Playroom Built-ins
Let me just start this post off by saying I have a 1-year-old son and another boy on the way. To say I needed a dedicated space for all the toys and for them to destroy during the day while playing instead of my family room, is an understatement! We had a pretty large empty unused landing space upstairs off of our laundry room. When we moved in I initially used it as my office, but because it was open to our entryway it tended to be noisy, you could hear everything going on downstairs which was not ideal for an effective work environment. So, fast forward, I moved my office out and this space was just sitting empty. A few months ago, we pulled the trigger on transforming it into a playroom. Our first step was to hire out a general contractor to come in and enclose the space that was open to the entryway, because building walls especially on a second floor is a little above my skill level right now. Luckily, one of our neighbors owns a General Construction Company and they were able to come over quickly and knock it out in about a week (if you’re local to Greenville, SC cannot recommend Granada Interiors enough!). Once the wall was built, we could get started on the built-ins!
I’m here to walk you through step-by-step how I built these, it’s hard, but definitely not impossible! If I can figure this out, honestly, anyone can. I want you to walk away from this post with inspiration to tackle your first diy project and the key takeaways and tools for building built-ins. Every house, room, and wall is going to be different, so my measurements may not be your measurements, but if you have the key steps and tools, you’ll be ready!
Draw Out Your Plan
My very first step before buying or doing anything was to measure and draw out my plan. I went through many plans, measurements, and designs before settling on the final one. I had every single piece of wood and cabinet measured out to make my life easier before I went to Home Depot to buy all my supplies, I even had it all taped out on the wall so I could see my vision, which really helped for sizing of shelves and what not.
Gather Your Supplies
My husband and I woke up early one Saturday with the plan to get every single supply we needed for the project. There were a couple small things we missed on this trip and had to go back for, but all-in-all we got pretty much everything before even starting the project. Let me tell you, this makes all the difference, so you don’t have to stop mid project and run back out to the store.
Safety Gear
Baseboard
Wood Screws
2x6’s
Level - long and short
Liquid Nail
Caulk
Sander
3/4 Plywood
1x2’s
1x3’s
Wood Shims
Primer
Paint
Now that all the supplies are purchased and everything was cleared out of the room, it was time to start the build!
Remove the Baseboards and Crown Molding
My first step before building anything was to remove the baseboard and crown molding along the wall where the built-ins were going. To do this, I used a utility knife and crowbar. I first scored all the caulk using my utility knife, then using a crowbar, pryed the boards away from the wall. Prior to this project I had only ever removed baseboards which usually isn’t hard to do, let me tell you, crown molding on the other hand, was a beast!
There were a few times where I panicked and thought I ruined the project, but with a little patience, elbow grease, and help from my husband, we finally got it removed. In addition to the main wall, I also had to remove a portion of the baseboards and crown molding from the one perpendicular wall so that the cabinets and shelves were flush. To do this, I used my Oscillating Dremel Saw to cut away the exact length of the boards.
Find The Studs
Once you have a clean slate on the wall, you want to use a Stud Finder to find all the studs along the wall and draw a line from floor to ceiling marking both edges of each stud. Trust me, this will just help you throughout the project so you don’t have to keep finding the studs whenever you go to nail something in.
Build The Base
This is not a necessary step, it more depends on what you want your design to look like. I wanted the base of my cabinets to align with the top of the remaining baseboards in the room. Therefore, I took 2x6’s (my baseboards are 5.5 inches high) and built a big rectangular box for my cabinets to sit on. It is important to always remember with any project that common boards at any hardware store are not exact measurements, for example, my 2x6’s were really ~1.5x5.5. I didn’t want my base to be flush with the front and side of my cabinets, so I measured about 2 inches shy of my cabinets. I used 30 in. wide, and 12 in. deep Unfinished Upper Kitched Cabinets (5 of them) which measured almost perfectly with my wall (wall was about 151 inches). So for my base, I used 2x6’s and built it 10 in. deep and 148 in. long. To connect the side end piece and the middle support pieces to the front and back pieces, I drilled pocket holes using my Kreg Jig. Once my base was built I attached it to the studs using 2” wood screws.
Cabinet Installation Time!
Now the project started to take shape. Once the base was built and installed, I could start installing the cabinets. I first detached all of the cabinet doors and labeled them so I could put them back together properly. This made maneuvering and installing 10x easier. I started with the far-left cabinet that sat flush with the wall, set it on top of the base, against the back and side walls, made sure everything was level (if not, use wood shims wherever needed, because not every floor, wall, room is level this might be a necessary step), then used wood screws to screw the cabinet into the studs on both walls. I used my nail gun to nail the bottom of the cabinet into the base.
