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Meet Bessie: Built from ancient IKEA shelves and a whole lot of DIY determination, she is our nearly 8-foot-tall, 10-foot-wide “super-bookcase”.
We began with three standard and two narrow IKEA Billy bookcases. To match the Craftsman-style baseboards, we cut out the trim behind the entire unit, built a platform base, and wrapped it in matching baseboard—making Bessie look truly built-in.
After securing all the cases to each other and the wall, we added plywood to the outside of each end. This set us up for being able to use the same trim all over the unit, both horizontally and vertically. Crown molding followed. Can you say “miter”? Getting the crown miter just right was far more difficult than we had imagined.
The so-called easy part came after the unit was built and in place. Easy? Ha! We didn’t want any seams or adjustable shelf holes to show—so we caulked every. single. seam. And spackled every. single. hole. Sometimes twice! Aaaaargh!
Finally, it was time to paint. Uh…no! Willie, ever the construction perfectionist, insisted on primer. So we did a coat of primer. And then another. And then another. And then, at long last, we were able to put a coat of paint on our masterpiece, and—you guessed it—then another final coat.
We love Bessie. She’s custom-built to hold a few sentimental treasures—and no one has guessed she started life as a bunch of tired old IKEA shelves. (Not that we’d mind if they did!)