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Behind the scenes

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Installing custom white built in shelving

6/11/2019

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I've had a beautiful set of white built in shelving posted on our Gallery page for awhile now, but I was going through my photo archive recently and realized that I've never shared a "behind the scenes" blog post to show you how it was made.

The building process is the thing that sets our handmade bookshelves apart from the pre-fab stuff. Unlike pre-made furniture that's usually installed as separate units with seams in between, custom shelves can be created as one large unit, with no seams or gaps. That's because we personally install the shelves, so we're able to add the small touches that tie everything together.

Let's start with a picture of the finished bookcase with all the books in it, so you can see what we were working toward.
White built in shelving near a fireplace in an Asheville home
Next here's the empty room to compare it to. It's a bit of a visual surprise to see that this bookcase wasn't always there... it looks like it was built with the home, but of course it's quite new.
Before the shelving was installed
By the way, I learned something when we designed this piece. If you compare the "After" picture to the "Before" picture, you can see that without the bookcase, the room was dominated by the big fireplace, which seemed a little too large for the small space.

It's hard to get a sense of the size of the hearth from this photo because the ceilings are fairly tall, but that mantel is about six feet up! You can get a better idea of its height from the scale drawing which Faith made for the room.
A scale drawing showing the bookcases
Somehow the bookshelves made the room seem bigger, even though they actually reduced the floor space. The takeaway is that if you have a large element in a room and you can't easily change it, you can try balancing it with other large elements.

And these bookcases are definitely on the large side. The ceiling is nine feet up, a little higher than standard. This added some design challenges, because standard materials come in eight-foot lengths.

In the end I decided to build each of the three bookcases as two smaller units: a short section at the bottom with a taller section on top. (I could have built it another way, but I chose this option because it brought more structure and stability to the project, which is an important consideration on tall bookshelves like these.)
Behind the scenes: bookcases being built
Once the cases were assembled, I cut out the individual shelves. I love projects like these, where there are lots of identical pieces. You can get into a nice rhythm of work and the time just flies right by.
A view of the workshop showing a line of white painted shelves
Building the cases as smaller units also made the delivery and assembly run smoothly and efficiently, despite the narrow hallway I had to enter through.
A large custom bookcase being assembled in an Asheville, NC home
You may notice that the sides of the bookcases seem fairly slender in this process photo. That's because I hadn't trimmed the unit out yet.

I covered the whole side of the unit with a long floor-to-ceiling board, and trimmed out the faces of the case with white painted wood. This gave the shelving a more substantial look, and it also added strength and solidity, which is very important when you're going to be putting hundreds of pounds of books on it!

Last but not least, I added crown and shoe molding to tie the unit in with the rest of the room. We went with a simple Shaker style to coordinate with the lines of the fireplace mantel.
Custom white built in shelving in Asheville, NC
The onsite installation of the trim is what makes the six parts look like one continuous piece... and since they're caulked together in place and the paint is touched up by hand, they'll always look that way.

​It's a great technique for building a "big" bookcase in small pieces, and it's not something you typically get with pre-made bookshelves. Those almost always have visible seams between each bookcase.
Another view of the same white built in bookcase
I also cut out the baseboard behind the shelves so I could install them right up against the wall. Then I secured them to the wall for even more stability, and caulked the seam between the shelves and the wall.

That personal touch is what makes the shelving read as a continuous part of the room, as if it had always been there. And it helps that we custom painted everything to perfectly match the existing white trim.
A detail of the painted white bookcase
The homeowners were so happy with the large unit that they had me come back and put in another, smaller shelf on the other side of the room.
A larger view in the same room showing a second white painted bookshelf
I love the way they look with the books in them. There's something comfortable and warm about a home library.

If you want a cozy library of your own, give us a call. We can do white built in shelving, or freestanding wooden bookcases, or anything else you have in mind.
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Artisan Built-ins
Owner: Arthur Teel
​113 Rector Branch Road, Marshall, NC 28753

ArtisanBuiltins@gmail.com
​www.artisanbuiltins.com
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  • Home
  • Gallery
    • By category >
      • Benches, daybeds & window seats >
        • Built in benches around fireplace
      • Built in shelving >
        • Built in floor to ceiling bookshelves
        • Built in shelving with lighting and windowseat
        • Custom floor to ceiling bookshelves
      • Cabinets
      • Custom Closets
      • Entertainment centers >
        • Arts & Crafts fireplace
        • Built in shelving around a fireplace
        • Modern entertainment center
      • Entryway >
        • English style mudroom cubbies
        • Entryway cubbies with bench and shelves
      • Fireplaces >
        • Built in entertainment center near fireplace - Asheville NC
        • Dark gray mantel with bookshelves - electric fireplace
        • Half height bookcases around a Craftsman fireplace
      • Furniture >
        • Entryway tables and sofa tables
        • The Lyrical Furniture Collection >
          • Round dining room table
          • Cherrywood writing desk
          • Curvy TV stand or entertainment center with sliding shelves
          • Kitchen island with curly legs
          • A pair of cocktail tables in walnut and cherrywood
      • Kitchen and dining >
        • Custom kitchen banquette seating with storage
        • Kitchen island with breakfast bar
        • Modern farmhouse table
        • Rustic modern built in desk
      • Laundry >
        • Laundry closet with built-in shelving
        • Laundry room and mud room makeover
        • Small laundry room makeover
      • Living room >
        • Low horizontal bookcases around a fireplace
        • Tall modern cabinet
      • Office >
        • Mail sorter cabinet and art desk - Asheville, NC
        • Office bookcase for a printer
      • Secret door
    • By style >
      • Contemporary / modern
      • Rustic
      • Traditional / transitional
    • All projects
  • Quality
  • What to Expect
  • Reviews
  • Pricing
  • Blog
  • Contact