If you’ve been following my blog, then you already know that we are making an enormous built-in unit in our daughter’s room. Here is our grand plan. We’ve made some great progress, but there was a space between the drawer units and our DIY daybed and trundle, that needed to be filled with something before we could continue along with the project. So, we designed and built some narrow, built-in side cabinets!

The Side Cabinets

A little while back, we purchased some unfinished drawer base cabinets from Home Depot, painted them white, and added some adorable crystal knobs. Once we installed them and the daybed, however, we were left with a pretty big gap between the two. At first, we were kinda at a loss as to what to do to fill the gaps between the drawers and the cabinets.  I hate to waste space, so I wanted to make something functional. I took pencil to paper and came up with a cabinet design, and then my very handy hubby built the cabinets.

We assembled them, installed them, and lo-and-behold…they actually turned out just like we planned and fit perfectly.  What a relief!  You just don’t know sometimes if DIY things are going to work out, ya know?  They aren’t much to look at yet, but we are happy with them,

DIY cabinets and built-in drawers for girls bedroom DIY built-in drawers and cabinets for girls bedroom

So what’s next in this project?

  1. Cabinet doors to fit our homemade cabinet boxes
  2. Countertop for the drawers and cabinets
  3. Bookshelves that will go on top of the drawer units (on either side of the window)
  4. A decorative panel for the front of the trundle bed
  5. Endless painting! (I’m getting very sick of looking at white paint!).

Sounds like a lot, I know. But, now that  that those side cabinets are done, the way is clear to make some swift progress!  I don’t want to jinx it, but I think we are gonna finish this thing within a week or two!

The best part of all of this?  We keep proudly pointing out to my daughter the progress that we’re making, and what does she have to say about it?  She is not impressed…at all. She could care less about the built-in side cabinets. And, she likes to point out all the nail holes, painting that needs to be done, and every minor imperfection.

So hard to please! But I guess it’s hard for an 8-year old to have the vision to “see” what it will all look like in the end.  I sure hope she likes it when all is said and done, because we have put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears on this project!