Dining Room Wall - DIY Floating Shelves and Cabinets

This year we took on one of the many projects that had been bothering me for a while! Our Kitchen / dining area had gone through multiple transformations already but none of them pleased us.

Dining room wall before

We wanted to redecorate with storage and décor in mind so automatically the ugly storage cube had to go.  The only item we wanted to keep was the large painting we got from one of our many “moms” as a house warming gift. JT came up with an idea that I was not initially on board with but since he was providing the labor and had his mentor “Papa T” to guide him, I figured we could give it a shot. We decided to add floating shelves to the sides of the painting and built-in lower cabinets for additional storage. 

We got the floating shelf idea from shanty2chic and used prefabricated upper cabinets as base cabinets. The project took us 3 weekends to complete and it turned out to be one of the best updates we have done to the house. Enjoy the pictures.

Prewiring for floating shelf lights and outlets

JT was very particular about having a clean connection so we don't have wires showing

Floating shelf frames in 

Ready to install cabinets to the wall

Base for cabinets and toe kick

Floor cabinets installed

Face plates for floating shelves routed

Light wiring inside floating shelf

Checking the fit of the shelf board

 

Stained shelves and counter top (yup I did some work too)

Dining room wall now (I LOVE IT)

Can you tell I really love this space!!!!!!!!!!!

Wall to Wall Built-In Storage

This was a bitter sweet project for us because it replaced our very first diy project; remember this very well built book shelf ? We have a lot more books and nick-knacks than the book shelf could hold. I also wanted something more fancy that we could serve as a decorative backdrop to the room. Because we spend so much time in this room, we felt the need to incorporate a lounge and guest room option into the project.

Before picture of game room

This project took a full day. We started at 8 AM with a run to the hardware store and finished a little after 5 PM (we did take a break for lunch). Our wonderful friends who own a local design and construction company helped us out a lot with this project.

List of supplies used:

• 11 - 3/4 x 11-1/4 x 8 White Melamine Square Edge Shelving (6)
• 14ft -  1.25” wide window and door casings
• 3/8" Poplar Buttons
• 1 - Antique White Paintable Latex Window and Door Caulk
• 2 - Valspar Base A Interior Satin Paint Sample
• 1-1/2-in x 18-Gauge Brad Nails
• ½ pint Spackling
• Putty knife
• Touch up paint roller kit

Here are pictures of the built in process

Cleaned out entire room

Melamine shelving and casings 

Shelves being assembled

Close-up of assembly

Measure twice, cut once 

Added support bar to screw into wall

1 side completed

Poplar buttons painted and used to cover screw holes

We attached the units to the studs using the bars at the top and finished up with some caulk. The casings were attached to the fronts using a finish nailer and the holes were filled before painting.

The same thing was done again for the other side of the room. Both sides are identical and the space in the middle is enough to fit a standard day bed with about 4 inches on both sides.

We added two shelves across the middle and used the 2 vertical pieces of wood to add some support to the shelves. 

We picked out most of the decorative pieces from what we had acquired over the years and purchased a few items. One fun thing we decided to do was to both have 1 shelf that we decorated completely to fit our styles.

Guess who "owns" which shelf

 The awkward space left by the support bars actually came in handy. We got to hang "Family" rules and and a crown which means something special to us. Some people who know us may guess :)

Top 2 rows

 We made the artwork using upholstery fabric and come colored cardboard and a garage sale gold frame.

Gold & Black Cardboard

Sewing supplies came in handy 

A colorful display

Panoramic View