What to do with existing built-ins - ideas/help please!

9 years ago

Hello! First time poster :)
After gutting our house to the studs in 3/4 of the rooms, and getting many nasty expensive surprises in the process, I'm looking to do something relatively simple with the built-ins in the office/guest room. It took me seemingly forever to strip the paint, repaint, replace hardware, and re-fit the doors and drawers in our hallway built-ins, so I've been dragging my feet with this room. Since this is an office primarily, I was first considering taking the doors off and adding shelves to have open book shelving, but the problem is the shelves would be very deep, about twice as deep as a normal bookshelf. As you can see, we're using the bottom space to keep the litter box, and we'll probably need to continue doing this because it's really the only spot in the house at the moment, but I'm trying to think of a way to possibly conceal the litter box. Another possibility is to rip the whole thing out, but I'm very hesitant to do any more demo in this house after a very stressful and expensive renovation this summer! Any ideas would be much appreciated! There's so much online about adding built-ins, but not much about altering existing ones!

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Comments (7)

sheloveslayouts
9 years ago
I think those built ins are lovely! You don't need just general storage? Camping gear, holiday decorations, etc?

That's a great place for a litter box. Do you not want to see it? I think it's fine the way it is... that's life with a cat.

If you need bookshelves, you could put some up in the area above the litter box where the cushion is.

When you've recovered from your recent projects, maybe you'll feel motivated to fix these up like the built ins in your hallway. For now, I think they're fine the way they are and add value to what is probably a very charming house; I wish our house had special features like this!
scatchandmax
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks Benjesbride - We actually have a whole basement of storage, but what we don't have at all is bookshelves so that's what I was hoping to do with this space. I do appreciate the charm, but just trying to figure out how to make it work for us. Anyone have any ideas for the strange depth and making that into book storage??
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annkh_nd
9 years ago
I would keep the drawers and the doors on top. Add a false wall to the two side cabinets, and put bookshelves in the front, 12" deep. You'll lose the space in the back, but it doesn't sound like you need it.

In the middle, it looks like there's a little can light at the top. If you move that to the front, and put 12" shelves along the back, you'll be able to light the shelves - that would be cool!
sjhockeyfan325
9 years ago
I had very deep built-ins in my previous house, and I agree with you they were a pain! False backs was what I was thinking, too. I'd probably paint them a different color too, maybe the same color as the walls in the room.
weedyacres
9 years ago
Another vote for false backs.

Also, if this is your office, you could cut into the space behind the false backs and put the modem, router, charging station, etc. kind of stuff in there.
Vertise
9 years ago
I think they'd look great with round stained knobs.
Fori
9 years ago
Deep built-ins are great for printers filing and paper and stuff. (The stuff nobody uses anymore...) Have you posted on the organization forum yet?

Here is a link that might be useful: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/organ/