Garage Sale Shelf Transformed

I actually completed this project back in 2009, but I just never blogged about it here. SO. I want to show it to you because it's one of my favorite furniture pieces that I've done. :)

At a yard sale, I picked up this dusty, old-lady-smellin' case for $10:

I knew I didn't want to just paint it one solid color, inside and out, so I decided to try something new: paper the back.

I started at Hobby Lobby without a CLUE as to what color I'd be painting the unit, and therefore no clue what paper I'd be using as the backdrop. I first headed to the scrapbook paper and chose a few patterns (although most of them aren't ideal for this kind of project), then brought them to the spray paint section and immediately honed in on the color "Oregano." Easy decision, surprisingly enough. I went back to the paper aisle and narrowed down my choices with Oregano in mind, and came out with a polka dot winner in about 5 minutes (which is record-breaking, as it normally takes me 20 minutes, no joke, to feel confident in a design-related decision).

Once my supplies were all purchased, I immediately got to work.
First came the all-important sanding. I used wood filler and plugged up some scratches in the wood then sanded those down, and this worked great. I then busted out my M.A.B. primer (it's lasting me forever!):

Next, I sprayed several, several thin coats of the Oregano green.

Once the paint was dry, it was paper time. I was actually dreading this step because I am not a "measure it 5 times do it once" kinda person. Unfortunately, I'm lazy, and my motto is more "measure it once and do it 5 times, cussing and cursing yourself for being a jackass the whole time."

This stage of my project was no exception. Fitting paper to the back meant measuring, cutting, fitting, and it had to be fairly exact, otherwise it would look dumb. Lucky for me, I already own quilting/cutting fabric supplies that made it a LOT easier to make very straight, precise cuts.


I will be honest. Most scrapbook paper is not meant to be laid in a repeating pattern. I had a hard time matching up some of the seams, so it's not perfect. Actually, the top shelf is pretty darn good. But the bottom two are off and I didn't really try very hard to line them up.
However, I figure once I get a bunch of stuff on the shelves, the seams won't be an issue; hopefully they'll be covered for the most part.

I used spray adhesive to get the paper up (that was slightly nightmarish), but now it's all over. TA DA!


It's currently in my upstairs loft-like area, the perfect place for it.
Gotta say though - after almost a year, the paper is starting to come off from the back in some spots, the spray adhesive is not so effective for long-term sticking, it would seem. :/


Might as well link up, too!


Happy weekend and fruitful thrifting to you all!