Laminate Bookcase Makeover-Part 2

So, way back when, I posted the first laminate bookcase that I gave a makeover to. Then it took me several months to get around to doing a post about the second bookcase's new look. I think it's because I like how the taller bookcase is decorated and accessorized better. This one is a bit too cluttered compared to the first one, but it is useful for storage purposes. Here she is hanging out in a corner of our master bedroom.

This bookcase had the same paint treatment as the first one. Some primer followed by a coat of Behr's Pot of Cream paint in semi-gloss. I had to whack the shelves in place with a hammer because they were so tight fitting back into the bookcase after the layers of paint were added.

I also added the same moulding around the top using my nail gun friend.

I found some pretty damask wrapping paper at Hallmark to add to the back of the inside. I love the blue and brown colors together.

I decided to use the bottom shelf to hold my scrapbook albums. I wished that they matched a little better because all the colors look a bit chaotic together. I thought about doing a little curtain in front like I did for the taller bookcase, but the scrapbooks stick out too far outside the shelves for that to work. I also added a couple picture frames and some candles to fill in the shelves.

Over the bookcase, I decided to hang this shadowbox I bought at Marshall's for $12.99. The front of it has a handly little door that you can pull open to easily get to the inside. I figured it would make a nice place to hang and display some of my jewelry using the pearl pins that were included with the box to hang the necklaces and earrings on.

The door keeps my necklaces  safe away from Emma's little paws. She looooves to chase after my necklaces. In face, she even comes running as soon as she hears my jewelry box or the shadowbox door open and tries to grab the necklaces out of my hand.

I added a scrap of beadboard to cover the top of the bookcase. This also helped hide the gap between the edge of the top of the bookcase and the inside edge of the trim around the top.

A reminder of how the bookcase looked before in all her light oak glory holding books in my craftroom/workout room/storage area/room in progress:

And now:

Mirror Makeover

Ok, first off I'm sorry that I disappeared for a gazillion years in blogging time. If you are reading this, thanks for not totally forgetting about me! I have so many projects to share and some major changes planned for the upcoming months.

Let's start out with a super easy makeover. I found this gold mirror at a thrift store. I love the scrollwork of the frame, but wasn't so thrilled with the gold color.

Enter spraypaint of course. I used a black metallic Rustoleum paint. I sprayed on a light coat so some of the gold pops through. The scrolled edges of the frame made it a pain to tape paper over the mirror. I managed to only get a bit of paint to seep through which I was able to scrape off using a fingernail. Here is how she looks with her new paint job.

I decided the perfect place for the mirror was by our front door. I'm keeping an eye out for a small console type table to put under the mirror. Or I could add a shelf instead. I have a big project planned for this wall though that will have to come first before I make a final decision. (Hint, think board-and-batten.)

A Custom Plant Bench

I posted a few weeks ago about this custom shoe bench we built using Ana's plans from Knock Off Wood. Since it hasn't fallen apart yet, we trusted our carpentry skills enough to construct another bench.

So it was time for some more compressor power with my newest BFF, the wonderfuly delightful nail gun.

Within 20 minutes we were the proud new owners of this bench. You can see the plans for this bench on Knock Off Wood here. We did modify the plans slightly by not notching out the legs on the sides. We were feeling a bit lazy even though we have a jigsaw.

I gave it a couple coats of paint and primer (Behr Touch of Cream) and brought my new bench inside. It was just the right size to fit in our kitchen bay window. I needed something to put my ever growing plant collection on and this bench was the perfect construction project for the job.

Of course like any project, it's not perfect. It's so hard to find lumber at the big box store that is not warped or has tons of knots. We didn't nail one of the legs on very straight. The bench even wobbles back and forth if you try to sit on it. However, I still love that we built it ourselves and it works perfect as a place for my mini indoor garden.

Now if only this photo didn't remind me that I need to replace or repaint that vent cover. It really sticks out against the white!

Laminate Bookcase Makeover-Part 1

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in almost two weeks. I was fighting a terrible cold so blogging and home projects were just not happening for awhile. I am finally back in action with several finished projects to share.

