Teen Girls Room Makeover - Built-In Transformation

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As I mentioned in a couple posts ago, I took down the top cabinet that was just open shelving with no doors attached to create a different look. I first scored the caulk line, removed the faceframe, removed the shelving and unscrewed the cabinet from the wall and wiggled it out and above the light switch, it was a tight fit.

Once that was removed I painted the area behind the cabinet and filled in any holes and began building the floating shelves. I used 1x2s to built a frame, these are primed pine because I had some leftover.

I attached them to the studs on the back but there was no stud I could attache them to on the sides so I ended up using these drywall anchors that are the best and the only ones I will use!

Then I attached the front piece with wood glue and 1.25in brad nails and my nail gun. I began attaching the plywood underlayment to the bottom and tops with brad nails by shooting the brad nails into the frame, front, back and in the middle.

I don’t have this part pictured but I put 1x3s common board on the front of the shelves to make it look like a solid piece of wood. I also test fit all the pieces and then stained them in dark walnut and then brought them back in and installed so I didn’t have to get stain fumes inside too much and risk getting stain on the walls. I also put underlayment on the top of the bottom counter and added a piece of wood to the front of that as well so it matched the shelves.

After that I started building the new doors. Again, this is what the old doors looked like, and they were completely fine, but I wanted the doors here to match the drawer fronts on the loft bed.

I cut some 1×3 primed pine down to size of the doors and routed out the sides with this bit so the brown board can sit down into the door.

Then I added pocket holes to all of the top and bottom pieces.

I set up a makeshift table and began connecting all the pieces with pocket hole screws and wood glue.

After that I added glue to the part I routed out and added the brown board that I cut down to size. Then I added some objects to the top to make sure they glued up nice and flat.

Once those were dry I took them back over to Andrea’s to test fit them. I put in cabinet hinge hardware and wanted to make sure it lined up correctly before painting and installing. This is the jig I used to add the holes for the hardware to sit in.

It fit! So I went ahead and painted the doors to be installed once they dried.

While the drawers dried I painted the cabinet box. This is my all time favorite paint brush brand! They are seriously the best and leave minimal to no brush marks!