5 Benefits Of Installing Built-Ins, According To An Interior Designer

Built-in shelves are a commonly admired addition to many living rooms across the South. They are they add interest to the wall and can show off favorite family photos and knick knacks. But living room shelves are hardly the end-all be-all of built-ins’ potential. 

By making furnishings a permanent part of your home, you’re adding something totally unique. From shelves to wardrobes, benches, and beds, a built-in can be made as an ideal fit to your needs and spaces, in the living room and beyond to the kitchen, bedrooms, or elsewhere. They’re a favorite home improvement trick of designer Laura Hodges, the interior designer behind the 2023 Southern Living Idea House. 

Built-ins are a benchmark of this year’s Idea House and can be found in multiple rooms. In the kitchen, built-in cabinets are just right and in the nearby breakfast room, a built-in window bench with drawers offers a cozy seat and hidden storage space. In the study, built-in shelves transform the room completely, creating a library-like countenance, offering storage, and acting as a strategically stylish background for Zoom meetings taken there. 

In the primary bathroom, built-in vanities complete the room beautifully, and in one of the bedrooms on the second floor, built-ins abound. It’s a small bedroom that needed to be set up to house two kids comfortably. To fit everything she needed, add storage, and increase floor space, Hodges turned to built-ins. 

“The room is designed to be for kids and kids always want lots of floor space. I went with built-in beds because that really saves on floor space and it provides lots of storage underneath,” says Hodges. “There's also a built-in window bench and two built-in desks, so the whole room is very custom-fit to the space.”

Built-ins are part of what make this year's idea house so special, but a lot of thought went into their conception. Hodges advises careful consideration to design a built-in that meets your home's aesthetic, functional, and spatial needs. For example, she suggests not rushing into installing a Murphy bed from the jump. Instead, consider your priorities, taking into account the potential of built-ins. Here's five ways that a built-in can add to your home like they do in the 2023 Southern Living Idea House.

They Save Space

Rather than having furniture pushed up against the wall, built-ins are attached directly to the source, eliminating extra inches, especially when there’s a baseboard, trim, or all molding. They can also open up floor space because they are secured to the walls rather than needing to stand on legs. Built-ins may also save space because they aren’t bound by standard dimensions sold by furniture stores. Shelves that are more shallow than your average or a built-in wardrobe that fits perfectly into a small corner are small-space saviors because they allow homeowners to make the most of what room they have available.

They’re Custom

For scale, function, or appearance, built-ins are completely customizable. They can be personalized to suit specific needs, unbound by what’s sold in stores and completely custom-fit to your home and lifestyle. For example, in the Idea House, Hodges uses built-ins to pave intentional pathways around furniture, carve out storage, and add aesthetic flair like custom rounded edges. 

They Add Character

Because they’re custom-made just for your house and family, built-ins are bursting with personality that infuse charm into the home. Like memorabilia and cherished decor, built-ins speak to the character of the home and those who live there.

“Built-ins make the home feel more detailed and more thoughtful,” agrees Hodges. “And, if they can be built in such a way that is functionally timeless to the home and not too specific just for one particular homeowner, then that definitely adds a lot of value.”

They’re Permanent

Unless you do construction to remove them, built-ins will always be a part of your house. This can be both a pro and a con. As a positive, they’re reliably durable and won’t need to be replaced. As a negative, built-ins’ permanent nature makes it very difficult to ever change your mind and rearrange a room.

They Add Value

As much as Hodges loves built-ins, her only hang-up is that they are expensive. Their installation can be very pricey. Rather than simply buying furniture and bringing it home, built-ins require construction to be installed. However, the investment will add value to your home, says Hodges.

“They definitely add value to the house,” Hodges tells us. “Our clients always love built-ins and people who are looking for homes find a lot of value in them because they are custom-fit to the home.”