living room interior materials

- hi i'm isabelle and welcomeback to engineer your space. today i'm gonna share withyou how i made a temporary dividing wall to separate my home office from my living room. so let's get started. (funky music) i really do love my officeand it's a great place to work from home. but the one thing that iwas missing was storage, and i also didn't likethe fact that it was

completely open to my living room. so my solution for thiswas to use billy bookcases as storage, but also as a base to hold some shelves that completethe visual separation from the living room, butwithout closing in my office. the first part of the projectwas to join the two bookcases by first attaching them togetherwith screws at the front. for the back, i covered itwith quarter inch plywood. i needed a piece that was63 inches by 41 inches.

i had the four by eight sheetcut at the hardware store, and had the piece cut in half so that it would fit in my car. it's easier to screw the plywood in place with the bookcases lying on the floor. and you will want tocountersink all your screw heads so that the back surface is smooth. i attached a one by threeboard between the bookcases and the plywood, plus withthe bottom of the back

of the bookcases. this boardmakes the base more stable and it gives a place to screwin the bottom of the plywood. next i prime the surface. and you could fill in theholes of the screw heads with wood filler before doingthis, and that would give you a more even surface. i decided to go with a beautifultextured metallic wallpaper to cover the plywood. it's the perfect thing tocover up any imperfections

and the joint in the plywood. because i didn't overlap thewallpaper enough at the seams, when it dried, it shrunk alittle bit and i ended up with a white line. so for a quick fix, i endedup using some eye shadow that i had that matchedthe color of the wallpaper. and i simply brushed it on and then wiped it off with my fingers. now one last thing that iwanted to do to the base,

was to make a hole in one of the sides. and that's so i would be ableto put in an extension cord to plug in things like my printer. i used tape to cover thesides of the bookcase to mark the location of the shelf, the back panel, and the center of wherei want my hole to be. and then i used an inchand a half hole saw bit to make the hole. the tape helps protect thefinish for a smoother edge,

and all that's needed is a light sanding to take out the rough spots. the next part of theproject was to make the top, and i made mine usingone by fours that i had cut at the hardware store. it's very important to measureand have your cross pieces cut carefully because you wantthe top to be able to slide over the base smoothly,but without leaving too much of a gap.

i painted all the wood and thenusing a combination square, i marked the locationof the shelves across all of the vertical boards. it just makes it easierto line everything up. i used a corner clamp to hold the boards, and drilled pilot holes and screwed the pieces together,countersinking the screws. next i attached thecrosspieces the same way, and i covered up all thescrew heads with wood filler,

let that dry and sanded it down before touching it up with paint. i also made a hole in theside of the top to match the hole in the bookcasefor the extension cord. next it was just a matter ofsliding the top over the base, and my furry helper herewasn't actually very helpful, but she's pretty cute soi think i'll keep her. i left an overhang of halfan inch and screwed the top to the base and covered therest of the sides and the top

of the bookcase with a one bysix and another one by four. i also added a one by one onthe bottom of the wallpaper side of the dividing wall,just to complete the frame. and that's it, the dividing wall is done. now it's really just a matterof dressing up the shelves with some accessories. i used a piece ofdriftwood that i had found at the beach to fillin the middle section. and i did that by drillingholes in the branches,

and using wire and eye screwsto secure it to the top. i also made a double-sidedpicture frame by removing the flaps from twoframes, adding some velcro, and then stapling a wood stickwith a small hole for hanging the velcro makes it really easy to attach the frames together and take them apart for changing out the pictures. and then you simply hang thewhole thing from a small hook. having this dividing wall hasmade such a huge difference.

now i have tons of storagein my office that's completely hidden fromthe rest of the apartment. and my office truly feelslike a separate room, but without feeling closed in. the dividing wall is reallystable with all the heavy things that i've put in my bookcases. but you could also usebrackets to attach it to the wall for extra support. well that's it for today's episode.

if you want to watch howi use billy bookcases to create an entryway inmy new york apartment, you can click on this video here. and if you wanna watchpart one and part two of my home office projects, youcan click on these videos here. and don't forget tosubscribe to my channel so that you don't miss anyof my upcoming episodes. you can also visit engineeryourspace.com for more information onthis project and other

diy tips and inspirations. see ya next time.

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