Spruce Up Your Bookcases!

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This is Part 2 of a tutorial on how to upgrade your laminate furniture. For the first part - how to paint your laminate furniture - you can visit yesterday's post.

Today, though, you're gonna learn how to bring your bookcases up a notch!

This can be used for any existing bookcases you have that need a little help, though it's much easier to give this treatment to cheap laminate shelves versus a solidly built one.

Here's where your shelves are going to end up after all this.

It's worth it, right?!

At this point in the tutorial, my bookcase has already been painted and didn't have a back nailed back on quite yet. If you're working with an existing bookcase that has a back on it, take it off first.

It'll look something like this:

That's the original color of the bookcase... and you can tell I used the backing to protect my garage floor from paint when I was painting the shelves. All that ugliness got covered up!

Then, head to a nearby fabric store and grab a yard of a coordinating fabric. I went to JoAnn's and happened to find this stuff for 60% off of it's regular price of $19.99/yard. I also picked up a spray adhesive - my favorite is made by Elmer's.

I took my fabric and backing board outside and cut the fabric so it would be able to wrap around the back of the backing board by about an inch.

Then, while kneeling on the fabric to keep it in place, I lifted small sections of the fabric {starting from the middle} and sprayed the adhesive on - following the directions with dry times. I made sure to rub the fabric firmly from the middle out so that any trapped bubbles could get out.

Eventually, the entire front was stuck down so I flipped it over and did the same to the two short ends first followed by the two long sides.

I let the fabric board dry in the sun for a couple hours. It was also good because it allowed everything to air out - boy, that adhesive is potent!

The next day, Trevor nailed the backing board right back where it was before I painted everything - and TA DA!

Let's look again at the finished project.

The fabric and adhesive set me back about $11. Not bad for a significant upcycle, right?

What do you think? Do you have any furniture you want to do this to? Have you done this already?

check this out!