My clients on these two bookcases were neighbors only a couple blocks away. Like most of the houses in our neighborhood theirs was 100 years old and had a beautiful Craftsman style mantel that was original to the house and in excellent condition. There were two insets on either side that did not have any built-ins or if once there were long gone. The couple had seen some white painted cabinet/ bookcases on my site that they really liked and wondered if I could adapt that aesthetic to their space only in stained oak. There were some unique details to the design of the mantel such as the design of the top and the way it wrapped on the walls. I incorporated this detail in the design of the bookcases as well as having moldings custom milled to match those on the existing mantel and baseboards. After presenting design drawings they selected the one with the glass door configuration they liked best and I was able to move forward with the carpentry. That started with building some test cabinet and top frames to dial in on the specific fits to each of the spaces which were slightly different. The most challenging aspect of the project was matching the old stain. That ended up being layers of two different stains topped with an amber shellac. Shellac was the top coat of choice on many of these old homes a century ago and is often necessary to get a good match, that was the case here. The final installation went very smoothly with the two cases fitting beautifully, finished a week before Christmas just in time for the holiday. (Click on the right side of photos to scroll through multiple views).