Friends, I am so glad that week four of this One Room Challenge is over! This week I’ve been tackling one of my biggest build projects ever – my new bedroom storage unit! Let’s have a quick refresher on my starting point okay? This is the before – three different width bookcases from Ikea, crammed with books, yoga mats, empty shoeboxes and…a plastic crown…(everyone has one of those right??)
These bookcases always look really messy, so my goal was to create a storage unit that would have shelves for books, cabinets (with doors) that could hide not-so-attractive stuff and an integrated place for our laundry basket.
I partnered with Kreg tools to create the plan for this build and the full tutorial is available free on their Build Something website! To build the unit I used 3/4″ Purebond aspen plywood for everything except for the top of the open shelves and the countertop. I used my Kreg pocket hole jig, shelf pin jig and a new toy I bought myself, the Kreg Accu-Cut Circular Saw Guide Track System.
I saw Kreg demo the Accu-Cut at the Haven Conference in July and it’s been a great addition to our garage workshop. While Chris and I will occasionally borrow a neighbour’s table saw for projects, it’s limited to a 10″ wide cut. I like the Accu-Cut because I can easily cut down plywood and keep my cuts straight (WAY straighter than when I try to freehand it).
I’m so happy with how the finished product turned out. The cabinets give us the perfect amount of hidden storage while the open shelves are a nice way to display books and small decorative items.
I love that the unit is perfectly sized for our room and the open shelves are all the same width. The grey/blue colour is also nice and bright against our teal walls. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to keep the wood counter natural or stain it – what do you think?
The two cabinets on the right hand side are both tilt-out units that hold tall skinny laundry baskets. I still need to add some ribbon or chain to prevent them from falling open.
While I will be donating some of my books (university psychology textbook anyone?) I will definitely need more shelves – I’ll probably be cutting and painting at least three more to finish the unit completely.
This unit is such a huge improvement over our old bookcases I’m still a little stunned when I walk into our room and see it. The room seems more polished and somehow more…grown up.
If you’re looking to build something similar please check out my storage unit plan on the Kreg Build Something website. I’d also love to see photos if you end up building from this plan!!
So now on to my next (thankfully smaller) One Room Challenge project – our bedside tables! It turns out I have a bit of extra time too as we have been given a one week extension on our makeovers (seven weeks now instead of six). That takes a bit of the pressure off and has me thinking about one more project I might have time to squeeze in…we’ll see how it goes 😉
Thanks for visiting and following along with my progress – make sure to check out Calling it Home and all the other projects by this years guest participants!
Your storage unit came out fabulous! I love those tilt out laundry baskets. Nicely done, Casey!
The tile out laundry baskets are SO SMART. Love those!
It looks great, Casey! I love the pull out laundry baskets! So cool! The wood top looks really pretty. I like the warmth that it adds. 🙂
I cannot believe the transformation! I pinned this for inspiration!
So true, built ins do make a room feel more grown up- sophisticated even. And that built in hamper is genius! Way to go for building this!!
Amazing! Great build, so functional and fits perfectly in your space
The book case came out really great and I love the pull out laundry. I need to check out that build something website!
Well isn’t this perfect! I love the look. It’s an ingenious solution to everyday problems!
WHOA so cool that you built it from scratch! Looks great 🙂
This storage unit is looking awesome. You did a great job. Thanks for sharing this post.
It is seriously a dream of mine to have hidden laundry baskets! lol. Yours look fantastic!
That is perfect for your space you are working with. Can’t wait to see the rest!
I love your storage unit, but I am curious. With your skills, why did you not just add doors to the bottom of the bookcases you already had, and customized those the way you wished with the laundry baskets, etc? Was it just easier to start from scratch? I don’t know, as I don’t have any skills in the building realm, I can barely handle a hammer and power tools scare me to death!