You're not going to believe this transformation.

Here's the before: a perfectly fine room, but essentially a plain white box. A blank canvas, so to speak.

And here's the after...

​(Brace yourself... it's going to be great.)

Yes, this is the same room! You can tell by the floor, which hasn't changed.

Of course, this seemingly magical transformation didn't all happen at once. Let's rewind a bit and tell the story of a once-boring condo living room that became the perfect cozy sanctuary thanks to an electric fireplace.

​It all started in these new units at 55 South Market Street in downtown Asheville.

And when I say "downtown," I mean DOWNTOWN.

As in two blocks from tacos...

...chocolate...

...and the place where all driving directions in Asheville started, back before GPS was a thing.

With a location like that, it's not hard to believe that these condos sold like hotcakes. (So much for my plans for a downtown pied-à-terre...)

And in keeping with the trendy location, the builder designed trendy interiors centered around simple Shaker-style white and gray kitchens, with plain white walls and white trim in all the other rooms.

However, our clients wanted a little more warmth and texture in their new home. They called in Leslie Huntley with Roost Interior Design... and Leslie called us in to help her add some bookshelves.

The homeowners had also requested an electric fireplace to bring in a little radiant heat during Asheville's chilly mountain winters. We collaborated with Leslie to design a hearth that would coordinate with the nearby kitchen.

She specified a deep violet-gray for the shelves, which was offset by the newly-painted taupe walls for a tone-on-tone effect.

Back at our studio, we built and painted the unit, then pre-assembled it to preview the effect.

Notice the poles getting in the way near the ceiling! Our workshop was built from a vintage tobacco barn, and we're too sentimental to take out the old poles. But you get the idea, anyway.

As you can see, the cabinets were fairly large and very heavy, so we enlisted Faith's dad to help load them up...

...and bring them onsite to install them.

Glenn is great to work with. He's the most meticulous carpenter I know.

The electrician and tile guy each came in soon afterward, and the final result was quite nice. The electric fireplace is surprisingly realistic. Instead of trying to fake a flame, the manufacturers made a glowing-log effect, as if the fire has died down a little bit.

It puts off a nice, warm wave of heat which will be great in a few weeks when the first frost hits.

By the way, check out that smooth finish. Leslie specified satin paint, which is a little bit unusual for trim and moldings like this. But it does have a very mellow effect.

Hopefully the French Broad Chocolate Lounge does local hot chocolate deliveries... it seems like this would be the perfect place to drink it on a cold winter night.

If you've got a "plain white box" room that you'd like to transform into a cozy retreat from the world, give us a call. We love this stuff!

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No pun intended, but is this fireplace hot or what?

I've had this project on the website for awhile now, but I recently got a chance to stop by and snap a picture with the books on it.

Here's what the room looked like before we added the shelves, mantel and cabinets. It was a nice, airy room but somewhat bland.

​And as with most fireplaces, the chimney breast butted out into the room, leaving awkward niches on either side.

We filled those niches with cabinets which are perfect for hiding electronics.

We've done several projects where we've turned the awkward space next to the fireplace into useful and beautiful storage.

We can help you design a solution for the little niches next to your fireplace. Just give us a call.

Remember these offset library shelves with the integrated brass lights and the flip-top windowseat?

Well, I got the chance to stop by and take a few photos with all the books in them, and they look fantastic. Move over, House Beautiful!

The shelves now house a themed book collection containing biographies of every American President to date. And of course, a comfortable chair with a reading light so you can peruse them at your leisure.

On the other side, the homeowner has added cushions to the windowseat:

(And a very nice light fixture overhead.)

I'm always gratified to see how my customers style my furniture once I leave. People in Asheville have such good taste.

If you're ready to transform a room to something you might see in a magazine, give us a call. We'll help you take your home to the next level.

Remember the plans for the wall of modern-style offset library shelves which I shared in my last post? It's finished!

We've made a quick video to show you how it all came together. Click to watch, or scroll down if you prefer to read.

We started with a blank slate: an empty room with gray trim and beautiful hardwood floors.

We worked with our customer to create a design similar to the offset shelves we feature in our gallery... only much wider.

Due to the nature of the offset design, the shelves couldn't be assembled as separate units and then shipped in. Remember when I said you can't get quality like this from mass-produced furniture? This is why. Some designs just have to be built onsite.

While I was building, we brought in an electrician to run the wiring for the integrated lights.

Here's the final view of the shelves. They really fill a wall!

The customer chose these handmade adjustable brass lights. I love the simple cone shape of the shades.

To the right of the shelves is a long built-in windowseat. It has three storage compartments which are accessible via flip-top lids. The homeowner plans to use one of these compartments to store her router and modem out of sight.

We painted the shelves a warm gray to match the existing trim, and the final effect is elegant yet inviting.

If you've always wanted your own personal library, now is the time to get started. Send us your ideas... we'll be glad to talk to you!