Here's where we started . . . [and for some reason this is the blurriest picture in the whole world]
Our landlord [at work] owns a Christmas Shop that has gone out of business. He was selling fixtures and I got the total "brain-i-ac" idea to buy these shelves, refinish them, prime them and paint them white for our living room.
I figured . . . how hard could this be, right?
Why do I continously do this to myself???!!!! I always think a home improvement project is 500% simplier and will take about 5% of the time it ALWAYS ends up taking . . .
In future home improvements projects, I'll be better about documenting the progress. The thought of documenting my progress crossed my mind several times during this project but, honestly, I was just too pissed throughout most of this to stop and take pictures since it took 4 . . . count it . . . 4 . . . weekends to finish these bad boys. I guess I didn't want to re-live some of the memories =)
Needless to say . . . I have a new respect for anyone who refinishes furniture. I also don't see myself doing this again . . . EVER.
Why, do you ask, was it one of the most un-fun things ever??
I didn't count on 2 coats of primer being necessary . . . which, when I look back on, was pretty dumb of me . . . the back of the bookshelves was very DARK blue. . .
I also didn't get the hang of the sander right away . . . so when I was smoothing out the front bottom panel and front top panel, I actually made quite a divet on both shelves and on both panels. It was SUPER noticiable. I mean . . . we had valleys all over both shelves and both panels. At least I was consistent and jacked up both shelves. =)
Hubby suggested that we use some wood filler to even it back out. Turns out . . . we needed A LOT of wood filler . . . so after a trip to Lowe's for more and several hours for it to dry . . . sanding re-commenced. Wood filler worked like a charm. Those wood filler people are freaking geniuses!!!!!!
We FINALLY were ready to paint . . . and this step, believe it or not, took a lot less time than I thought. I thought we would be painting for a few hours and it was really only took about 45 minutes for both shelves. SCORE!!!! This usually NEVER happens in home-improvement-land so I was beyond THIRLLED!!!!!!
And the last insult to injury . . . just when we thought we were ready to put the actual shelves into the bookcases and start getting all of our crap up out of the floor before Biscuit chewed on all of it . . . we looked and realized that the small front side of the shelf [that would be visible when looking at the bookshelf] needed another coat of paint. Son of a . . . .
So we painted, waited about an hour . . . and then were able to put up the shelves. I guess looking at the bright side, at least we still had paint!! =) That would have been terrible to run out . . .
So here are those bad boys . . . in all their semi-gloss glory . . . resting in their new home on either side of the fireplace . . . right side of the fireplace . . .
And left side of the fireplace . . .
Like I said, there was a lot more involved with these than I initially thought . . . but they are done!!! WAHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I can FINALLY park in the garage again. =) WAHOOO times 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All I've got left to do is to arrange everything on the shelves . . . I'm a little bit of a copy-cat . . . I like to look through the Pottery Barn magazines to see how they've got everything arranged on their bookshelves. . . then I use my non-Pottery-Barn accessories and do my best copy-catting. I'll follow-up with a post once I've got it looking "Pottery-Barn-Esque" =)
