Thursday, October 20, 2011

Painted Nursery Bookshelf

Little bookshelves like this are all over craigslist. Just look in the furniture section under your city. This little number was $20 bones and the perfect size for E.claire's space in her nursery.  Here it is all finished.


Here is the bookcase when I brought it home. The nice girl that I bought it from lived just 3 minutes away so it was perfect. She even had a guy that was working on her house help load it for me.


I gave it the good ol' scrub down with some tsp. If you haven't heard of tsp, check it out at your local hardware store. This stuff is amazing at getting filth off. But just be forewarned that it will strip wood of it's clear coat. So don't use it for every day cleaning. Just use it if you're planning on painting wood, staining wood, or other projects like cleaning your brick fireplace.  After it was cleaned up I began to sand it with some 120 grit sand paper.  I used a tack cloth to remove any dust before painting. I always use an Oil based primer first because I find that it adheres the paint much better. But do this step outside or in a well vented area. This stuff stinks.

After it was primed I used an Interior Latex paint called "Polar Star" from Valspar in a satin finish.  I used two coats of this applied with a nylon brush.  Once it was all dried, I used three coats of Minwax Polycrylic Clear Gloss finish. I sanded between each step with a 220 grit sand paper ensuring that each coat adhered properly. I really wanted this piece to be durable because it would be in a child's room getting a lot of use.



I couldn't wait to get it in her room so I could finally have a place to store all those little toys and books. It's the perfect depth for the golden books. It's too shallow for larger books, so it holds all the baby board books and later on it will be great for some soft cover novels. I'm sure my daughter will get lots of use out of it.

Here is a side view where I just had to add a little decal. These are great because you can remove them and go with something else when the mood strikes.


Hope you enjoyed this little makeover.  Now go and paint something. It's easy. You can do it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice bookshelf. I'm currently painting a similar bookshelf for my daughters room. When you used the clear gloss finish, did it turn yellow? If not what kind did you use?

Peahen Pad said...

Hi Tiffany, We used Minwax Polycrylic Clear Gloss and it did not turn yellow at all. Just make sure to put several thin coats so it doesn't drip.

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
 

©Copyright PeaHen Pad 2010-2024. All Rights Reserved.