Custom Bookcase Wall With Benchseat and Hidden Bar

I've been renovating my house since moving into a bit of a fixer upper about 18 months ago. The living room was long and rectangular and so the far wall away from the seating away was crying out to be made into a feature. I decided to build my own bookcase wall after seeing some ridiculous quotes online and was able to customise it as a result - including a hidden drinks bar, a seating area and integrated sockets.

Supplies

Two 2x4s

Scrap 2x3s

6-8 full sheets of 18mm construction plywood

White Primer and Furniture Paint

Wood glue

Screws

TV lift mechanism

LED light strip

Faux copper leaf

Scrap copper pipe

Tools

Track saw

Router

Drill and Impact driver

Jigsaw

Painting equipment

The first thing to do was to build a solid base that the bookcase could sit on. I attached 2x4 battens to the walls to screw into later, and built a simple base to run the length of the floor, using some 2x4 and 2x3 scraps. I attached small battens in the centre of the frame, connecting the long running pieces - this wasn't really for strength, but to make sure I had plenty of places I could screw in to when the book cases were in place.

You can also see the grey cables on the left, which are a spur being run from the pre-existing socket. I knew I was going to be covering that socket, so I wanted to be able to integrate some new ones into the bookcase itself. I drilled holes through the smaller battens of the frame to pull the wire through, so the weight of the bookcase wouldn't be sat on it!

I don't know why I was so set on having no back on the bookcase - I think I wanted to show off the mustard colour of the feature wall, and it never crossed my mind I could paint the backs of the bookcase.... Needless to say, I probably made things overly difficult for myself!

I originally thought about building one large unit and then getting it into position, but it was obvious pretty quickly that the huge carcass would be pretty unwieldy. Instead, I decided to break it down into three sections that could be built independent and installed side by side.

I planned each section out simply by drawing it to rough scale on graph paper. I wanted an irregular pattern of shelf shapes and sizes, so I sort of just freehanded the design, making sure that there weren't going to be too many areas without the support of a vertical wall under them. For example, the bench seat was going to support a lot of weight, so I made sure that there were three cubby holes underneath it, which gave me two vertical support pieces. These cubby holes were also where the sockets ended up being integrated.

Once I had all my measurements, I cut my pieces to size using a track saw - I used 18mm construction grade ply, simply because it was affordable and I knew I would be filling and painting the wood anyway. Anywhere a shelf and a wall met, I would be cutting a 9mm rabbet that the plywood could sit in. I built a router jig, which you can just see sat on the bookcase carcass in the third photo, which meant I could run my router back and forth in a line that I knew was square to the edge of the piece I was routing.

Once this was all done, it was a case of simply slotting the panels into the right place (and occasionally whacking them in with a rubber mallet). I applied wood glue into each of the rabbet slots to be sure the shelves etc. would stay firmly attached.

Once each section was built, I used wood filler along the edges of the ply that would be the face of the bookcase, which let me fill any voids and generally smooth out the surface (you can see this in the first picture - the wood filler I was using was yellow).

Then, I did two coats of primer followed by two coats of white furniture paints. The poor quality plywood practically drank the paint, so there were quite a few sections that needed some extra coats. The irregular shelf sizes and shapes meant painting this was a nightmare - I tried a paint sprayer, a roller and a brush. I think you just have to choose the one that seems like the least amount of torture for you and stick with it!

The final section I built, with the bench seat, I actually painted the panels before assembly, which worked quite well and might have been a good idea to start with...

In order to get everything assembled, I wrestled each section onto the base one by one. I screwed through the bottom of the bookcase into the base below and for the two side pieces, I screwed into the 2x4 battens that I had attached to the wall. I also attached a bracket to the top of each section which I attached to the wall, to prevent tipping if anyone ever decided to pull on a shelf. I wanted to make it sturdy, but I think I ended up making it bombproof!

Please excuse the video - it's one I sent to my brother to prove the bar worked and is unfortunately the only vid I have to hand...

To build the bar, I used a TV lift mechanism (this one was rated to lift 60kg, so I knew it could handle the bottles I had planned). I used the stroke of the mechanism (i.e. how high it rises) to determine the measurements of the section where the bar will be 'hiding' and the section it would rise up into. Once the bookcase was built, I cut a portion out of the shelf between these two sections to become the 'lid' of the bar.

I built the bar itself using the same construction plywood and built something of an open box. I cut a bottom section the same size as the lid I had taken out of the shelf - this meant that when the bar was fully opened, it would fill the hole in the shelf nicely. On this bottom, I built a raised step along the back half, so that I could have two rows of bottles, with those at the back being higher. I attached a large back panel and then secured the lid to this using pocket screws (so that the lid look completely flat when the bar was hidden away). I used old bits of copper pipe in the two front corners of the bottom section, to support the lid. I coated the whole bar in faux copper leaf, which I think gave it a nice beaten copper effect. I tied some rope between the supports to make sure the bottles couldn't tip out, but actually the left runs so smoothly I needn't have worried. I also stuck an LED light strip onto the back of the bar, facing the wall, to give it the surrounding glow when the bar is lifted.

Once I had the carcass of the bar built, I attached it to the mounting bracket of the TV lift using bolts and mounted the whole thing to the wall. The lift works with a remote control, but also had a wired switch to operate it - I drilled through the bookcase into the void between the bookcase and the wall (this void was there because the bookcase was attached to the 2x4, not flush to the wall) then ran the wire up into another shelf on the bookcase and built the switch into the side there - just like a wall switch!

The power source for the TV lift is that socket I told you I was covering up earlier - when I put the face framing on the bookcase, I left a section detachable so that that socket could be accessed. This is also where the LED strip went into. I wired the LEDs to a compression switch and mounted this at the perfect height for the bottom of the bar. So, when the bar is lowered, in it's 'hidden' position, the bottom of the bar compresses the switch and turns off the lights. As soon as the bar lifts, the switch is released and the lights switch on.

Finally, I cut a panel of 6mm plywood to the shape of the shelf section that the bar 'hides' in when it is lowered. I painted this the same colour as the back wall and mounted it to small blocks in the corners using screws. If the bar mechanics ever need to be accessed, I can simply unscrew this panel.

In the photo, you can see the bar (when lifted) before the face frame has been added to the bookcase.

The last thing to do was to tidy up the bookcase by adding a facing - this would cover the voids and 2x4 on each of the side walls, and the base that the bookcase was sat on. I used skirting boards, which had a nicer bevel to them to cover these gaps, and ran a simple piece of pine doweling down the connections between separate bookcase sections, to help disguise where these had been connected.

Here you can see the difference between when my parents visited me to help lay the flooring and the next time they visited and saw the completed bookcase!

I've since upholstered a long foam cushion to sit on the bench seat. There's a small coffee table in front of this and an armchair, making it into a nice evening reading nook - and my favourite party trick is asking guests to press the switch for the bar without telling them what it does!