When we moved into our house in 2001, we were so happy to have a nice, big den space to use. While I didn't like the dark grey colors of it, the paint was new, so I wasn't in a hurry to change the color. We especially loved that it had built-in shelves! There was a makeshift corner desk with lots of space for me to work and store things when I started scrapbooking.
This first photo was taken in April of 2006. As you can see, I'm not a super-organized person, but I do like to have things in their place. I'm also not a matchy-matchy person who likes everything one trendy color either. It was a fairly useful space for me, and I was content with that.
Four months later, in July of 2006, when Jeremy had a week of vacation at home, he decided he would replace the window in the den. Our home is over 100 years old and all the original windows were still in it at the time. But, this window was letting water in around it, which was destroying it. There was even one time, when it was raining really hard, that water came out the holes of the electrical outlet right underneath it!!! Clearly, something major needed to be done! Well, this was the beginning of it ALL!
As Jeremy began to take the trim off the window, the wall beneath the window just crumbled away. Okay...what to do with this?! This turned into the decision not to replace the window, but to wall it up. Well, we didn't want boards over the back of our house...So that led to the decision to put up vinyl siding (over the wood siding that needed painted, and would continue to every few years or so). We knew all our windows really needed to be replaced, and that it would be better to do that before siding...
So, it all snowballed from there...
As you can see, we had no choice but to rip out the old plaster and lath board to put up new drywall...
With all the other projects, we (Okay, I don't know why I say, "we," as I really had no part in it!) Jeremy had more urgent things than finishing the den. It kind of became the closed-off room where we kept construction supplies for a couple/few years, as he worked on it bit-by-bit when he got time.
It was an awful mess; blown-in insulation is nasty stuff!
This picture (below) was in April 2008. I believe he was telling me to, "Get out!" ;)
I think the biggest inconvenience (for me, anyway) was that all the den-type stuff had to be stored in other rooms in the house--namely the guest room and the music room for a few years. That was annoying, but when I think about it...How fortunate are we that we even have those 3 rooms?!?!
At some point in the process, Jeremy added some more electrical outlets in the den too. (Not all of those are operational yet, but they will be nice to have working someday.)
There had been two windows in the den, so Jeremy replaced the other one with a new-build wood window. He also super-insulated the walls, inside and out. And, he put up nice, thick drywall. Now it is the warmest room in the house!
In January of 2010, our friend Tom helped with the mudding and taping part of the new walls.
Then, last summer Jeremy and I primed and painted the ceiling. (We've decided to make all our ceilings white to add more light inside the house. When we moved in they were all the same color as the walls. We like the brightness of the white.) Then, when the kids and I were away for a week at my parents' house in Indiana, Jeremy primed and painted the walls. I had chosen the light green color, Apple Tree. I love it! He also hung the beautiful chandelier we had bought at Lowe's. I love it too!
So! Another quirky thing about our old house is that there are zero closets on the main floor! I just think that's crazy--especially since there are seven walk-in closets upstairs!! So when we took the built-in wooden shelves out of the den (and put them in the garage), I really missed that storage space. I dreamed of having the whole back wall of the den covered with shelves and cubbies...
We talked about it, I spent time looking online at a gazillion websites, and we even visited IKEA and discussed the kind of shelves we wanted to buy when we could save up the money. I really didn't think I would ever actually get to have my wall of shelves and cubbies.
Enter our dear, amazing friend Shannon...
Shannon is an incredibly talented wood craftsman. He is also very, very generous and hard-working. Did I mention, that he is a dear, wonderful friend? Well, he is. (Actually his whole family is. We love them to pieces. I will stop there, because I could go on about their wonderfulness for years...)
Shannon learned of my dream of having a wall o' shelves and cubbies, and volunteered (Okay, he probably got roped into it!) for the job. I described what I wanted, and he drew it up and emailed it to me. He took measurements, and built them over Christmas break.
1/8/11 - Shannon brought the cubbies and shelves in, along with a lot of tools, in 3 huge sections. He built the base right here in the den first, then he and Jeremy sat the pieces on top of it. They attached them to the wall and to each other and put the top and bottom trip on that same night too.
Dawn and I and the kids played Wii and had fun chatting that evening while the guys worked. They did stop to eat with us, but spent a few hours getting the shelves in and secured.
The next day after church we went to Lowe's and bought the primer and got started! These babies are made of MDF, so we used oil-based primer. Whew, that stuff is quite strong-smelling! But, it sticks!
Jeremy and I started priming that Sunday afternoon, and he finished the priming while I was at church that night. Then we waited for it to dry, lightly sanded everything, and wiped the dust off.
I wanted RED shelves, and chose a shade called "Grandma's Cherry Pie" in semi-gloss. There was a LOT of surface area to paint! The cubbies are 13" square, and there are 28 of them. I painted 3 coats of the red paint on everything.
1/22/11 - Then, Shannon came back (on a VERY COLD January night!) and put wood trim on the front to cover the rough edges of the MDF and give the whole unit a seamless look.
I am telling you, this is more beautiful than I ever imagined!!!
It was also entertaining (for me) to see the faces Jeremy made when Shannon told him to go cut certain pieces of trim. Jeremy looked like he didn't have a clue, but Shannon was confident he could handle it. It looks great to me, so I think, in the future, I will never believe Jeremy when he feigns ignorance about things.
Next, I painted the wood trim with 3 coats of the red paint. (It did take me over a week to realize that, thankfully, I didn't need to prime with the oil-based gunk, since the trim is real wood!)
In progress...2/4/11
2/21/11 -- Looking good...
Look at all that space!!
Oh, these cubbies are great!!
Now, I still had the 5 adjustable shelves and 2 cabinet doors for the center section that I needed to paint... So, not wanting to get into the oil-based primer smell anytime soon, it took me a while to get up the motivation to do those. But, I finally finished them last Monday--4/18/11! I didn't mind all that painting one bit, because...
I really am just so excited and pleased with the new shelves and cubbies! When I began to picture this, it sure wasn't nearly as awesome as it turned out!!
Today, I finally put the last of the adjustable shelves in and spent some moving things around. They look pretty full, but several of the baskets and canvas bins are partially or completely empty. So, I still have more space I can fill.
So...what do you think? I just couldn't be happier!
Like I said, I am not matchy-matchy...I like a lot of color! I tried to use turquoise and bright green and brown as accents in there. And, I'm not a neatnik...I see things even in this photo that are straightened, and I'm okay with that. I just am super excited to have such an awesome, functional storage solution in here! I love it, and am so grateful to have it!!!
(If you're interested in seeing a few more photos of the process, you can check out the album here. I plan to post more photos as I get other areas of the room completed.)
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