The Ugly Bookshelf Makeover

You've all seen them, whether in your own home or someone you know, drabby brown laminate bookshelves.

No offense to anyone who still uses them, but the two bad boys above that we inherited with the house needed a face lift just like everything else around our house.

My original goal was to paint them and mod podge scrapbook paper on the backing, but I changed my mind and decided to use wallpaper instead. Here's a rundown of the project.

First, we decided we should spray paint them (without priming). After wasting through 4 or so cans of spray paint though and seeing my never-ending spotty results, I realized that the spray paint method was a terrible idea.

Then I decided to prime and paint the shelves...

...but only by using the most nifty sponge rollers ever.

After making it through the prime and paint stage, I then brought the shelves inside to apply the wallpaper. The wallpaper I used was a roll of $20 Allen + Roth Spanish Tile Pattern paper from Lowes.

Step 1 was to measure the surface areas of the bookshelves’ backings in order to determine the correct amount of paper to cut. The most tedious part while cutting was aligning the pattern to ensure that it would flow seamlessly once applied.

Since I needed four pieces for each shelf, I made sure to label the corners on the backside of the paper so that I would not forget which piece went where and to which shelf.

As far as application, I just followed the directions on the wallpaper packaging. The kind I used called for submerging the wallpaper strips in water, letting them rest for 5 minutes, and then applying them to the "wall," making sure to flatten out any bubbles while doing so. Since I was applying it to a small surface, I just used a credit card to flatten it out.

Then, to clean things up, I used a razor to cut off the excess wallpaper around the edges. It was much easier to do this after the wallpaper had dried.

And after I thought that the bookshelf project was complete, assembling the shelves with the new extra layer of paint proved a bit disastrous. The extra thickness caused the shelves not to fit right, which scraped off some of the paint.

Oh well, they were cheap shelves, so I didn't have a heart attack. I touched up the paint and added the refinished pair to our office.

Not too shabby for a pair of shelves that were free! For the meantime, I think I'll enjoy them in my office, focus on the remodel and take a small break from DIY furniture :)

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Addicts (not so) Anonymous at Addicted to Decorating

Tuesday Trash to Treasure at Kammy's Korner