The main project I have been working on is to update my craft room. I posted the crazy "before" photos showing the cluttered mess the room had become. After giving the room a coat of the same paint color as our hall bath (Behr Rain Washed), I turned my attention to conquering the clutter problem. One major problem I wanted to tackle was to create a prettier storage area using one of the existing laminate bookcases I had. The bookcase needed to hold a hodge podge of mismatched photo albums, magazines, and books. Somehow I needed to figure out a way to make everything look more coordinated. I saw this photo on the BHG site and knew right away it would serve as my inspiration.

Here's how my version turned out.

And a reminder on how the bookcase started out. You can see it on the very left of the photo below. It was a super cheap laminate bookcase in a pale oak color that we purchased five years ago. We also had a shorter version of the same bookcase shown in the right of the photo. Both of these bookcases have been completely transformed. I will show the breakdown on how I gave the tall bookcase a makeover in this post. I will have another post later to reveal what the smaller bookcase looks like.

When I did some research online to find out if paint would even stick to laminate, I came across a very helpful post on the subject on the blog Living with Lindsay. I mostly followed her instructions which really ended up being the same steps I used when I painted the bathroom vanity cabinets in both our hall bath and master bathroom. Sand, prime, paint, and be very careful not to scratch anything!

1. First step, sanding. I used our power sander to sand every surface except the inside backing which I planned on covering up. I used a fairly high grit sandpaper. You just want to lightly scratch the surface without going all the way through. You should see little white flecks of laminate coming off.

2. Trim it out. This step is optional, but gives the piece a more finished look. If you have a bookcase that is totally plain on the top like mine were, you can add some moulding to give it more substance. We used a miter saw and a strip of moulding to quickly add some trim pieces around the top edge. Of course I used my wonderful nail gun to secure the trim. Here's the bookcase all trimmed out and sanded down.

3. Prime time. I used Kilz water-based primer for the large bookcase and oil-based for the small bookcase. I prefer oil based because of the extra durability and stickiness, but I went ahead and used up the last of the water based primer that I already had left before purchasing another quart of oil based primer. I let the primer dry overnight before moving on to the painting step.

4. Time for paint. I used cream Behr laytex semi-gloss paint that I have used on several different projects. Both bookcases were given the same paint color.  I let both bookcases dry for five days before putting anything on top of them. This is very important. If  you don't let the paint totally dry and cure for several days, you could end up with things sticking to the paint or the paint chipping more easily.

5. Prettify the inside. Just like in my inspiration BHG photo, I wanted to add something to the inside back of each bookcase. I found a roll of wrapping paper on clearance at Target for $1.74. The colors just happened to be perfect for the room. You could also use wallpaper or even fabric.

I used the shelves from the bookcase as my guide for how wide to cut the paper. Both bookcases had adjustable height shelves.

Then I just used double stick tape to adhere the paper to the back of the bookcase. A craft knife came in handy to trim the paper tight to the edges of the sides, top, and bottom.

6. Use a curtain to hide clutter. I picked up a simple tension rod at Old Time Pottery for $1.99 to hold the curtain and fit between the bookcase sides. The blue and white fabric was a $4 purchase at Joanns Fabrics. Since I don't sew, I used some iron on tape to hem each side and the bottom. Now I can hide the mismatched books and albums behind lovely and inexpensive fabric.

7. Add accessories, then step back and enjoy your bookcase's new look! I shopped the house for decorative touches to fill the top two shelves and also picked up a few more items while out shopping. The mason jars I found at a thrift store for $1. The silver globe on top if from Home Goods. The white bird and topiary are from Michael's. (Free for me with a giftcard!)  The sleeping white ceramic cat was a Dollar Tree find. Inexpensive storage boxes from IKEA help corrall my endless supply of magazines and some general crafting goodies.

I am very happy with how my bookcase turned out. It makes me smile. =) I did scratch the paint in a few places while putting the shelves back in. Otherwise the paint seems to be sticking well to the laminate.

I will be back to post later on how the smaller bookcase is looking these days. It has been moved to a different room.

My Craftroom-The Scary "Before" Photos

One major project I have been working on lately is to clean up this disaster of a room. The room currently serves as my scrapbook/craft/Bowflex/storage/catch all room. It's become such a catch all space that I can hardly walk in there and I certainly don't feel very inspired to do much crafting.

