Using vertical Space with built-ins

When we looked at what would become our house 5 years ago this is the living room we saw!  Striped walls, wallpaper boarder, an awkward layout with furniture too large for the space.  It looks cute and cozy in the pic but we new we would have to change a couple of things.  

First things first -  We removed the wallpaper and painted over the stripes.  The mantle was next to go.  My awesome Father in law salvaged one from a demo house down the road from his house and we got a beautiful solid piece mantle (below).  With the removal of a pellet stove (because they are dirty and unsafe with kids around), a little molding and a new granite hearth we had what is pictured below.

And this is how it sat for almost 3 years!!  Last summer hubby and I finally got our act together and tackled the long planned project of the built-ins surrounding our fireplace.  The building itself only took about 3 weekends but the planning, researching and budgeting took several years.
As with many of our projects I start by thinking "how much would I pay someone to do this?"  I was thinking I would put $1000 into it so I got an estimate.  $2200 per built in because it was an extra wide width.We basically needed 2 "boxes" in each opening.  NO WAY!!!.  

Side note:  I HATE bringing contractors into my house to do construction because we rarely see eye to eye on design and they don't live the space nor care how we use the space to listen to my opinion.  That is why we end up doing everything ourselves.

I drew out the design, came up with a cut list and voila!  Our vertical office space.  Each side is actually a hutch on top of a desk for "easy" installation.

I wish I had photos from during the project but I am still fairly new to this blogging stuff and I didn't have the foresight to take the pics.  Sorry!

Look at all the stuff we can display and store.  Now I just have to focus on not OVERstuffing the shelves.  Just because you have the space doesn't mean you HAVE to use it.