Bookcase Makeover

by Liz, HomeTalker

4 Materials

$50

3 Days

Easy

I love bookcases. However, I'm not a big reader.....yet. LOL! But I love bookcases and the feel they provide in a room; intellect, imagination, and deep thoughts. It's hard finding just the right size bookcase for your needs, though. In our case, we have a smaller size home, and space has always been at a premium. But lo and behold, one day at my favorite local thrift store, I came across the perfect bookcase.....or two.

Here are the cases separated and painted their new found color, white. They would work very nicely as two separate units, but my husband is tall (6'4") and is the primary user, so two up high it is.

The bookcases were originally stained, made from pine, I believe. So the original color was the standard 1950's honey colored wood stain. I do not have a picture of their original condition. However, everything in our house at the time was that honey color wood stain, so it went well in the moment.

Here's the bookcases stacked and painted a grayish tint, a color I actually mixed myself for our accent wall in our master bedroom. The gray color was the first color I painted before I moved the bookcase(s) to our new study room.

Here they are white. I decided I didn't want to chance any paint scraping when we added our books, photo albums and what nots. I did not want to put an additional protective coating on, either. One reason was I did not have any at the time. Another reason I did not want to spend the money for it. I like to think more on terms of "how can I get my desired end result without spending any money?" Fabric is always an option for me, since I have my own little easily accessible sewing/craft room, now.

In keeping with the color scheme of the study (shown here), I opted for an orange, teal, gray and white upholstery fabric that I already had in storage.

I cut the fabric to size, ironed down the edges (simpler and less bulky than sewing) and chose to use adhesive spray to adhere the fabric to the shelves. It turned out much nicer than I imagined, and all for a minimal amount of effort, too.

Here is the final bookcase, complete with a reading chair set up in front of it, next to the newly created library table I also made.

I will add decorative trim to the edges of the bookcase, primarily on the side to hide the fact that it is actually two bookcases instead of just one, and to create more of a unified look to furniture in the room.