Home Library Makeover: Finishing Our DIY Built-Ins

DIY, St. Louis House

Published September 17, 2026

Our home library makeover is finally finished, and I have been waiting a long time to say that.

If you’ve been following along, you know this room has been a project. In DIY Built-In Bookshelves for a Cozy Home Library: Part One, I built every shelf and cabinet in here from plywood, starting with a formal dining room we didn’t need and ending with a home library that consisted of walls of built-in bookshelves that were up, secured, and holding books. This post is everything that happened after that. The trim, the corbels, the paint, the cabinet doors, and finally getting to style the shelves.

Crystel smiling beside the round table in her finished home library, with green built-in bookshelves and cabinets, aged brass pulls, a brass chandelier, and a dried floral arrangement in a stone pot.

Table of Contents

Where This Home Library Started

This is the room the day we walked into this house.

A formal dining room with two-tone walls, oak trim, and a brass chandelier. We started remodeling the entire first floor almost immediately, and knew right away we would be moving some things around. It was obvious that this room wasn’t going to work as our dining room. We have a big family, and we love to host. This space just wasn’t big enough.

So we moved the dining room into what used to be the family room, right off the kitchen. That left this room free to become the cozy home library I’d been dreaming of for years.

Formal dining room before being transformed with wall to wall bookshelves in a makeover.

What Got Done in Part One

In part one, I closed off the old kitchen opening with drywall, then built and installed every cabinet and bookshelf in the room. I painted the plywood panels before cutting and assembling them, which sounds backward but saved me so much time. Then I added face frames to all the shelf edges and ran new baseboards around the room. I hired out the crown molding, then I stopped.

Home library built-in bookshelves after the build, with crown molding and baseboards installed but the shelf edges still raw wood and the walls unpainted, before the makeover started.

Summer hit; I had a long list of outside projects waiting, like building a garden from scratch, and instead of letting this room sit empty and unfinished, we moved in and started using it.

Home library after moving in, with floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelves filled with books and storage bins around a round table and small loveseat, showing new crown molding and baseboards with the shelf edges still raw wood.

If you want the full build, including how I made the cabinet boxes, added the sliding shelf for our printer, and secured everything to the studs, it’s all in DIY Built-In Bookshelves for a Cozy Home Library: Part One.

Adding Trim Under the Crown Molding

The first thing I did when I came back to this project (after completely emptying it) was to add one more piece of trim underneath the crown molding.

Crystel reaching overhead with a brad nailer to attach a strip of trim beneath the crown molding on the built-ins, using a spare board as a spacer for even placement.

I used a spare 1×4 as a spacer, which is the easiest trick in the world for getting trim placed evenly without measuring every single time. Set the spacer against the crown, rest the trim underneath the spacer board, and nail it in with the brad nailer. Move the spacer down the wall and repeat.

That one strip of trim made such a big difference.

The Corbels That Make the Shelves Look Arched

This is my favorite detail in the whole room.

I added small curved corbels to the corners of the bookshelf openings. Two per opening in the top corners. Individually, they’re tiny. Together, they turn a plain square opening into something that reads as a decorative arch, and they completely change the feel of the shelves.

I ran wood glue along the edges, clamped each corbel in place, then drove screws through to hold it permanently. The clamp does the holding so you can use both hands to guide the screw in with the drill.

Crystel applying wood glue to the edge of a small curved corbel before attaching it to the corner of a bookshelf opening in the built-ins.
A blue clamp holds a curved wood corbel in place while Crystel drives a screw through it with a drill, creating the arched openings in the home library built-in bookshelves.

Adding Caulk and Wood Filler

This is the least fun step and the one that matters most.

I used paintable caulk on every joint and used wood filler on all the brad nail holes, the screw holes, and the seams where the corbels meet the shelves. Raw plywood with visible nail holes never looks built-in. Filled and caulked, it looks like it came with the house.

Corner of the home library built-in bookshelves with corbels installed, caulk and wood filler drying over the nail holes and seams, next to the box molding running along the adjoining wall.

You can also see the box molding on the wall next to the shelves here. That molding runs through the whole first floor, and I covered how I did it in DIY Box Molding Wall Trim Tutorial (Step-by-Step Guide).

Priming and Painting the Home Library Built-Ins

You might remember from part one that I started this project by priming and painting the plywood panels before I cut and assembled anything, and for the first stretch it was amazing. No taping, no drop cloths, no crouching in a corner trying to cut in behind a shelf.

But as the project went on, some panels only ever got primed and never painted. And none of the trim, the face frames, or the corbels existed yet when I was painting out in the yard, so all of that needed primer too.

