Happy Monday friends!  I hope everyone had a fabulous kick off Thanksgiving day to  the holiday season.  We were nice and mellow around here.  It was good for all of us, Mark and I were thinking that 2012 will go down in history as hands down, the craziest, busiest year and schedule we have ever had, and we are tired!  New Years resolution for 2013.  Start finding things to “shave off” our calendar!  Having a new driver in the house might help alleviate that, coming in March!

I spent the last few days working on a project that had been neglected and stalled for months now.  I am so bad about taking time to tackle DIY projects around my home.  See the house doesn’t pay me “monetarily”, but it certainly pays me emotionally when I take the time to finish a project, paint a room, or take some time to change things up a bit.

My front room has been a revolving door of projects and thrift store finds since we first moved in, 9 years ago! It was a sad tale to tale.   It was a long story of mystery and suspense.  Sprinkled with some comedy and drama!  This year, I finally hit on the right combination, and I know for a certainty how I want it to look and I think a happy ending may be in the works.

(This is not the actual bookshelf, I can’t find the before!  This is a similar style, found on google images)

The bookshelf had good “bones”, but since I got it so cheap, it had problems too.  A hole in the back of one of the shelves, big scratches and dings, and just really blah.  I started by adding something special to the top to give it the illusion it was taller.  I had this footboard that was a “Free to Me” and cut it down with my circular saw.  These footboards are really versatile (this one is upside down).  They have great lines to be used as a sign, decorative trim, and save those legs if you can!

I am going back and forth here on the process, but all of my pictures are afters.  I used CeCe Caldwell’s Vermont Slate and a Dark Wax on the entire piece.  The bookshelf was quite dark to begin with, so the Vermont Slate came up very dark.  If you want a similar look, but your furniture is light, I recommend starting with a very watered down layer of CeCe Caldwell’s Virginia Chestnut.  Not only does this create a nice block and binder for any color that may go on top of it, it gives the illusion that your furniture was a darker stain.  This is a great trick for white furniture especially.

Here is the footboard cut and secured to the top

Now the story becomes elevating.  I didn’t want the bookshelf to just be plopped on the floor, furniture often looks so much better when you get some air under it.  I added these bun feet I had on hand:

We are getting to the end of the story, so I started to wrap things ups.  For the back of the shelves, I added foam core board that was cut to fit.  Wrapped the foam core with black ticking fabric using a good upholstery adhesive spray, added a little Gorilla Wood Glue (I love this stuff) , then just “pushed” it into place

The bottom of the shelf had two doors, they were nice, but it just made the whole piece look odd because they were so far down, especially now that I had lengthened the visual front of it.  I removed them and added the same black ticking as curtains. I did the “B’s” for our last name.   I used Lesley Rileys TAP for the transfers.  This is not the cheapest way to go, so I use it really sparingly, only when I want a really clear, crisp transfer, works perfectly every time.

In conclusion, the bookshelf gives a much more “grounded” feel to my front room.  I have a place to store books where they are easily accessible and not just in my office.  My kids have easy access to all the photo albums.  Now it is on to finish the sequels, the rest of the living room, the stair case, and actually a prequel to all of this, my unfinished master bedroom.

I love happy endings, don’t you!

Sharing this happy tale with these lovely parties: