Built in shelving

10 years ago

I've had a lot of advice already about this one room but now need some more please. Decided to go for Stiffkey blue on fireplace wall which is great. Finally settled on dulux 'milky pail' for other walls. Building in shelving in the alcove against blue wall but now thinking about extending to go around & above double doors but don't know what to do about wall colour! Think it will look odd to have one wall behind shelving in blue & the other in white. If I paint the second wall blue, with the other 2 white, it will look like I've just run out of paint! Don't think I want the whole room blue. What would you do? Thanks.

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Comments (14)

Jonathan
10 years ago
Sorry- I think the shelving around the doors will crowd them. In my opinion it is better to run your shelves across the whole alcove-ie from the fireplace to the corner.
If you need additional shelving I would start them after the double doors which in turn means they are further from the first set and don't have to match. In this position these shelves could be the wall colour, blue as a contrast, or my preferred option would be to paint the wall behind the second shelves in the same blue so that there is another punch of that colour elsewhere
tamp75
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks - that was our intention to go across the whole alcove just stopped partway to consider the options. The other issue is somewhere to site a tv. That area of the room is the only possible area so we were thinking of having space within the shelving. Other wall opposite fireplace has patio doors, fourth wall has window & radiator. Other end of fireplace is another door!
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Several years ago, we wanted floating shelves but after googling around for “alcove shelves” we found this image - it was from a carpenter in Brighton who had made shelves out of mdf and then painted them - and they look like flowering shelves. I found a local carpenter and he basically copied the idea for us - and years later we still love our shelves, and several of our friends have copied them! We even copied the two lower angled shelves for our tv! The cost was also much better than buying ready made floating shelves or even Ikea offers. My top tip - find a local carpenter!
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Hi Jennifer What a great blank canvas to start working from. I have worked on a couple of fireplace walls for clients - putting storage on each side of the recess. You can check them both out here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WukS7wiX8ME The peacock wallpaper inspired design was a full room design for a client. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFepXptTDyE The updated living room design was to help the client on whether to install a wall between their lounge and family room, but showcases a fireplace wall. (Please ignore the colours - these were purely placeholders to show the layout) This client, like you, wanted an electric woodburner. I hope these help you start to visualise you space. Rgds Vicky My Claybrick Home
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Carolina
10 years ago
TV could go next to the fireplace, in the bookcase. I don't think that it will look like you've run out of paint if you paint the other wall blue. How much space for books do you need? If you need lots and want to give your room a library feel, you could go along the entire wall and around the doors. I quite like that idea, but I'd love to see more photos of the room to get a better idea of the space.
Victoria
10 years ago
You could wall paper behind the shelves. You could even just slot wallpapered panels in some of the openings as a feature.
tamp75
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for the advice so far. Only problem with having tv in shelving next to the fire is positioning seating so that we can see the tv as it will be at the end of the room by the double doors. Generally fitting furniture will be a problem! That's mainly why we thought about extending the shelving around the corner & over the doors. This will be our snug. We have further family / living space through the double doors. Photos of the room attached, clockwise from fireplace wall. Room measures approx 4.8 x 3.8 metres.
Carolina
10 years ago
You could try this. I used a 2-seater sofa, a chair and two ottomans.
Carolina
10 years ago
And with 'try this' I mean that you could use paper/cardboard cut out to the size of the furniture pieces of your choice and lay those on the floor to see how it feels.
tamp75
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi Carolins, thanks for the mock up - that fits well. Will try it with our current furniture - hate our sofas & they're quite chunky so could be good reason to 'find' a new one! Def need an armchair & coffee table. Thinking of having very large rug or carpet piece & get the edges bound for extra comfort.
bfrobson
10 years ago
I can see that a tv flat against the current blue wall may prove awkward to view from the room - but extending the idea of carolins illustration, placing the tv diagonally across the corner would give you more scope. Though you might feel this generates 'dead space' in the corner I think that the sacrifice would be minor in comparison to the improved viewing angle from the room. I would put a back on the corner bridge, painted blue. I also think that blue behind all the shelving would look fine - but why not make it up and stand it in place, then decide on whether you want to paint the other wall?
Carolina
10 years ago
You could also do this, but that would mean that all seating has it's back to the windows. If you go for a true modular sofa, it will give you options to do different layouts.
Carolina
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Like this for example. (Question is, would you actually bother to do that)
tamp75
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks bfrobson - a good idea to make up the shelving & see how it looks before deciding to paint. I think I would prefer it blue as I like the contrast with the white but at least then we'd have the option.
Carolins - thank you so much for further ideas & visuals. I don't mind having the seat backs to the window here as it's our snug & the focus will be the fire. In our main living area, the seating looks out over the garden.
Carolina
10 years ago
Oh okay, that makes it easier.
PRO
White Red Architects
10 years ago
We'd recommend painting the shelves in blue. This can work well as an accent colour when painting the rest of the walls white - check out our tips for this at our blog:

http://www.wr-resi.com/blog/2016/9/6/4-minimalist-tricks-using-white-paint

Built in shelving

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