Re-styled Bookshelves

Here’s the first glimpse into my new craft room and a little decorative restyle for you.

I have two of these bookshelves that were built by an older gentleman living in a neighborhood near me who made bookshelves for fun.

One shelf is in my closet holding all my paper crafting and gift wrapping supplies and then the other shelf is on a small wall between the door to the room and the closet. It holds sewing patterns, candles and random other stuff. I’m not sure if I want to keep it this way yet but we’ll see.

I first painted them red but after three years the shelves had so many scratches and marks on them they really needed a new paint job.

You can see a picture of the old red color close up (complete with some paint scratches) here.

I sanded the shelves down slightly with an electric sander first.

I painted the original red color on the shelves with a roller which I didn’t like because when the roller slipped it left streaks in the paint in a few places so when I repainted I used white spray paint. 7 cans worth! Ugh, maybe just buying a quart and rolling would have been cheaper.

Then I decided to layer the back of the insides of the shelves with wood grain contact paper.

I had trouble getting the contact paper to stick to the back of the bookshelves without sticking to itself as well.

So to make things simple I put rolled masking tape on the bookshelves and stuck the contact paper (with it’s backing included) onto the tape and smoothed it out. Makin’ it work!