In the old room I had four compressed wood bookcases – two tall in light brown, one short in light brown and one short in a darker brown. The light brown somewhat matched my L desk but the desk was not moving to the new house. I am using hubs’ old desk which doesn’t match any of the other furniture.
Noticing how great the white trim and doors pop against the green walls I decided to paint the bookcases white, add trim to the tops and bottoms to make them look upgraded and paint the backs with the same green as the walls and stencil designs.
Here is how the bookcases started out in the new house.
Still a little skeptical about painting I started with the lighter one. Carried it back downstairs – without any more nicks in the walls! – took the shelves out and put in the garage on the paint tarp. Marc and I had just scrubbed the floor in the garage of all the dirt and sticky who-knows-what the renters left (ICK!!) so I didn’t want to get any paint on it.
I used leftover Dunn Edwards paint from when the interior was painted, the white was named Whisper which I’m thinking was the base color used since it’s not one I remember (the interior trim, doors and "unpainted” areas like laundry room were Swiss Coffee). The backs in Dunn Edwards’ Peas in a Pod, same as the walls in the office.
The shelves in process.
And here is the bookcase and shelves after being painted white. The blue is painters tape to minimalize getting the white on the back.
The great thing about the paint and rollers when working on a project that spans multiple days is that you can put them in a plastic bag in the freezer in between painting. I hate cleaning up so not only does this save paint you haven't used yet but this way you just clean up once at the end.
Cleaning myself off is a whole different story. This was the least of the mess but the only I snagged a pic of - two shirts got spots, a pair of socks and tons of swipes on my arms and legs. But at least I got an on my body reminder to keep going back for more touchups!
After the bookcase and shelves were painted white it was time to do the back. I waited a day or day and a half for the paint (hard in of itself but still too impatient!) to try then taped the sides to make sure the green only stayed on the back.
I was sooo excited! Until I started removing the tape and realized my impatience totally bit me in the butt.. Yes.. White paint on the tape – it took off the paint from the bookcases.. :(
After cursing at myself for not waiting longer I realized it’s just how I am and moved on to my favorite part – a cutesy design! I purchased the stencil at Michael’s without any idea where to use it but loved the design.
I put the stencil in the upper left most corner and used a foam brush to first swipe over the lines the squished for a nice textured effect.
After doing a few in a row I started washing the stencil off after every other one as the paint was getting on the backside and leaving extra white marks where I didn’t want them.
While I like that it’s not perfect it was more spots than I wanted.
However I could easily enough cover the extra marks with more green paint!
Same scroll after the corrections (so happy with it!):
And Voila – the finished backing (actually, I might have done a few more corrections after this but very minimal)!
And another view where it shows that I didn’t measure and plan before stenciling (reenter my impatience).
I haven’t decided what to do on the side with all the extra space yet.. I told Marc I would personalize it with our last name and he looked at me like I was crazy (I am of course but I was just kidding). Either way I took it upstairs, got the shelves in and was giddy with how great it looks!
Now on to the second bookcase which has already given me problems but I think it’s finally giving in and I’m going to win!
-J
Project shared with link party
