Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Bookcase Makeover

Recently, my very patient husband politely commented that he did not clean out his garage so that I could fill it with all my found treasures (ie: coffee table to makeover, dresser to makeover, bookcase to makeover, chandelier to paint, etc, etc...). He has projects of his own that he had to put on hold so that I could store MY projects in HIS space. Oops. Guess that was his subtle way of telling me to get my little hiney in gear and start getting these things out of his garage.


First to go: a bookcase that I had purchased off a Craigslist-style Facebook page for $20. I wanted to make it over for my daughter's room to give her more storage and to display some of her more breakable items (which have been in boxes since we moved over a year and half ago). We are in the (very slow) process of transforming her room into a big girl's room. I am hopeful that the completion of this bookcase will help speed along that process. {Next up on our ever expanding to-do list: paint her room pink. Of course.}


Since we are going to be decorating her room with pinks and greens, I wanted to incorporate both into the bookcase. So I decided to paint the whole thing white and cover the back of the bookcase with a light green printed fabric. But my daughter's favorite part? The inside of the bookcase cabinet.


I painted the inside bright pink and my daughter LOVES it. Frankly, I do too.

I would love to show you how blah and un-amazing this bookcase was beforehand. Unfortunately, my camera has an evil vendetta against me and I lost all the "before" pictures of the bookcase. Wah! I get so disgruntled when technology turns against me. However, I found a very similar one online so you can see what the bookcase looked like before I started.



Source
Nothing special, right? Very office-y. It is made of MDF but since I wanted to paint it, this actually worked in my favor. My husband views painting real wood as some sort of criminal activity. It is something I am helping him work through.

After removing all the shelves, I painted the whole thing white. I left the cabinet doors on but kept them shut. I used 5 cans of Rust-Oleum Heirloom White to cover the entire bookcase. After the bookcase was good and coated, I removed the doors and touched up the edges.


Then I taped off the inside of the cabinet using Frog Tape {love it!} and newspaper to prevent any spray over.

 I used Rust-Oleum in Berry Pink and it was the perfect shade of bright pink: not too eye-scorching but not too baby-ish.  It took two cans to cover the inside of the cabinet, the shelf and the doors.
 

 It took about 3 coats to cover the inside and the shelf.
  

Using the Frog Tape and more newspaper, I taped off the front of the doors and painted the inside of the doors.
 
I think my hubby has a future career as a hand model.
 Once the paint was dried, I removed the back of the bookcase in order to glue the fabric on. I enlisted my husband's help to adhere the fabric to the top section. We used Loctite spray adhesive and this stuff works really well!
 

We started at one end (the right side) and worked our way slowly across the board, spraying little sections and taking care to smooth out all the bubbles and press it down firmly. After that, we just trimmed the excessive fabric and nailed the backing back in place. 
 

Before I put the doors back on, I replaced the original brass knobs with these adorable glass owl knobs from Hobby Lobby. Sweet and such a personal little touch (my daughter loves owls). 
 

 All finished with some of her decor on the shelves.


 


My daughter is so thrilled with her new bookcase and kept thanking me for making it for her. Especially for painting the inside pink. She wanted a picture taken with her new room addition.


And of course, if sissy gets to have a picture taken with the bookcase, little man wants in on that action.



I am so excited with how this project turned out and can't wait to tackle the other pieces that I have stashed out in the garage. So now my husband can breathe a little sigh of relief...one down, four (or five) more to go!


Linking up to these terrific parties:

7 comments:

  1. Wow! amazing! you have transformed the boring book shelf into the most colorful book shelf :) love it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That bookcase is so cool!!! I love the green and pink combo, too! You did an amazing job!
    Selene @ Restoration Beauty

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Selene! I love the color combo too! I can't wait to decorate the rest of her room with them.

      Delete
  3. This is soo stinking adorable.. what a great transformation!
    xoxo
    Amie @ Pinkapotamus

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful, just beautiful! You did an amazing job! Also, your children are adorable.

    ReplyDelete