I love books - and I love books with lovely covers. But for the longest time I didn't have a lovely bookcase to put them on. Since we're both book-lovers, my husband and I have "his and hers" bookcases.
His is an old one that was his grandfather's - made of pretty dark wood that has some character to it. Mine is from Target, made of particle board, and void of character.
For a long time I'd lamented the ugliness of my bookshelf. But I couldn't justify buying a new one. We try not to spend money on furniture (almost everything we own was a given to us) and the bookcases that we did find in stores (that weren't as characterless as my current one) were way too expensive!
Thankfully I came across this post from Young House Love. I never would've thought of redoing my bookshelf myself!
The first issue that needed to be addressed was how weak the bookcase was. After being moved to 4 different locations and holding lots and lots of books, the shelves were warped and the whole thing was leaning to the side.
We went to Home Depot and bought four 2" x 4" x 6' boards. My husband nailed one board on each side of the bookcase and two boards on the back. He strategically placed the nails so that they lined up with the shelves, thus reinforcing the shelves as well. It worked wonderfully and made the bookcase very sturdy - no more swaying and bowing!
While at Home Depot we found 2 small containers of paint in the "oops paint" section. They were only 50 cents each! After lots of time spent painting and some spray-on lacquer we ended up with this:
And here's a close-up:
The whole project only cost us around $40 (much less than we would've paid for a new bookcase!). I love having a custom-made bookcase that I know will last for years. And I love how lovely my books look now!
Ready for a before and after?
No comments:
Post a Comment