Built In Shelving Makeover in Family Room

When we moved into our home 14 years ago, I was so thrilled to have more storage than I could have ever dreamed of. And in our family room, that included built-in lower cabinets on either side of the fireplace that were quickly filled up with toys, games CD’s and DVD’s. Yes, those ancient relics of technology. This was almost 15 years ago folks! But, I could never understand why the builder didn’t ‘finish’ the job and install upper shelving as well.

Money was tight in those years as a family with young kids on one income, so we did the best we could to make inexpensive, DIY improvements knowing that, someday, we would be able to finish it properly.

Here is a quick look back on how this area has changed over the years.

Prior to having all of the cabinets in our house painted white, we lived with the cherry finish for quite awhile and found matching shelves to put above the built in cabinets.

I cringe when I see these photos because they look SO different from my style now but that’s all part of growing into yourself, isn’t it? But, seriously, I can’t believe this is the same home.

Then, when we had all of the cabinets painted white, we made a slight upgrade to the floating shelves.

But, this year we decided it was past time to take this space up a few notches. So, we asked our incredibly talented friend Matt from Redemptive Woodworx to build us new floating shelves and add shiplap to the wall behind them.

And we couldn’t be more happy with the results! It’s like it was always meant to look like this and the entire room finally seems complete.

The shiplap backing makes everything look so much brighter and the floating shelves have a much more simple and crisp aesthetic.

I added in just a few new decorative items but mostly reused what I had on hand.

It’s a pretty great feeling to get to the point where you can look around your home and not see a myriad of changes you want to make. In fact, I hardly ever even shop for home decor anymore! Shocking, right?

While we still have some pretty big projects to complete (I’m looking at you 1992 bathrooms!), we are finally feeling like we aren’t staring down a list of endless makeovers.

And, I’m finally at a place in my style journey where I know what works, what doesn’t work and I find the simplifying of decorating my home so unbelievably freeing.

 

With the upcoming fall and holiday season, I can’t wait to have fun with these shelves and enjoying this FINALLY completed space!

 

Thanks so much for meeting me here today dear friends,