Thursday, September 5, 2013

Little Blue Bookcase

black and white chair with pale blue bookcase

This little furniture makeover has been a long time in the making. 

Scott and I inherited this vintage bookcase with beadboard backing from his parents when we moved into our first apartment.


It was simple, had some pretty wood details, and fit perfectly in our upstairs hallway.  It was showing some wear though - not the nice kind - and the beadboard detail on the inside got totally lost in the dark wood.

I'd known for months that I wanted to paint it a pale blue, but some projects just seem to get pushed off and pushed off and this was one of them.

I painted this bookcase before my beloved paint sprayer came into my life so I refinished it the old fashioned way - with a paintbrush and roller!

I gave it a light sanding, cleaned it off with a dry old t-shirt, and coated it with Zinsser Bulls Eye primer.  I followed with two coats of Benjamin Moore Bird Egg and then a final coat of Minwax Water-Based Polyacrylic.

Once I got it back into the upstairs hallway I totally geeked out and alphabetized all my books by author's last name.  Or organized them logically and thoughtfully...eye of the beholder...


I also added some photos and little decorative items to give it a little more personality than before - which wasn't hard to do since before it was just a straight-up dumping ground for books!


Now I feel like the bookcase is worthy of sharing space with my made-over cane chair!

black and white chair with pale blue bookcase

14 comments:

  1. What a transformation....
    I couldn't help but notice one of my favorite Authors and my favorite book of his is front and center! I am such a fan of Nelson DeMille and I loved The Gold Coast!

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  2. Love that fresh updated look, and the black and white combo with pale blue! Pinning a your chair for my client right now! :)

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  3. The color is awesome. I like it so much better painted and it looks gorgeous next to you chair and that fabulous rug!

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  4. gorgeous color! i love it! and now you really see that fabulous beadboard backing!

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  5. It's so cute! I love when you can reuse furniture that's been in the fam :) xo Kristin

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  6. It looks so good. I just love it when you can something a new life with a couple coats iof paint. I love that cane chair too!

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  7. It's adorable. It looks great with your chair too.

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  8. Really cute styling, the colors are gorgeous, and I love the dog and "gazelle" head! Gorgeous job! Staging bookcases if one of my favorite. Exposing the pages of the books is starting to grow on me too. I like that you did it with only a few. When I see whole bookcases styled like that, I wonder how practical it is. But everything is great in moderation!! Lovely balance.

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    1. Something about that dog grabbed me! Agree about the book pages in reverse - I usually do it for books that look better that way or just ones that I wouldn't really be looking to find. Since this bookcase is mostly books I've read, will read, or will read again, I kept most of the spines facing out!

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  9. The book case looks great! Such a nice color....and THAT CHAIR is gorgeous!
    What a pretty corner!

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  10. Love how this turned out, such a pretty little vignette now! Feeling like I need to tackle my dumping ground book cases :)

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    Replies
    1. It's so easy to let them get that way when they're tucked away in dark little corners of the house!

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