Decoupage bookshelf

By jcarracher

It's been a VERY long time since I contributed something, so I thought I'd share a bookshelf refurbishing I completed over the weekend. Sometime last month, I went home to my parents' house and my mom had this bookshelf sitting in the driveway, which she had purchased at a junk shop. She wanted me to do something with it RIGHT THEN! Well, I needed time to think about it, and it sat in my car's trunk for weeks.

Finally, on Saturday afternoon I was struck with inspiration. I would paint it black and then decoupage the inside. I had done something like this before with one of my guitars and it worked very well. I sanded, painted and prime on Saturday and on Sunday, I chopped up copies of the New Yorker, New York and Wired and pasted them inside. I had a blast getting creative with the cut-outs. I even tried a "green theme" on the buttom shelf. See if you get it. On the middle shelf, I crafted a message "Show The Believers How Change Is Made." It seemed right.

The only thing I'd change if I were to do this again is how I applied the glue. I'm a crafting newbie, so it clumped up and you can see it's a bit sloppy when the sun hits it just right. I'd also use a different type of gloss because the spray I got at the craft store wasn't very good. But I'm pretty proud of this as it's my first project like this in years!