Our Great Room Bookcase Project ...

Happy Thursday, friends!

I wanted to share a little bit more about a project we did in our great room before Christmas ....

For several years (whether in this house or our last), we've had this buffet under our TV.  While it worked really well in the niche in our last home, I just felt like it was a bit lost on the wall in this house.

In an effort to fill up the wall a bit better, we wanted to add custom built bookcases, but they would've cost more than we wanted to spend on this project.  That's when we turned to Plan B.

BEFORE:  

And AFTER!  Thank you, IKEA ... once again, its selection and affordable prices helped us bring our vision to fruition!

We purchased four of their Billy bookcases (2 tall and 2 short), along with two of their extenders.  We also purchased doors to go on the bottom half of the tall ones and to cover the entire bookcase on the shorter ones (photos from IKEA.com): 

                            

While we love the look of the Billy bookcases just as they are once you put them together, we decided to "beef them up" a little bit to give them more of a custom look.

We did that by adding crown molding to the top (thanks to our neighbor, Colt, for cutting our molding for us), along with picture lights (IKEA).  I then added lattice molding to the fronts and frames of the shelves so that they appeared a bit thicker.  I then finished them off by adding black knobs to the cabinet doors in place of the white ones that came with them.

You "know" I enjoy having more shelves to play with where I can add little goodies such as ceramic horse bookends ... pretty faux greenery ...

or cute arrow art and metal orbs.

I just had to have this cute wire basket (TJMaxx) ... hoping I can find one more just like it!

At night, the picture lights help illuminate that side of the room, which used to be a bit dark.

On the weekend evenings, when not with friends or watching sports in the "man cave," you can find us right here.

One more time ... 

And, AFTER!  

The new bookcases join the two other projects we did in here ... beefing up the fireplace and adding a new chandie.  Oh how I like affordable home improvement!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by,