To all,
Some design advice and any "don't do that" would be helpful.
So, I have a finished attic with 4' knee walls around 3 sides (the 4th wall is tall and leads to one exit, the full bathroom and a HVAC room). It's about 700+ square feet (lots of room). It was my daughter's suite before she moved out and I'd like keep it as a bedroom with one wall (the 4th one) a sitting area with a small 5.1 home theater setup (already wired in). So, the plan would be to turn the 3 remaining walls into built in book shelves (I have a ton of books), with built in shelves, dresses, night stands and all the rest.
So, some questions I have run into the following:
1) I'd like to do 4' long sections that are either book shelves or a dresser, nightstand, Etc. I realize 4' long 20" deep bookshelves are large, but I'm thinking the actual shelf length would be about 46" approximately and I could add shelf pins in the middle and use 1" plywood with a hardwood front as the shelves. They'd be deep enough for multiple rows of books or handling albums and nick nacks. Is that too much (the sag calculator doesn't include what the middle shelf pins would add to it). Since I'm going to cut downstairs, I'm going to have the hump the parts up 3 floors to assemble and looking at a 3' ruler, 3' seems way small. Note: I do realize I can't cover the access panels in the knee walls (fire code), so maybe put something in front of those that is not built in (maybe just only nick nack shelves). Note: I'm planning to use pocket hole, glue and pin nails as much as possible
2) If you were doing this, would you pull the carpet back and build onto the floor directly, or just cut the baseboard and push the shelves up against the wall resting on the existing carpet?
3) If I build it so it sits on the carpet and leave the baseboard in place, I'd have about a 1" gap to shim and then extend the outlets into the shelves. Not scared of this, electrical I can do easily, but would you see any downfall to this?
4) I'd like the tops to appear as seamless as possible, e.g.multiple units in place and then lay a long piece of top wood so it appears as one piece as much as possible. E.g, like kitchen cabinets with a granite top
5) I'm looking to do painted shelves, would a Graco airless sprayer work (I'm buying one anyway to paint the attic and other places in the house).. If so, what's the best paint. I've read many posts on paint types and with books my biggest concern is "sticky" paint marring the books or the books sticking to the shelves
I know it's a lot of questions, but before I get in to deep, I'd love to hear from people that have done built ins before and find out any pitfalls I may be causing myself (e.g, I'll cut the big pieces in the garage shop and can do the finish work with small miter saw with plastic sheeting to protect the room. Humping 4x8 sheets up 3 floors seems silly to me
My thanks,
Bob
Some design advice and any "don't do that" would be helpful.
So, I have a finished attic with 4' knee walls around 3 sides (the 4th wall is tall and leads to one exit, the full bathroom and a HVAC room). It's about 700+ square feet (lots of room). It was my daughter's suite before she moved out and I'd like keep it as a bedroom with one wall (the 4th one) a sitting area with a small 5.1 home theater setup (already wired in). So, the plan would be to turn the 3 remaining walls into built in book shelves (I have a ton of books), with built in shelves, dresses, night stands and all the rest.
So, some questions I have run into the following:
1) I'd like to do 4' long sections that are either book shelves or a dresser, nightstand, Etc. I realize 4' long 20" deep bookshelves are large, but I'm thinking the actual shelf length would be about 46" approximately and I could add shelf pins in the middle and use 1" plywood with a hardwood front as the shelves. They'd be deep enough for multiple rows of books or handling albums and nick nacks. Is that too much (the sag calculator doesn't include what the middle shelf pins would add to it). Since I'm going to cut downstairs, I'm going to have the hump the parts up 3 floors to assemble and looking at a 3' ruler, 3' seems way small. Note: I do realize I can't cover the access panels in the knee walls (fire code), so maybe put something in front of those that is not built in (maybe just only nick nack shelves). Note: I'm planning to use pocket hole, glue and pin nails as much as possible
2) If you were doing this, would you pull the carpet back and build onto the floor directly, or just cut the baseboard and push the shelves up against the wall resting on the existing carpet?
3) If I build it so it sits on the carpet and leave the baseboard in place, I'd have about a 1" gap to shim and then extend the outlets into the shelves. Not scared of this, electrical I can do easily, but would you see any downfall to this?
4) I'd like the tops to appear as seamless as possible, e.g.multiple units in place and then lay a long piece of top wood so it appears as one piece as much as possible. E.g, like kitchen cabinets with a granite top
5) I'm looking to do painted shelves, would a Graco airless sprayer work (I'm buying one anyway to paint the attic and other places in the house).. If so, what's the best paint. I've read many posts on paint types and with books my biggest concern is "sticky" paint marring the books or the books sticking to the shelves
I know it's a lot of questions, but before I get in to deep, I'd love to hear from people that have done built ins before and find out any pitfalls I may be causing myself (e.g, I'll cut the big pieces in the garage shop and can do the finish work with small miter saw with plastic sheeting to protect the room. Humping 4x8 sheets up 3 floors seems silly to me
My thanks,
Bob