The tree is going up...

...and she is being so patient.

Thanksgiving montage

Continuing tale of a bookshelf

I have had this plain Jane bookshelf since sometime in high school. In fact, I think I'm being charitable by calling it "plain Jane." It's particle board covered in wood veneer with a super cheap cardboard backing. My junior year of college, I was moving into an off-campus apartment and I wanted to bring the bookshelf with me. I decided I couldn't take the veneer anymore and painted it.

The first paint job was a total disaster. I went to the store with a very vague concept of what color scheme I wanted, and ended up leaving with cans of orange, yellow, and pink paint. Just visualize the atrocity... I stopped halfway through because it looked so bad. The next colors I ended up with were inspired by my mother's bathroom rug, and this is what the bookshelf has looked like for the past 4.5 years:

With most of the shelves removed. You get the general idea.

Well, after these bold colors for so long, I decided it was time for a change. I'd been wanting to cover the back of the bookshelf with fabric for a while, and I had the perfect fabric to use thanks to my lovely former roomie Marlane.

The first step was wiping the whole thing down and then painting it white. I decided to use a small hand roller instead of a brush, which turned out to be both faster and left zero brush marks, which have plagued me in the past.

Once the bookshelf & shelves were totally covered (it took several coats...) and had dried, it was time to cover the back. I had mulled over several different ways of attaching the fabric to the back, but decided cutting foamboard to size and covering that would be the easiest route.

I bought three large pieces of foamboard (and only needed 2, but Office Depot doesn't sell them in 2-packs) and cut them to size after measuring the back of the shelf. I had to cut 2 separate pieces to cover the back because the middle shelf isn't removable, for obvious structural reasons. Once the pieces were cut and tested to make sure they fit, it was time to cover them with the fabric.

I cut the fabric to size and then hot glued the edges around the back. I know a lot of other tutorials for this type of project recommend using a staple gun to attach the fabric, but seriously, it's not going to undergo a lot of stress or movement and hot glue is so much easier.

After the boards were covered in fabric, I just pushed them into the bookshelf against the back, and voila! It was so easy and I think it looks great!