Archive for February, 2011

This:

WAS FEATURED ON Apartment Therapy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My life is complete now.

My parents gave me these two nice solid wood bookshelves.

They fit perfectly in this little hallway off our Family Room between the Master Bedroom and the Laundry Room.

You can get a better idea of where they are in the house from this photo I posted while painting the Family Room.

Do you see the shelves in the back corner?

Anyway, the shelves are perfect for the space, but the oak color was really dragging me down. I decided to paint them.

First thing I did was Prime them.

A little trick I used: when I painted around the bottom of each shelf I just slid a piece of wax paper under to block the paint from getting on the tile. Worked like a charm.

Once they were Primed and dry I painted the backs of the shelves with the same paint I used on the wall – Restoration Hardware “Slate” and painted the rest of the shelves white “Alabaster” by Sherwin Williams in Gloss finish.

They look splotchy because they were mid-drying at this point.

To paint each shelf I set up an assembly line on my floor and set each shelf on top of little bowls and cups – pretty much anything I could find to lift them off the ground a little. I primed each side, and then I gave each side a few coats of the Alabaster.

And finally, the shelves are done.

I’m still tweaking the accessories on the shelves. Many items are in line for a coat of spray paint.

Also, the bottom of each bookshelf is suppose to have doors, which my dad can’t find. So eventually I want to make new doors for the bottom of the shelves to hide all the books.

I’m definitely feeling more settled now that I have a place for all of these accessories.

Before:

After:

A little paint can make a huge difference.

Here’s a fun easy project I made recently with my Silhouette machine:

I showed you this new shelf the other day:

Did you notice my new candle?

Looks expensive, hua! Nope. It’s a WalMart candle that I added vinyl to cut from my Silhouette Machine!

I found this cute letter and square around the letter at the Silhouette store. I just downloaded it and cut it out. It took me about 5 seconds. And it’s darling and looks like I bought it at some overpriced upscale store.

I also found a flourish at their store and added it to these two candles on my fireplace.

To make the flourish opposite on each candle I easily just flipped the image while in the Silhouette software and then cut them both out.

Love it!