Preparing The Room

Okay, I know what you're supposed to do when you prep a wall for built-in shelves. If the shelf will not cover the entire wall, you still have to remove all the trim from that wall. Then you just put it back, right? The problem with old houses is Home Depot and Lowes don't carry the old style of trim. You end up either replacing the trim in the entire room or having two different styles of trim that don't match.

I decided to only remove the trim for the sections of the wall where the shelves would fit. I used a lot of patience and a flush cut saw with teeth all the way to the end of the blade. Here is the picture molding cut...

...and the base molding after the cut.