how to paint a bookshelf

Have you ever made your way over to Young House Love?

You may have noticed them on my sidebar...

If you're into home improvement and decorating on a budget, 

you should definitely take a look.

Marty groans inwardly whenever he sees me perusing their lovely blog,

because he knows full well that I'll have an itch to 

PAINT SOMETHING

or

REARRANGE SOMETHING

or

BUILD SOMETHING!!

as soon as I walk away from the computer.

I ambled my way over to their blog a few weeks ago

{if "ambling" is possible on the internet},

and re-read this great tutorial on how to paint pretty much any piece of furniture.

{This is where Marty closed his eyes and did that inward groan thing again.}

And then, my eyes spotted two bookshelves that have been in our house since the beginning.

Marty rescued them out of a dumpster {truly},

and they've been sitting in our living room and kitchen, useful and happy...

Except now, I'd decided that they were going to be pretty, too :)

I didn't take "before" pictures.

But trust me. They were ugly-ish.

You see, I'm not a fan of orange-y colored wood,

and that's exactly what these babies were made of:

So, I dragged them down to the basement

 and gave them each two coats of primer...

{which was agonizing. I'm a very impatient painter.}

Then, I painted them a soft beige,

the same color as our living room walls.

{which means the paint was free = bonus}

Here's one bookshelf in our kitchen.

Note: the second shelf is empty, because it's at Charlie's eye level.

I had these really cute storage jars there before,

but you can imagine what curious little fingers did to my really cute storage jars.

Now, it's a shelf for his snack bowls :)

And here's the other shelf in our living room.

Voila!

Instant {er, sort of} transformation,

that should have cost me nothing...

except I bought these silly sponge rollers, thinking that they would make everything go faster,

and they didn't.

Still... $3.95 for non-orange bookshelves is a superb deal :)

Now, did you check out Young House Love yet?

You probably should.

Just ask your non-decorating-inclined significant other to close their eyes...