Before & After: A Mini, Multi-Purpose Chill Room With Solid Shelves

Written by

Adrienne BreauxHouse Tour Director at AT Media
Adrienne BreauxHouse Tour Director at AT Media
For more than 10 years, I've led Apartment Therapy's real home content, producing thousands of house tours from around the world. Currently, I live in my maximalist dream home in New Orleans, Louisiana, with my partner, a perfect dog, and a cute cat.
published Jan 26, 2014
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Post Image
(Image credit: Julia Marcum)

Recently moved into, this home had a small room right by the entryway with great windows but no immediate plans for use. After spending time sitting on the floor talking or looking out the windows, the homeowners decided to move its remodel up on the list and transform it with bold paint and sturdy shelves into a cozy functioning room for chatting, reading or playing music.

(Image credit: Julia Marcum)

From Julia:

It took us every weekend (and a few weeknights) for a month to make our vision come to life. We ran electrical for the sconces, built a wall header to house them and painted the room a sophisticated green. For the shelves, we used douglas fir and a walnut gel stain (after a lot of experimenting with different types of stain—fir is a bugger!). Each shelf is mounted into 3 studs on the back wall, using 2 3/4″ brackets and 2 additional brackets on the side.

We are so pleased with how the room transformed aesthetically and also functionally. You can almost always catch one of us in there reading, strumming a guitar, playing the djembe or just chatting together.

See more of how they designed and installed those stellar shelves on Chris Loves Julia.

Thank you Julia!

Re-edited from a post originally published 1.26.14-NT