In case you missed the reveal, you can see that here and here. Laura’s home already had wonderful, historic bones, but the living space could use a bit more character. Laura wanted bookshelves, and while we had talked about something clean and modern, I really encouraged her to stick with the period of the house and create something that looked original. Custom built-ins aren’t cheap, and we knew this would need to be on a budget. Hacking the Ikea Billy has been done before (my friend, Kristin, did a beautiful version) but with this being an older home, we had several obstacles to overcome. One, we didn’t want to have to rip out any of the existing woodwork. Usually you cut away the base trim when you want something flush against a wall, but Laura wanted to keep the over-100-year-old trim in tact, in case the built-in was ever removed. […]