This project may have been one of the times Chance thought I had absolutely lost it. Amelia was a friend of a friend, whose career had kind of run parallel to mine, in a way that we knew of each other but had never met. After meeting at a coffee co-working event she hosted, she asked if we could help her create her dream built-in bookcases.

I have to admit: Amelia’s belief in us is the only reason we finished. She was such a cheerleader and believed in us wholeheartedly — a refreshing change of pace.

We absolutely loved building this project for her growing family.

Design & Budget

Amelia and Chaz have a Scandinavian, minimalist style. Their split-level home features a lower-level living room, complete with a wood-burning fireplace, access to the backyard and garage, as well as the primary suite. Just inside the back door — which is primarily used as the family’s entrance — is a big blank wall. That was where Amelia had dreamed of her built-in bookcases.

I’ll admit that the right angles of this particular wall made this project much less daunting. Although, it was still one we had never done… and this time, it was in someone else’s home. That pressure didn’t leave us the entire time, even though Amelia and Chaz (and Ro) were so patient and encouraging every step of the way.

Because this was our first DIY outside of our own home, we decided to charge them just for the materials. We estimated $400 for the project and came in just over at $423.

Amelia sent us a few photos ahead of time so we could come up with a plan. She really liked the arched look — again, something we had never done before.

Proposed Punch List:

• Assemble bookcases

• Build platform

• Paint wall

• Attach bookcases to the platform/wall

• Cut and attach the arches

• Trim and finishing pieces

• Magnetic front door

• Bonus: cat door

Tools We Used:

• Ryobi miter saw

• HART Tools drill set

• HART Tools circular saw

• HART Tools Brad Nailer

• Ryobi Jigsaw

Assembling the Bookcases

Based on the length of her wall and her budget, I had Amelia order four of these bookcases to their house. We assembled them and then determined how far apart we needed to space them for them to be even. We also became very best friends with their cat Penny.

The secret to making these look like they’re built-in is building them floor to ceiling. In order to do that, we decided to build a platform for the bookcases to sit on top of. This would raise them at least one foot off the ground, giving us a reasonable amount of space between the top of the bookshelves and the ceilings — enough space to add arches.

Building the Platform

Chance sketched out what we affectionally called “the stage.” Because there’s a door to the right of where we’re doing the built-ins, we opted not to remove the baseboards, which meant we had to do some math about how to built the stage around it.

We used common boards to build a VERY sturdy stage that would raise and level the bookcases. One thing we bought for this project that made all the difference were these saw horses.

Once the platform was built, we attached it to the studs. Before we lifted the bookcases on top of the stage, we added two furring stripes to the back of the bookcases. We attached those furring stripes to studs in the wall. Of course, the studs weren’t evenly spaced, so we got three of the four bookcases in studs and added an anchor screw on the fourth.

Ensuring that these were sturdy was super important since Amelia and Chaz have a two-year-old and many adorable cats.

Before securing them to the wall, we painted the wall behind the bookcases black to help achieve that built-in look.

Constructing Arches for the Built-In Bookcases

This part was the most nerve-racking and arguably the most… controversial part of the project. TikTok was not impressed. But Amelia and Chaz were and that’s all I really care about. We built the arches out of tempered hardboard. Using a makeshift compass, Chance sketched a half-circle into the boards and used a jigsaw to cut them out. We sanded the edges and painted them black to hide any imperfections.

When attaching the arches to the bookcases, we first added furring stripes to the ceiling. We fixed the two-dimensional arch facades to these ceiling stripes.

Bonus Feature: A Cat Door

This kept happening while we were working to the point that we decided Penny and her siblings needed space under the bookcases to hang. This presented a few challenges.

1. We needed to add a cat door into the bookcases that wouldn’t mess with the aesthetic

2. Amelia and Chaz needed to have access under the bookcases for cat safety and cleaning

We added the entrance on the side of the bookcase where we had planned to add a solid facade. Using the jigsaw, we cut a small door and framed it out with PVC quarter-round. Penny immediately approved. For the front facade pieces, we went back on forth on how to best so this. The most obvious idea seemed like hinges. We could create a door that lifts up for them to get under there.

However, this would be hard to hide visually. We settled on the idea of using attaching magnets to the stage, as well as the hardboard facade. The super strong magnets couldn’t be moved by the cats and created a seamless cover that could still easily be removed.

Finishing Touches

The beauty of finishing work is that it can hide your mistakes. Caulking the seams and edges, adding quarter-round, and trim made all the difference. The show-stopper of this project, in my opinion, is the fluted trim. It hides where the bookcases meet, without obstructing the bookshelf itself.

Amelia and Chaz opted not to paint or cover the outlet or light switch since these bookcases would be fully decorated all the time. They also wanted to keep the ability to adjust shelf heights. That means you can see the extra shelf height peg holes, however, you’ll see when it’s decorated, they’re not noticeable.

Built-In Bookshelf Reveal

The final look of the bookcases made us so proud! We did that… IN FIVE DAYS. Is it absolutely perfect? No. But our friends were happy and we learned a lot.

But the biggest joy came from receiving this time-lapse video of the family decorating the shelf with their favorite belongings. Along with a handful of stunning images, Amelia and Chaz really brought these shelves to life with their decor and trinkets.

Photo Credit: Amelia Weiss, 2022