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UPDATE: This is the 1st post in a 3 part series.  Part 2 (building the bookcase itself) can be found HERE.  Part 3, final build in bookshelf reveal can be found HERE

The only room still not unpacked from moving is the office.  It was looking like this… the problem is that we had built-in bookcases at our last house, and here we had a big empty (gold) wall.  So all our books were stuck in boxes, and the office was looking a mess with no where to store our books. Time to fix that…

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

I’m splitting this post up into 3 parts, because it’s a lot to explain and there are a lot of photos to go with it.  Stick with me, so you can see how this turns out!! UPDATE: This is the 1st post in a 3 part series.  Part 2 (building the bookcase itself) can be found HERE.  Part 3, final build in bookshelf reveal can be found HERE

Our last house had a window in the middle of the bookcase space, so we did two towers of shelves on either side.  In this house, we are covering a whole wall which means even more storage! 

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

We’re using upper cabinets as the bases for our bookcase.  This gives a good solid foundation to build on as well as a lot of hidden storage for the office.  I found out unfinished cabinetry was on sale for Black Friday, so I bought what we needed and we got started. Here’s the step by step process.  (And sorry for the gold/beige walls that cast a yellow tone to all these photos, that will also be remedied soon…)

There are a few affiliate links in this post to help you find the tools I’m talking about.  It costs you no extra to use these links, and any commission earned goes to support more blog projects 😉 You can see my full disclosure policy here. 

First, we took up the carpet where the cabinets would sit.  We will eventually change the flooring in this room but we aren’t ready to do it yet, so we only removed this small section.  My husband just cut through the carpet and pad with a knife, and then took up the tack strips.  (I was secretly hoping there was hardwood under this carpet…but nope.)

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

This Dremel Multi-Max is the handiest tool ever, it cuts through baseboard, and crown molding like butter.  I the baseboards where the cabinets will sit.  We carefully removed the baseboard along the back wall and set it aside, because we will use it once the cabinets are in place.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

The cabinets we are using are actually upper wall cabinets, so they don’t come with a kick plate like lower cabinets do.  No problem, we just need to build a base for them to sit on.  We cut some 2×4’s to the length of the room and added a few spacers.  This will raise the cabinets off the floor and give us a sturdy place to set them.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

We placed each cabinet on the base, and then using a stud finder, screwed the cabinet into the studs on the back wall.  **This is where husbands everywhere joke, that the stud has been found.  LOL.**

We chose 30x30x12 unfinished wall cabinets for this project.  We’ve used both Lowe’s and Home Depot’s cabinets in the past, and cabinets from Lowe’s are a much nicer quality.  Just a little FYI.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

Keep adding cabinets one by one, screwing each one into the one next to it, and into the stud along the wall. 

My favorite screw when I’m building something like this are these Kreg Screws, they self tap, so they go right through the wood without any pre-drilling, and they grip the wood quickly.  That’s a time saver for sure! 

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

This part comes together nice and quick.  We did have a gap on each side (when we divided the wall length by the width of the cabinets, there was a little extra).  So I just added a 1×3 to fill in the gap.  Once everything is painted, you’d never notice it’s there.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

The last part of the base is the “counter top”.  There are a few different ways to do this, I’ve seen people use butcher block counters like Thrifty Decor Chick did here. The last house we used project panels cut to size which worked, but was a little pricey.  So this time I just used 1×12’s and 1×2’s to form the top.  Again, once it’s all painted and decorated you won’t even know it’s two pieces.   All I did was run a bead of wood glue along the top of the cabinet and used my brad nailer to secure it to the cabinets.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

I did have a seam, so I made sure this would be directly under one of the bookcase towers helping to hide the seam.  This is much less expensive than getting a project panel cut to size.  Another option would be a piece of plywood with a piece of trim across the front.  You choose how you’d like to do it – this worked well as an inexpensive option though. 

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

This is where we end for today. The bases are done, and we just added a TON of hidden storage to the office.  Since these cabinets are so skinny, I find baskets help to keep things organized on the shelves.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/builtinbases building a bookcase roots and wings furniture

Next we’ll start building the bookcase up to the ceiling (SEE PART 2 HERE). You can see the final reveal of these bookcases HERE! 

Until next time, 

Jenni