LIVING ROOM: THE ALCOVE PROJECT #2

Well after 10 days of having a stinking cold, weekend work has now resumed on building the alcove units & bookcases in the Living Room.  The carcass of the first unit has been built and was quite a struggle to cram into the space as one of the walls was crooked and slanting towards the right.  After an intensive session of wood planing (towards the back) we managed to get the unit to fit.  Luckily, we are working with 30mm (1 1/4 inch) thick MDF which gives plenty of leeway to trim the sides if needed.

We thought it might be a good idea to run through a dry run fit of the bookcase so that any adjustments could be made before priming.  This is what it should roughly look like.

The central support of the cabinet acts to hold the hinges of what eventually will be a 4 door cabinet.  The long narrow doors should give it more of an illusion of height.  It's impossible to tell from the photograph but the cabinet unit is actually 4ft wide!

The shelves of the bookcase were temporarily supported by pieces on wood on the sides which won't be there when it is finished - including the bottom piece sitting on the top surface of the cabinet.
 

Moulding will close up the space between the top of the bookcase and any on the sides.  That should give it a more finished look.

I like the way that all the TV cables are now neatly hidden in the cavity surrounding the recessed TV.

I can't wait to see it finished and painted white.

    

LIVING ROOM: THE ALCOVE PROJECT

It’s totally shameless not to have updated this blog since October, but I can assure you that since then various bits of work have gone on: The bamboo flooring was laid in the living room at the end of last year and beginning of this one.  It looks beautiful.  However, we can’t continue laying more flooring in the other rooms until we free up some space.  Since most of it is consumed by my mountains of books with nowhere to place them, the solution seems to be to crack on and build the alcove units and bookcases in the living room.  This should help alleviate the problem.

The last few weekends have been spent with measuring up & sketching out a logical way to build them.   As the final product will be painted white to match the architraves and skirting, we’ve decided to build them out of 30mm MDF, which should result in some robust units and avoid sagging shelves (one of my pet hates).  The bookshelves in the living room will mainly be for the growing collection of over-sized art books so they need to support a lot of weight.

Photograph: www.caligaricabinets.co.uk

The various quotes online I’ve seen for alcove cabinets with bookshelves have varied from £750 - £1200 per unit so I’m hoping that building them ourselves will save us a fair bit of money.  The material costing of 3 units worked out at around £120 per unit (excluding doors & handles).  The third unit is a slim line unit for bedroom one to accommodate the smaller books with a 4 door cabinet below for DVDs & CDs.  I'd love to have them custom built but sadly my budget doesn't stretch that far, but there are plenty of pictures online (as left and below) for inspiration.

 The advantage of custom made furniture is that you can utilise the space as you want to, to suit your needs rather than trying to buy pre-made cabinets and ending up with a lot of dead space.

The motif in the living room is going to be glass so I've sourced some lovely square glass cabinet handles, but more on that later.

Photograph: www.peterhendersonfurniture.co.uk

 

BEDROOM ONE: FURNITURE IDEAS

While it may still be too early to be thinking about buying furniture it is good to see what's out there. 

I've always been attracted to Bauhaus & Art Deco design styles which in their era (1920s & 1930s) were the epitome of modern design: Clean sharp forms, economy of detail, functionality, elegance and glamour.  Even today some pieces from that time can look extremely contemporary, stylish and evocative, such as the pair of armchairs below:-

Art Deco Birdseye Maple Leather Armchairs at Regents Antiques

Photographs by Regents Antiques

Available from http://www.regentantiques.com

THE CONVEX RANGE

As an alternative to scouting around antique markets, house clearance sales, Ebay, etc for unusual and striking pieces - CPW Furniture have produced the Convex Range which has a distinct retro but modern feel.  Crafted from Birch wood and stained rich and deep tones, the gently curved fascias and silver handles give it an almost Art Deco-ish vibe.  The Convex comes in a wide range from cabinets to dining tables to bed frames to bookcases - to TV units - the usual components you might need to furnish your living room, dining room and bedroom.

Convex Dining by CPW Furniture

I realise that these unusual hefty looking retro pieces may not be to everybody tastes, but I love them.  For me, they conjure up images of black & white movies from the 1930s.  I will certainly be considering the bedside cabinets, console table for Bedroom One.

Thanks to Ebay I've just bought the CD storage unit (RRP £300) for a steal at £75 ex-display.  How resourceful is that!

The Convex Range available from various retailers.

http://www.cpwfurniture.co.uk/