Built In Bookshelves and new Window plus Trimming- Living Room Update

In case you missed it, here is the full post of our updated living room. And now I'm going to share some more details of the process. First, please keep in mind that I didn't do any of it except pick out paint colors and help paint the wall. My husband did the rest, so some of the details might not be details. But I'll do my best and hopefully my husband can help me fill in the details.

As you can see above, the first thing to go was that awkward mantel. Still not sure what the contractor/designer were thinking with that mantel. Also, those "built in holes" - not sure why they just didn't finish it !? Anyway, the husband had way too much fun tearing down that mantel.

After the mantel went down, he also took off the tile around the fireplace and patched up all the holes he made.We wanted to put in bookshelves but the built-in's were really deep, so for the top shelf we decided to create a false back and bring the back of the shelf forward using a piece of wainscot. He also brought the electric outlet forward with it. We didn't bother doing this for the bottom shelf since we originally intended on putting doors on the bottom and to use it more for storage.

He left the dry-wall on the sides of the cabinet and lined it with plywood to give it a more sturdy and bookshelf appearance. He then added shelves.

The bottom built-in space had carpet inside (just a little weird, maybe it was originally intended as a room for a small person). He tore out the carpet and then built up the floor with a simple 2x4 structure and a piece of plywood as the bottom shelf.

After the shelves were built in, he then trimmed out the shelves. He used 1x4 wood for the sides of the shelves, and 1x6 wood for the top and the middle. He then trimmed off the top a piece of crown molding we picked out from either Home Depot or Lowes (not sure which). He also added an all purpose trim piece 1 inch by .5 just at the bottom of the top 1x6.

The window was in need of replacing, so with the help of my dad, we got a bigger window. Brigg then trimmed out the window to match the trimming of the shelves. Below is the before:

That's basically the 411 on our family room. Seriously, I can't believe my husband made such a transformation and pretty much all by himself. Thanks for stopping by. Leave a comment if you have any questions on the process and we'll try to answer it.

Make sure you check out the details on the fire place remodel: