$1 Bookcase Re-do

I found this bookcase on the side of the road last week!  I've been wanting one of these for a while now and then poof!  There it was!

I rescued it right before heavy rain started to fall.

It's made out of particle board but the back on three of the squares was really cheap cardboard.  So I ripped it off.

 

 

Which left this:

It might be less trendy than the original, but I don't really like trendy things because they go out of fashion too fast for me to keep up with.  This way it's more of a classic bookshelf that will always be in fashion.

To spruce it up I added many thin layers of $1 "oops" paint from Home Depot.  We bought it a while back for another project and had half a can left.  I really like the color and me and the hubby thought it'd look great in our bedroom. 

The first few layers were applied with a small roller brush.  Then I used a tiny craft brush to fill in along the edges.  I chose not to sand it at all before painting since it is particle board and I didn't want it to start disintegrating, but it did make it hard to get the paint to stick.  I ended up applying my final layers with a foam brush which gave me more even coverage.

 

And one more time without books...

Total cost?  Less than $1!

Bookcase Makeover

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?