How to Make Cheap Bookshelves Look Like Expensive Built-in Bookshelves
Everyone’s tastes are different when it comes to interior design, but whether you consider animal prints and gold-plated fixtures to be the epitome of style, or that shades of white, off-white, and off-white are the only acceptable colors in a home, one thing is pretty universal: built-in shelving equals class. This is especially true when you compare well-made built-in shelves to standard store-bought bookshelves. IKEA bookcases like the almost ubiquitous Billy do the job with a little Scandinavian flair, but there’s no doubt that everyone who enters your home knows they’re looking at a bookcase that retails for around $50. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, but if your style goal is a little higher, there are some relatively easy ways to spruce up your inexpensive bookcases.
One of the best is to turn them into inline. Whatever you choose for furniture speaks volumes about you, and three or four Billy bookcases against the wall indicate that you… once bought three or four Billy bookcases from IKEA. Embedded ones report a little more scheduling and spending. The secret is that they are easy to make more luxurious than they really are. Here’s how you can make cheap bookshelves look like expensive built-in ones.
What you need to create built-in shelving
As with any DIY project in your home, you will need some tools and supplies. The good news is that you won’t need anything exotic. All you need is:
- Bookcases (of course)
- Circular saw (or table saw if you prefer)
- Hammer
- Dye
- Internal sealant (which matches your paint)
- Undercut
- metal staples
- Drill or screwdriver
- 1×2 wooden planks (or any wooden scrap)
- wood filler
- putty
- Nail trim
Some of these materials may be optional depending on how ambitious you are and the specifics of your space.
Transform your shelves
You’ve got the materials, and you’ve chosen (and cleared) the space in your home that you’re going to spruce up with cheap built-in items. Here’s how you’re going to make it happen.
Build or adjust bookcases. If you bought new bookcases for this project, assemble them but don’t attach the backing. Cheaper bookcases usually come with a cardboard or chipboard backing that folds flat to pack, but you’ll skip this step. If you are using bookcases that you have already assembled, remove this backing. If you think you ever want to reverse this process, do it carefully.
Note that this will make your bookcases a bit wobbly, so be careful when moving them to avoid damaging them. Alternatively, you can replace the backing with something more attractive, like cardboard or textured material – as long as you don’t use the cheap, fragile backing that comes with the kit. If your bookcases have underlayment grooves, fill them with wood filler, let it dry, and sand it smooth.
If you haven’t purchased your bookcases yet, measure the space you plan to fit them in and then find the dimensions of the ones you plan to buy. Calculate the maximum number of bookcases you can place in this space.
Dye. Paint the wall behind the bookcases, the bookcases themselves, and your chosen finish to match.
Arrange bookcases. Place the bookcases in the location of your choice. It’s best to try to fit as many bookcases here as possible to minimize the amount of space you’ll need to cover.
Add supports. To attach the panels and trim to cover any gaps, you’ll need something to nail or screw into. Find the studs in the side walls and attach the 1×2 board to the wall so it’s flush with the bookcases when they’re in place. You may need to remove bookcases to install these strips. If you need panels on top to hide the empty space, attach the strip to the ceiling so that it is also flush with the bookcases below.
Press and attach bookcases. If necessary, use a few shims along the bottom to keep your bookcases level and level. If your bookcases come with wall mounts (so they don’t topple over and fall on top of you, snagging your phone out of reach and causing you to be slowly devoured by your pet cats), attach it. If they haven’t, a few metal braces attached to the studs will do the trick. In addition to the safety factor, it will also give your artificial built-in structures stability and a sense of security.
Then attach the bookcases to each other. The easiest way to do this is to lay a piece of wood on top and fasten it to each bookcase with screws or nails. You can also just screw each bookshelf to the next one the same way you attach kitchen cabinets to each other.
Close the gaps. Your bookcases are in place, but you have a lot of gaps around the periphery, and you can see the seams between the cabinets. Measure the gaps and cut medium-density fiberboard (MDF) or plywood panels to size, attaching them to the edges of your bookcases (flush with the inside edge) and the outside edges of the strips you attached to the wall.
Undercut. Cut out the trim and attach it with wood glue and/or trim nails along the edges and along the vertical edges where the bookshelves meet. Depending on your level of experience and your comfort with miter cuts , you may want to opt for a simple trimming style such as shaker-style trimming, which can be very forgiving for people who measure four times and get it wrong anyway.
End. You’ve covered your crevices and the bookcases look like they were part of the original house build, but you’re not quite done yet. You need to finish everything:
- Seal the trim edges and walls, as well as the trim edges of the bookcases themselves. If you can match your sealant to the paint, great. Otherwise, make sure you choose a paintable sealant.
- If desired, fill the holes for shelf supports you are not going to use with wood filler, sand and paint. This gives it a more finished look, but takes away the flexibility of being able to reconfigure the shelving on the fly.
- Touch up paint as needed.
Boom! Embedded. The best part about this project is that the trim is designed to hide things, so if your gaps are slightly off, no one will ever know once you attach the trim, and if you get your measurements wrong you can often just widen choice of finishes to cover more space. The best part is that you spent very little money to get a really expensive look.