I used BIN shellac-based primer on everything raw. Once it was dry, I did two coats of paint. I did not want to mask off an entire room to spray, and there wasn’t much left to paint, so I did the whole thing by hand with my favorite paintbrush and a smooth roller.

Crystel sitting on a work platform to reach the lower shelves, brushing primer onto the raw trim and shelf edges of the home library built-in bookshelves.
Crystel rolling paint onto the face frames of the home library built-in bookshelves with a small roller, working from a platform with a paint tray in her other hand.

The color is SW Hidden Trail. It reads a little lighter and more olive in this room than you might expect from the swatch, but I love it so much. It’s the perfect warm, moody green that I was going for.

I have painted so many built-ins at this point that I have my method down. If you want my full process for priming, sanding, and painting cabinets and built-ins so they have a professional-looking finish that lasts, I have a whole post on it: The ULTIMATE Guide to Painting Cabinets & Furniture

Swapping Out the Light Fixture

The old flush mount was boring and not doing this room any favors.

Down it came, and up went a gorgeous brass chandelier with white shades. It’s one of the few things in here that isn’t green, and the warmth of the brass and pop of white against all that dark paint is exactly what the room needed.

Crystel reaching overhead to unscrew the old three-globe flush mount light from the ceiling of the home library, with the painted green built-ins visible behind her.
Crystel steadying the new brass chandelier with white shades after hanging it in the home library, with the green built-in bookshelves and corbels in the background.

Installing Cabinet Doors and Hardware

I built all the cabinet boxes myself, but I did not build the doors.

I ordered them from Fast Cabinet Doors, made to the exact sizes of my openings. If you’ve ever built a cabinet, you know the doors are the fussiest part to get right. Ordering the doors instead of building them saved me a lot of time and frustration.

For hardware, I used these aged brass pulls, the same ones we used on the built-ins in the dining room. Carrying the same hardware through both rooms is a small thing, but it’s what makes a whole-floor remodel feel cohesive and like it was planned instead of pieced together.

Back wall of the finished home library with an arched shelf opening above the loveseat, tall green cabinet doors with brass pulls, and panel molding running below the shelves.

Styling Our Home Library Shelves

And then the fun part. Filling it all back up.

Our books, of course, went on the shelves, mixed in with plants, a few brass pieces, framed art, and some things that just make me smile to look at. You can shop all my home library shelf decor here.

Full wall of green built-in bookshelves styled with color-sorted books, plants, framed art, and a brass horse figurine, with closed cabinet doors along the bottom.

The Finished Home Library

Walls of books. A table in the middle. Cabinets hiding all the homeschool and office supplies. This is exactly the room I pictured when we first walked through this house, and I stood in a formal dining room, imagining something completely different.

Someday I’d still love to close it off with French doors and a pretty transom. That one’s on the maybe someday list. For now, though, it’s a gorgeous room that gets used daily by the whole family. I’m so happy with how this home library turned out.

Corner view of the home library makeover showing painted green built-ins on two walls, arched shelf tops, paneled cabinet fronts, and a dried floral arrangement on the table.

📌 Save This Home Library Makeover for Later

Pin this post so you have the full finishing process saved for your own built-ins, from adding trim and corbels to priming, painting, and styling the shelves.

This project is perfect if you want:

  • Built-in bookshelves that look custom without hiring a contractor
  • A moody, cozy home library on a budget
  • Simple trim details that make plain shelves look high end
  • A multipurpose room that works for school, work, and reading

Frequently Asked Questions About This Home Library Makeover

What paint color is this home library?

The built-ins are Sherwin-Williams Hidden Trail, a deep green that reads a little more olive in a room with this much natural light. I used BIN shellac-based primer underneath and two coats of paint on top.

How do you make bookshelves look arched?

Add small curved corbels to the top two corners of each shelf opening. Glue them, clamp them, and secure them with screws. The two curves together read as an arch without any of the work of actually building one. In our last home, I did do a full arch on our living room shelves. You can find all that info here: DIY Arched Living Room Shelves.

What is a corbel?

A corbel is a small decorative bracket, usually curved, used as a trim detail. In this project I used them purely for looks, to give the square shelf openings an arched shape.

Do you have to spray built-in bookshelves to get a smooth finish?

No. I painted this entire room with a brush and a roller because, one, I didn’t want to mask off the whole space for spraying. And two, since I had already done most of the painting before building, there wasn’t much left to paint. A good primer, a light sanding, and quality cabinet paint will give you a smooth finish without a sprayer.

Can you buy cabinet doors instead of building them?

Yes, and I highly recommend it. I ordered mine from Fast Cabinet Doors, sized to my openings. Building the boxes yourself and ordering the doors gets you a custom result, saving money and time.

Share the ♥︎

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *