Green Panelled Wall with Hidden Storage

Look at the finished wall and you see panelling running either side of the chimney breast. The left-hand half isn't panelling at all. It's a full-height cupboard with push-to-open doors and no handles, holding a bookcase the size of a wall, and unless you know it's there, you won't find it.

That was the whole point. The client wanted serious storage in the living room without the room reading as a room full of storage, so the doors were made from the same boards, with the joints falling where the board lines fall. The panelling to the right of the fireplace, around the television, is there to match it.

The boards were machined from scratch in the workshop rather than bought in. That meant I could set their width and spacing to suit the wall and run them floor to ceiling with no awkward cut at the top, and, more importantly, work out where the door edges needed to land so they'd disappear.

Once machined, everything was primed and sprayed in olive green, laid out flat on the drying racks so the finish stayed even across every length.