I've forgotten to mention that I decided to go with pre-primed wood.  I could have saved $60 by using unprimed boards but after I factored in the cost of buying a gallon of good primer I figured the net $30 splurge was worth it to me to have a factory finish and to not have the extra work and stink in the house.

Then it was on to give the built-in's some attention.  Here is how it was looking after I removed the 2 middle shelf sections:

I mentioned when we installed the crown that we first installed a pice of upside down baseboard to the top of the built in to give it a more built out look.  We took it once step further and added a 2" piece just under that baseboard.  You can see it at the top of this picture:

You'll also notice we added a shelf.  We wanted the piece to look like one unit and with the middle sections gone the shelf connecting the two helped achieve that.  There is another 2"cross piece to mirror the top and the sides and to also help prevent the long shelf from sagging over time.  A 1" brace holds up the sides.

Next up I wanted the headboard section to be a focal point so I designed a wood paneled treatment that has my husband cursing.  It is very difficult to get it installed because the 2 shelves create fixed ends that don't allow for any movement while we're installing.  Here it is dry fit:

The added perk was that the pieces covered up this mess left behind from demo'ing the old shelving units.

Last but not least the bottoms.  Remember when I demo'ed the shelves and it left the feet looking like this?

It left behind a raw edge and a strange toe kick.  First step was to address the front.  We got rid of the toe kick by first nailing a piece of 3/4" board (the same as all the wainscoting) so that it was flush with the front of the unit.  Then we attached a piece of baseboard to that.  It not only gives it a finished edge but also matches the base we will have to use on the sides of the unit.

This shot shows you how we built out the base.  We can only use the narrow baseboard on the sides b/c we can't afford to lose any real estate in between the shelves because the bed fits exactly in between.

So a lot of the grueling work is behind us.  Last steps are to somehow secure the paneling to the headboard wall and then lots of puttying, caulking and painting.

11 more days until the birthday boy turns 4.  Just what every 4 year old boy wants.  Haven't you heard that wainscoting is all the rage with preschoolers?