From Bore to Door

As you know, my mom has been redecorating the master bedroom.  She wanted to get rid of my dad's old dresser and convert two old bookcases into built-in style wardrobes.  We used this picture I found on IKEA Hackers as inspiration.

Source: Michelle Adams via IKEA Hackers


I don't have a true before picture of mom and dad's room, but here's a photo just to give you an idea of the bookshelves.

They normally flank the window but were pulled out for the painting of the walls.  They are old IKEA bookcases that were done in a whitewash effect, so you could still see the birch colouring.  They just weren't cutting it with the new colour scheme in the room!  We searched all over IKEA trying to find doors that would fit them, but since they were so old, none of their current styles would fit :(  So, as any true DIYer would do, we decided to make some doors!

I didn't really help much in this project, I was always at work or at school... mom and dad did all of it!  They bought 4, 16"-deep shelves from Home Depot and they cut the length of the shelf to match the height of the bookcase.  They definitely lucked out since the shelf was the perfect width.  They also bought some trim pieces and nailed them on to create a shaker-style look.

 

My mom painted the trim white, and then screwed on the handles.

And as a bonus, since it was a shelf, 3 of the 4 edges were already finished.  To finish off the fourth edge, I helped mom use a white iron-on veneer.  Worked perfectly. 

The  bookshelves themselves were painted a solid white.  The only hard part was attaching the doors to the bookshevles with the hinges and making sure they sat straight, level, and had the same sized gap that ran down the centre and the top.  There may have been a few disagreements with that step ;)  But, once it was over, I think they turned out really well!  Check out the transformation from a bookcase to a wardrobe!

All that's left for this area is to put up new curtains, paint the legs of the bench white, and make a cozy cushion for the window seat bench!  What do you think?  Definitely an improvement over the old open-concept bookcase!  Hopefully we can do a full room reveal in the next few weeks...mom won't let me post it until it's completely done :P

Psst - To see the rest of the bedroom projects check out the chair, the hole, the bench, and the bedskirt.  To see the final reveal click here.