The two bookshelves and the closet are stuffed to the brim with games, scrapbooking supplies, knick knacks, memorabilia, and more.

About the only thing that is going to remain the same is the desk. I do love my desk. It was a $99 online find from Target several years ago. It even had free shipping. Pretty much everything else in this room will be moved around, painted over, and organized.

The room is currently halfway through its makeover. Stay tuned for a new paint color on the walls, a different furniture arrangement, and even a tutorial on making over those cheap, laminate bookcases. (Yes, they are paintable!)

Building a Shoe Storage Bench

Thanks to the amazing plans and tips from Ana on Knock-Off Wood, Mr. Delightful and I were able to complete our very first wood working project. We made good use of my new air powered nailer and a borrowed miter saw to quickly put this happy little bench together.

We used the Brady Entryway Open Bench Plans, although we modified them slightly. Instead of using MDF and making the bench 23-3/4" deep, we used 1x12s to create a narrower bench to fit in the tight space near the door between our garage and our house. The width and trim dimensions were the same as the original plans. It just happened to work out that the width of 30-1/2" was exactly the distance between the front edge of our cabinets and the edge of the trim around the pantry door. It was just meant to be. We did also slightly change the plans by adding the bottom piece of trim to the outside face instead of adding it underneath the bottom shelf.

Here's Mr. Delighful Dwelling helping to assemble the bench. With the nailer, miter saw, and Ana's super simple to follow plans, we were able to build this bench in no time.

I decided to use beadboard as the backing. However, since the bench is so deep and will have shoes stored in it, you can't reallly see the pattern of the beadboard.

After filling all the nail holes and sanding with my power sander, I added a coat of primer. I followed this up with a coat of Valspar semi-gloss paint in a cheerful sage green. I have no idea what the technical name of the color is, it was a custom mistint that I picked up at Lowe's for $2.50.  Overall, I think the project cost us somewhere in the $25 range. It's not perfect. The lumber is full of knots and not completely straight, but it fits perfectly in our little "mudroom nook." The shelves are just the right size for shoe storage.

Of course, no project is ever fully complete until it gets the official kitty seal of approval.

I had so much fun with this project that I had Mr.Delightful help me crank out another bench following a different set of Ana's wonderful plans. Stay tuned for the finished product.

Creating Metal Monogram Art

I wasn't sure what to title this project. It all started out with the metal wall art thing over the bed shown here. I purchased it several years, but it just didn't seem to stand out against the wall. I was also tired of the flower design that was in the middle. I mean my bedroom is already a bit too much on the feminine side for Mr. Delightful without having another flower in the room. One day, while drying my hair in the bathroom adjoining the bedroom and staring at the metal thing on the wall, I had an idea on just how to give it a makeover.

First I took it off the wall and had Mr. Delightful cut out the metal flower design from the middle. It took him all of 20 seconds to cut it out with a grinder (I think that's what the tool with the spinning thing that shoots out sparks when it cuts metal is called.). Than I used spray paint to give it a nice coat of glossy white paint. It was looking better already. Next it was time to raid my fabric stash. I decided to use this neutral fabric that had a pretty texture to it. I picked up this clearance fabric awhile back for $1.50 for 3/4 of a yard.

I traced around the middle oval and cut out the fabric to slightly smaller as the outside of the oval opening. Then it was time to break out the glue gun for some hot glue action to secure the fabric to the metal. I worked around the opening slowly to make sure the glue didn't dry on the metal before I attached the fabric.

When I had hairdrying breakthrough moment, I decided that a monogram in the middle would look perfect. I located this perfect little letter at Hobby Lobby. They have quite an extensive selection of unfinished wood letters. I thought the curly letter style gave it a bit of whimsy. The "L" was painted with the same paint as the metal art and then added to the fabric with hot glue. Now the metal art is ready for its close up.

And the full effect.

Yep, I'm really loving it. So much better and such an easy makeover. It's amazing how different my bedroom looked just a year ago.

And how it looks now. (Ignore the wrinkled comforter, I had just washed it!) 

Ahhhhh, so much more relaxing. I'm ready for a nap now.

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