Good idea to ask for pictures. I wish I had done the same. We worked off of magazine pictures and pictures of furniture we liked. We had planned to have it flush, but ended up with this design. This was an empty wall and we decided to use it during the remodel. We thought about glass doors, but decided we just were not that organized.:)

Here is a link that might be useful: Built in

Here's ours:

We had this built in our home 19 years ago, and it is very useful storage, and great for serving at dinner parties. The only problem we've had with it is we didn't plan the lighting in the arch very well, and we're still looking for a good solution there.

we have a great built-in in our dining room (50's). Partial open and closed storage that could be copied now. In the left hand side small cabinet there's even a phone jack. The funniest thing to me. I can just picture someone keeping their phone in there. I was told that the couple who lived here before me had a formal dinner every nite and dressed in formal attire. If you were invited for dinner, there would be a place card at your plate with possible topics for dinner conversation.

{{!gwi}}

Here's mine. I initially wanted a fully built-in unit but because the ceiling is vaulted the framers and my DH didn't want to drop it on one end to meet the top of the cabinetry. So I went back to the drawing board and came up with this free standing unit. It butts up to a wall on each end so I kind of got the built-in look I was after.

The unit is 16' long by 9' high in the center. The doors aren't attached yet (they're just leaning there for the photo)as I still need to have glass put in them and the wood shelves are being swapped out for glass ones so the light will filter all the way down each cabinet rather than lighting up just the top shelf in each one. The cabinets are custom and site finished in BM White Dove. The wood top is American Cherry and finished to match my kitchen island.

Excuse the mess and the stack of MDF on the floor, we're still under construction!

Great thread. I will have two built ins flanking a full bay window with window seat. The built ins will only be 24" wide though. I'd love to see photos of similar arrangements : )

Great thread! Here's a few sites that have some nice pictures...

Many built ins

Georgian built in

Coastal built in

Our dining room is only 12 1/2' x 12 1/2', so not a great amount of room for built ins. When we remodeled, we added a 42"x15" cabinet to act as a liquor cabinet. Since then, I've found it has loads of room for serving pieces as well. We used the same granite on top as what's in our kitchen.

Prestonbeary, OMG! That's what I want! What width are the flanking cabinets? Did you have the cabinets and bench custom built? Just beautiful. I can't wait.

By the way . . . your view is unbelievably beautiful! Enjoy :]

Ours won't be so great . . . it will be of our yard with greenhouse in the short distance.

Judydel,

The flanking cabinets are approx. 36" wide.

Yes, we had a great carpenter do the work. We are big do-it-yourselfers but this was not within our skill level. I am really glad we went this route!

Thanks for the kind words and good luck with your project.