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Posted by thom

Built-in bookshelves: Framing and Electrical

When we installed our Jøtul stove a year ago (literally, one year ago I tore out the first floorboards and on Christmas Eve I converted the stove from natural gas––as delivered––to propane, what we needed), then added paneling on one of the walls, we knew the final pièce de résistance in our living room would be a wall of bookshelves. For the past eight months or so we've had a stack of Ikea Billy and Besta shelving units sitting on our front porch. It was time to get them installed. After all, I picked up a few more books to add to our collection. They need shelves!

Before we could get to hacking and building the Ikea shelving into the wall, I needed to frame them out and take care of some good ol' electrical work. After a few weeks, we're ready to start hacking Ikea again.


First, in order for the Ikea shelving to look like it's built into the wall, I needed to construct a frame on the floor and furr the side and back walls. Then, for the electrical we wanted:

  • LED strip lighting in all of the Besta shelving to highlight the pieces we'll place in each of the cubes
  • Gimbal can lights for each bookshelf to highlight the, well, books
The electrical would be relatively straightforward. I'd pull power for the lights from one of the two outlets already on that wall. Since we were furring all of the cabinets, I dug around a bit to find a piece of the electrical code talking about putting NM (non-metallic, i.e. Romex) cable between a permanently installed cabinet and wall. Meaning, I didn't want to have to rip open the wall and snake cable between wall studs if I didn't need to go to that much effort. The key word in the code is "concealed":

Yes, you can run Romex wiring through concealed cabinets, as long as the cabinets are fully enclosed and the wiring remains hidden behind the cabinet walls; essentially treating the cabinet space like any other wall cavity where concealed wiring is allowed.

Concealed means hidden: The key is that the Romex should not be visible from the outside of the cabinet once it's installed. 

Secure the wiring: Use cable staples or similar fasteners to secure the Romex along the cabinet walls to prevent movement or damage.

This.

But first, I had to build the floor frame. For that, I used 2x4 lumber. With that and the height of the Billy bookcase bases (unmodified, actually), our design will use 1x8 dimensional trim accentuated with a continuous piece of 1x4 dimensional trim to match the baseboards already used throughout our house. This built-in design incorporates a style with several different depths of trim to give it dimension. From the design I used many years ago for our old house fireplace paneling I had remarked:

Note the different depths of wood - that was key for me - using 1x stuff for the horizontal top and bottom pieces, then 1/2x stuff for the vertical slats and then the plywood paneling for a total of three different depths that add contrast when the light hits them. 

Exactly. It's all about depth. 

The tricky part of the floor framing was leveling it across a span of about 13'. Our flooring, despite being new-ish construction, is not level. At least not precisely level. For construction projects like this (i.e. our built-in espresso bar), I work with tolerances of 1/16". Probably crazy. Thanks, Mom. 

Leveling a thirteen-foot span to within one sixteenth of an inch took a few tries. I feel good where it's finally at. With a laser level and a pair of 4' and 2' levels, it's as close as it can be. Test-fitting the Billy and Besta cabinets confirms the floor frame is level. Good to go.

The other catch was above the window. From construction photos K sleuthed on Facebook after we moved in, I knew there was a 2x12 header above that window that didn't quite fill the depth of the 2x6 framing. So I had to rip off a sizable chunk of sheetrock in order to place shims behind it. We'd be hanging Besta cabinets above the window and needed solid anchors on which to install the hanging brackets. This process involved several steps:

1. Ripping off the sheetrock



2. Adding drywall shims to the exact (uneven) depth of the space (I took a scrap piece of wood and slid it along vertically to determine the number of shims needed along the length of the header)

3. Securing the once-center channel speaker cable (I'm keeping it accessible in case it comes in useful later) and vapor barrier





4. Replacing the sheetrock and throwing on a quick coat of mud and tape

With the framing and furring complete, I had to tackle the electrical. I had never worked with LED strip lighting. Turns out, it's pretty cool. The limitation seems only to be that costs can add up if you need to work with a considerable length of the stuff. Otherwise, it's quite cool. For our installation, I used:

I think that about does it. Some other odds and ends. Namely, just over 25' of NME cable. I'm still pulling from a 250' spool of 12/2 I picked up I don't even remember how long ago at some garage sale. 

The work of course started with my sketching out the electrical diagram and hanging plastic sheeting. Since I had to cut more sheetrock and insulation, this was going to make a mess.



The surge-protected outlet ended up requiring different wiring connections because it's a pass-through device. Meaning, it only has one hot and one neutral screw vs. two of each like a standard outlet. It was just a difference in the connections with the pigtails. Pulling the power and installing the outlet and switches was easy.



Pulling power through the ceiling to where the new recessed gimbal lights would go was a little more involved. I started by simply cutting the hole with a circle cutter drill bit I picked up at Harbor Freight for our kitchen lighting update. Then discovered, since above this ceiling is the poured concrete floor of the balcony off our primary bedroom, the builders had used rigid insulation between the two. Well crap, I guess I'd be digging away at that stuff to make room for the cans I had bought. Also, strenuously pulling 12/2 cable between the insulation and sheetrock ceiling. Good times.





In the end, it worked out fine. It took Katie pushing the cable from one end and me pulling it, attached precariously to the fish tape, from the other end.

Next I had to install the magnetic driver and test the LED strip lights. It actually was straightforward, except for the odd color choices the driver used for the wire connects (namely, blue for the 12v negative load connection). The back of the cabinets for the section covering the driver will be a false back, so to speak, so we can access it if ever needed. I got everything spliced and tested. The dimmer worked spectacularly with absolutely zero hum and a nice range of dimming. Score one for splurging on that magnetic dimmer. They look really nice. I set both the strip lights and gimbal lights to 2700k for a warm glow.





Lastly, next to the light switches will be where all of our audio/video cables converge from around the room: HDMI, speaker wires, CAT5 and cable (which we've never used but I figure I'll keep just in case). The design has to take into account where these will come out to make sure there's space for the audio/video equipment. 


With the framing and rough-in complete, it's time to turn my attention to hacking all of the Ikea cabinets. Yay. This will be, by far, the most hacking we've had to do. Especially with my tolerance of 1/16". I feel like maybe I'm not setting myself up for success, but only time will tell…

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