After securing the first cabinet, you can move onto the next one. Set it on the base and line it up with the last cabinet. I used clamps to hold the two cabinets flush together while using wood screws to screw them into each other and then screw the back into the wall studs.
Keep following the same steps for each cabinet.
Counter Tops
For the counter tops, I went pretty simple. I used a sanded 3/4 piece of plywood. Using my circular saw, I trimmed it down to two 12 in. deep pieces. I knew that I wanted to put a piece of trim on the front of the cabinets, so I wanted my countertops to be flush with the cabinet faces. After cutting my pieces, I sanded everything down (I know it already came sanded, but these are going in a playroom with little kids, better safe than sorry!). Once sanded I attached them to the top of the cabinets using both liquid nail glue and nail gun. After the glue has dried and the counter tops are securely in place, fill in any visible seams with wood filler. Next step, caulk all of the edges on top of the counter, along the walls.
Bookshelves
Now that the bottom section of the built-ins are done, I moved to building up, with two bookshelves. I knew that I wanted pretty big bookshelves for all the kids’ books and storage, but also knew that I didn’t want them to go the full length of the cabinets because in the middle I wanted to leave space for a sconce and family picture. I went with 50 in. wide bookshelves, leaving a 50 in. space open in the middle. For the bookshelves, I’m using sanded 3/4 plywood, cut to 12 in. deep and 78 in. high in order to build from the counter tops all the way up to the ceiling with the circular saw. For the shelves themselves, I was going to initially use the same plywood but found this MDF Shelving Board at Home Depot which felt more durable and didn’t need the extra sanding that the plywood did. Once I had all our pieces cut down to size it was time to build the skeleton of the bookshelf. I ended up building this on the ground and enlisting the help of my husband to lift it into place which I thought was much easier than trying to build it standing upright. I went with 3 shelves in each bookshelf and spaced them each 17 in. apart based on measurements I took of books/baskets/decor I was planning on putting on the shelves. To ensure each shelf was the exact same distance apart, I cut one piece of board down to 17 inches and used that to measure the space in between. I started with the left bookshelf, lined up the two outside pieces and using my spacing board, lined up the bottom shelf into place and nailed it into the two outside pieces using a nail gun, going in from the outside into the shelf piece. I repeated these same steps for the next 2 shelves. Once it was completely built, I lifted it into place, nailed it into the studs on the side wall. In order to secure it into the back wall and also ensure that shelves were even more sturdy, I decided to install ledges under each shelf for support using 1x2’s, nailing them into the back wall studs and the two bookshelf side pieces, then nailing each shelf into the support ledge from the top.
I followed the same exact steps to build the right bookshelf, and installed it.
Once book shelves were installed, I moved onto installing my vertical shiplap in the open middle space. For this, instead of buying individual ship boards and cutting each one down to size, I found this awesome Shiplap Panel at Home Depot. All I had to do was cut it down to the correct height, I did this using the circular saw, then just nailed it into a couple studs on the back wall using the nail gun, super easy way to upgrade the look of these built-ins!
Once the skeleton of the built-ins was done, I moved on to trimming out the entire thing. This is an extra step that just enhances the look and makes it look more “built-in” in my opinion. I used primed 1x2’s to trim out all of the sides, the fronts of each shelf, as well as the front of the cabinets. For the top along the ceiling I used 1x4’s for a thicker look.
After everything was completely trimmed out came the nitty gritty detail work, wood filler and caulk!
I used white wood filler to fill in all of the seams and nail holes.
Caulking is the most tedious piece of any diy job IPO, but also makes the biggest difference in the end. A secret to any good caulk job is cutting the tip at an angle and wiping away the bead of caulk with a baby wipe, I definitely went through a good 2 packs of costco baby wipes with this project.
Once all the caulk was done, the wood filler was dried and sanded down, came the paint. I primed the entire piece with one coat of plain old white primer from Home Depot. For the color itself, I went with something darker because that’s the vibe I’ve been going with in my house lately, but also I figured dark would hide any and all dirt from my kids the best and most durable! I went with a satin finish which is best for cabinets.
We had family photos taken recently after Brady was born and we started the session in the playroom, no posing, just chatting and letting Levi play like normal. These photos help demonstrate exactly why I wanted to build this space for my boys. I wanted them to have a space where they could play together, create, use their imaginations and just be kiddos.
