Living Room Remodel: A little help from a big Swedish store

With the bulk of the project complete, we're beginning to move back into the living room.

Our living room is the entry to the house. It's Sweetie's one nice room (with no eating or drinking allowed!). Even though we like the piece, we decided to move from the single barrister's bookcase to a large storage unit that could also replace the awful, beat-up old TV stand that we've been carting around for years. I initially wanted to do a big, custom built-in project, but logic, budget, and schedule prevailed; we once again turned to the fine, knockdown and shipped-flat craftsmanship of the Swedes. It's not going to be a highly trafficked piece of furniture, so I'm not worried that it has some fiberboard components.

When it's go time, you know what that means, a loaded-down truck, an aching back...

Spiderman wuz here

... and piles of sticks, twigs, yarn, boards, and hardware to sort around the room. Of course, there's the bonus of a mountain of cardboard that will be several weeks worth of recycling bin fodder.

The "IKEA Sort"

On IKEA...

I'm still amazed at how these flat, ferociously heavy boxes quickly become three-dimensional, useful objects. It's obvious that by staying out of the world wars, the Swedish military-industrial complex was able to apply scientific resources to dominating the global market with ingenious Scandinavian wizardry (and bags of delicious frozen meatballs).

Across the planet, an expansion of of massive blue and yellow warehouses filled with diabolically affordable furniture, kitchenware, and decorative items is underway. The people of the world are asleep and powerless against this consumer of planet's wood supply. The only thing holding their complete domination in check in our country, is the natural American mistrust of anyone who stocks and sells 37 varieties of canned herring, pickled, in oil, or in various sauces and creams (although Minnesota is probably at risk).

We started with the center section, the "sideboard", which I believe is the bastard love child of a desk and an entertainment center.

The Christmas Decoration box made a good workbench

This sideboard came with glass doors. Since we're going to keep our board game collection inside, we sprung for yet another flat box, a pair of optional solid doors. After they were installed, the television immediately fluttered across the room, and settled delightedly on its new nest. The beat up old couch grumpily ambled back into its spot a few minutes later, complaining about its ill-fitting slip cover the whole way. I think it's heard us talking about replacing it when we can scratch up the funds and has developed an attitude. It's been purposefully uncomfortable lately.

A delighted television and a grumpy couch

Each evening, after work, I'd drag a heavy box or two into the room, scatter the parts, sort the hardware, build a piece, and lug a mountain of cardboard out to the garage. It was the north tower that first rose into the heavens.

The south tower soon took its rightful place, proudly looking down upon the lands below.

The Two Towers

"The world is changing. Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Isengard and Mordor? To stand against the might of Sauron and Saruman and the union of the two towers?"

-Saruman the White

Back on Terra Firma, the bridging shelf took shape. I did some measuring and shifting to make sure the beast would leave equal gaps on the sides. There'd be no moving it later.

I'd grown accustomed to the art of translating ancient Swedish hieroglyphics and using them to construct these monuments of their ingenuity. I needed all my accumulated knowledge to decipher the method of joining the two towers with the bridging shelf.

I'm not sure what this one meant:

Obviously...

"Uuuugghhhhhh....!!!"

- AZ DIY Guy

It took fistful of clamps, a level, and a screwdriver to wrangle three pieces into one monolithic fortress.

The whole construction gets visually pulled together with molding. It makes it look like one piece instead of several optional components.

The adjustable shelves popped easily in place. I like that they have a vertical locking pin to keep them from sliding around. The European style hinge hardware went in next. (All hardware was included with the pieces)

In another added purchase, we'd picked up doors for the bookcases. When we looked at the display at the store, plain bookcases didn't look great. The adjustable shelf pin holes and the shelf brackets just didn't look as classy. The half glass-front doors hid those details.

Yes, that's Watson on screen. This project was significantly delayed due to the distraction of a "Sherlock" marathon showing on PBS.

Bam!!! Done. Quick and easy.

For Sherlock fans, THE woman is on TV.

I thought I'd start loading the shelves with knickknacks and stuff to give the remodeled room the touch of class it deserves. After all, nothing says class like an autographed photo of Luke freaking Skywalker.

Where do you keep your Luke Skywalker memorabilia?

Inexplicably, my decorating choice received a quick veto. Sweetie took charge and neatly populated the shelves with our crystal, china, candlesticks, and etc. She did a great job. We'll keep finding little items that fit this room, but for now, it's great to have all that fragile stuff behind glass, away from dust.

I actually wanted to go with another style shelving we'd seen at IKEA. Sweetie convinced me. She was right. This fits our style and the room much better. Here's how it shook down financially:

LIATORP series by IKEA