Bookshelf Facelift

One of the last projects I’m going to share with you for Far Far Away week is how to give a little facelift to an inexpensive bookshelf.  I took this….

and transformed it into this….

The bookshelf I’m starting with is a particleboard bookshelf.  Yup, really inexpensive.  It’s too dark for my daughter’s bedroom so to lighten it up, I thought I’d just paint it white and mod podge on something on the back face of the bookshelf.

I started with a simple coat of spray on krylon paint.  The next few coats of paint were simple latex wall paint I had leftover from something else.  It was amazing what a little paint did already.

For the back face of the bookshelf, I wanted to incorporate some of the fairy tale theme with some far far away fabric.  Well, not really the fabric – since I’m saving all of that for the quilt I’m working on.  So I ironed some fabric and was off to Kinkos again!

Please note: My understanding of copyright law as it applies to photocopying fabric is that it is legal if you do not resell anything made with those photocopies and the fabric you used remains in your possession (meaning you do not sell the fabric you photocopied either.)  

Once I got my beautiful copies, I trimmed the white off the edges.  Next using a foam roller, I spread mod podge onto the surface, applied the photocopy, and applied a second layer of mod podge.

I went back and smoothed it out with a bone folder.  Continue until the back is completely covered.

Let it dry and voila!  A simple facelift for an inexpensive bookshelf.

Looks a lot better don’t you think?