The remodeling of our bedroom and bathroom has brought many unexpected changes throughout our whole home. In the process of getting ready for the remodel we removed much of the furniture in our master bedroom so I could paint the room more easily and in anticipation the installation of new carpet. I didn't take a "before" of our bedroom and the furniture, but suffice it to say the furniture in our bedroom looked somewhat similar to the photo below in that it had two large "towers" on either side of the bed, a bridge light going over the top connecting the two towers, and a headboard. I think our unit had a more "classic" feel than the furniture in the photo below -- not quite so early 90's -- but I might be deluding myself with that observation.
When we removed the furniture from the bedroom my husband and I were surprised at how large the room felt without it. The wall unit took up so much space that it made the room look smaller than it actually is. We decided we liked the roomy feel much more, so we started looking around for new bedroom furniture that would fit the room better. This is what we decided on:
As much as I loved the new furniture, I had a problem with getting rid of the old. We knew we wouldn't be able to get more than a couple hundred dollars for it which bothered me because it is solid wood and beautifully crafted by a furniture company in our hometown. Regardless, we resolved to list the items on Craig's List and hope for the best.
A few days later I was agonizing over how to better organize an area of our computer room. When we had our home built square footage was our biggest concern. We had seven children and we needed lots of room, so we compromised on some of the furnishings. We surmised that later we could change flooring, tile, etc. as money became less scarce. As a result we had this less-expensive bookcase and "desk" built into a nook in the study when the home was built...
The "desk" served its purpose for a lot of years as a good place for kids to study or a place to plop my husband's laptop. The bookcase , however, was always a problem. Instead of becoming a shelf for books it also became home to CDs, electronic cords, printer cartridges, and junk {my opinion, not my husband's}. As much as I tried to organize it with baskets, it still looked unkept and messy. That day as I tried to think of how to organize this area better, I had {if I do say so myself} a brilliant idea. I did a little measuring, called my favorite handyman, explained my fabulous idea and a week later the old "desk" and bookcase were removed and in its place I had this fabulous built-in...
If this built-in looks a little familiar, it should.
We took the two towers that were on either side of our bed and with a little finagling created this built-in cabinetry for the den.
Here's the process:
In order to make the two towers look as one, we needed to pop off the top piece from each of the towers and use one solid piece of wood across the top. Below are the two towers sans the drawers.
We also needed to put the towers on a base because we have a return air duct on the wall behind where the unit would be placed, so we needed to put a return air grille in the bottom of the cabinetry so the air could flow across the bottom of the cabinets into the return air duct on the wall. Having this return air unobstructed would make the room warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
The "bridge" {from the bedroom wall unit} made the perfect base for the cabinet. We also used a piece of wood from the bridge for the piece used to go across the top of the cabinets. {See "bridge" in the photo below.} The towers fit amazingly well in the space in the study, but we purchased a piece of oak and used it as a filler on either side so it would fill in the space perfectly.
Unfortunately, I could not find a return air grille in an oak finish in the size we needed. So I bought a white one -- spray painted it tan -- then used an orange glaze and a brown glaze to give it an oak finish. {You can see it laying on top of the bridge in the above photo.}
I could not be happier with the result. It's just what I imagined it would be. I love the fact that all those items that used to be in plain sight on the bookcase are now sitting on shelves behind closed doors or tucked away in a drawer. Plus there is sooo much more storage available in this unit. I'm also happy to have something left of the furniture I once appreciated!
I do believe this is one of my favorite repurposed items ever!
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
Show Off Your Stuff @ Fireflies & Jellybeans
Show & Tell @ Blue Cricket Design
Trash to Treasure @ Sassy Sites
