Before & After: This Room’s Beautiful Bones Get Even Better
Here’s a room with beautiful bones—stunning wood floors, classic fireplace, tasteful paint colors, interesting accent wall, high ceilings—but can it be even better? Here’s how the homeowner kept everything that’s good about this room, while remedying the “big empty space!” next to the fireplace.
First, here’s how Lindsay ofIndigo & Graydescribed the situation before the change:
We had just moved into our brand new house. There was a fireplace with two cavernous spaces on either side. We decided to add built-in cabinets and shelves.
What a great room! And also, the new cabinetry and shelves look right at home, as if they’ve been there forever. The wood of the shelves works so well with the newel post, the white of the storage unit is perfect with the fireplace mantel, and the black shelf brackets adds a bit of edge and coordinates with the black television, fireplace, the art and frame, and the legs of the side table.
If you’re so inclined, you can get the look withleather pulls from Amazon ($15.99/set of 2),metal brackets from Etsyfor the shelves, andSEKTION cabinets and doors from IKEA(it looks like the exact pieces are no longer available, but many SEKTION pieces still are). Those of us without family farms might have a bit of trouble obtaining gorgeous pieces of wood for the top and shelves, however:
It took a total of about 12 hours and cost about $1,200. We did it all ourselves. It took a while for the wood to arrive since it was being sent from our family’s farm in Alabama to our home in North Carolina. We wanted to hide the wiring from the TV which is mounted above our fireplace so that was a bit tricky to figure out.
I know from experience that hiding wiring can be a bear, so kudos to Lindsay for making it work.
Here’s a close-up on that fascinating wood and the darling pulls. While leather pulls stress me out when they’re used in kitchens (the mess! the wear and tear!), they’re perfect here, where they add beauty and interest but won’t be used constantly, or touched by lots of sticky hands. Here’s how Lindsay feels about the completed project:
I love the warm and natural textures added with the wood tops and leather pulls. I can’t think of anything we would have done differently. It would have been easier with help.
Thanks,Lindsay!