IIServices · The Trade
Built-ins: libraries, window seats and media walls.
A good built-in looks like the house was framed around it. Bookcases, window seats and cabinetry walls turn dead space into the part of the room people remember.
Built-in means made for this room, in this house, not bought and pushed against a wall. Here is what that covers and the details that separate a real built-in from a box with trim around it.
Types of built-ins
- Library and bookcase walls
- Floor to ceiling shelving, open or with cabinet bases, scribed to the ceiling and walls so it reads as architecture.
- Window seats
- A bench with storage under a window, often flanked by shelving. Adds seating and hides the things a room needs to hide.
- Media walls
- Cabinetry around a television or fireplace, with ventilation and wire runs planned in, not drilled in later.
- Mudroom lockers
- Benches, hooks, cubbies and closed lockers by the back door. The hardest working built-in in a Cape house.
- Home office walls
- Desks, file drawers and shelving fitted to a wall or an alcove, so a room does double duty.
Details that matter
- Adjustable shelving
- Shelves that move on hidden supports, so the piece changes as your books and life do.
- Scribed to the room
- Fitted tight to walls and ceilings that are out of square, with crown and base that die cleanly into the existing trim.
- Paint or stain grade
- Paint grade for a crisp, built-forever look; stain grade in hardwood when you want the warmth of the wood to show.
- Integrated lighting
- Puck or strip lighting in shelving and display cabinets, wired and switched as part of the build.
Why built-in beats freestanding
Freestanding furniture floats in a room and wastes the space behind and above it. A built-in uses every inch to the ceiling, matches the trim already on your walls, and adds value a bookcase from a store never will.
How it is quoted
A layout drawing comes with the proposal so you see the piece on paper, to scale, before a board is cut. Scope, materials and price in writing, under the same workmanship warranty as the rest of the house.
Put it in writing.
A site visit and a written proposal cost nothing. Scope, materials, schedule and price, in a document you can hold us to.