DIY Dining Room “Built-Ins”

I finished these some time ago but never posted pictures… and I’m pretty happy about them still. 🙂
I have the spot at our table that faces this wall in our dining room.  Every meal I would look at this wall and hate how cluttered it was.  There was an antique buffet under the window (In not so great condition and also didn’t store hardly anything).  The corner shelf unit (which again didn’t store much for the room it took).  And then my china hutch.  It was an excellent find at $35 which I had meant to refinish.. but never did. 🙂  I didn’t mind it, but it never fit the space well.  It seemed i always had a couple baskets of things on top of the buffet that just didn’t have a home.
THE BEFORE:

In my mind an idea developed and I just knew I would have to make it myself for it to turn out how I wanted.  I really wanted the look of some built-in cabinets, without them actually being built in.  In the end I made 2 cabinets for each side of the window, then a long skinny buffet to go between them.
THE AFTER:

I made the cabinets from 3/4 inch plywood and used some screen molding trim on all edges (I dislike edge banding).  I was fortunate enough to find some doors at IKEA in the “as-is” room for $5 per set of 2!  That took that off my plate.  I also bought some baskets at IKEA for linens, and made 2 open shelves, one for the baskets and another for a few special things to display.
I sealed the cabinets with shellac first, then painted them using Annie Sloan pure white.  (I didn’t bother painting the inside of the cabinets since they are now sealed with shellac and won’t be seen).  The insides of the open shelves I painted with louis blue for a little color, and used a glaze made from annie sloan wax on some trim around the edges of the open shelves in the back.
The trim on the bottom is with just the louis blue painted on, the middle is with the dark glaze, then the top is after I wiped off the excess dark glaze.

For the buffet I kind of made it up as I went along, building the frame first, then adding a couple planks of pine for the top.

I ended up painting it all with pure white except for the top which I used a couple stains on until I liked it. 🙂

My dad was an expert carpenter so I can’t help but see all the flaws in things I build…  but I’m just happy with getting this done and I know my dad would love that I made them by myself and figured it out. 🙂