This is a set of built-ins I made for my personal home. Designing your own project affords the luxury of taking your time with the design. As with most of my built-ins, the countertops and doors are made from solid maple; however, there are many hidden features in this piece, born out of many discussions my wife and I had about how these built-ins would work best for our family.

A closer shot showing the maple countertops and the trim details. The center cabinet sits forwards from the side units to create some visual interest. Since the upper shelving units are set back from the lower cabinets, it made for an interesting transition where they all came together, especially in the curved front edge of the countertops.

The left-side doors conceal an existing radiator behind a false cabinet front that swings open to provide access when needed. The arched baseboard lets air in to the radiator, and the open mesh doors allow heat to flow out to the room.

Here you can see how the false cabinet front opens up. When closed, a hidden magnet helps keep if firmly in place and makes the joint where the pieces come together almost invisible.

The lower cabinet on the right side has the same mesh doors, but to keep the kids’ toys hidden, I added a dark plywood backing. Both the center and right lower units have a dark trim board hidden behind the arched baseboard to keep toys, etc. from getting lost under there.

The low shelf beneath the TV helps minimize the look of the components and conceals the various cables. Outlets located near each window are split between standard outlets and our holiday light circuit for candles at Christmastime.

Instead of doing more traditional crown molding, we decided not to build the upper units to the ceiling so that we could carry the existing window trim across the top as a design detail. This allowed us to add another hidden feature: a long strip of dimmable LED lights hidden behind the top trim which provides a nice glow in the evenings. That glow didn’t show up well in our professional pictures taken during the day, but I managed to get a decent shot with my phone one evening. Wafer lights are concealed above each window for additional light.

The last two photos show what we started with and where we ended up: a mish-mash of old furniture and storage units….

…and now a set of functional built-ins that provide all the storage and ambient lighting we need in one package. To see more pictures of my personal home, click here.