IKEA Bookcase Makeover: painted, distressed, and glazed into submission

 PSSSST...I'm no longer blogging here!

You can now find me at

www.acottagegirl.com

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I've been drooling over the bookcases in this post for days now (4th pic down). So I decided I needed to stalk my rooms for volunteers. Didn't take long. Meet the victims...2 pine bookcases purchased 4 years ago at IKEA. They look a little nervous, no?
The weapons: One gallon mistinted blue/gray/greenish paint, 1 quart mistinted brown paint, clearanced taupe glaze, clearanced 220 grit sand block, and the usual paraphenalia. BTW, I NEVER paint without that bright yellow lid. I'm the messiest painter ever, and it brings me immeasurable pleasure to at least have a pristine paint can when I'm done. Ya know, it's the little things....I also probably coulda used a foam roller as the shelves were very smooth...but I like them a bit 'furry'. I don't know why, but I feel like I get a better surface contact, more control with a bit of fur on my roller. *shrug* But to each his own. So they say.
Can I just say I did a spaz dance in the middle of lowes when I found the blue paint? Yes, I did. You should've been there. Again, it's the little things. Raising 6 kids, it doesn't take much, ya know?
I used the elcheapo brush to cut in the corners, then rolled the rest. I'm still over myself about finding the perfect paint for $5.
Ok. I did one coat one night, then a second coat the next night. My paint was a 'matte', so it was kinda rough feeling. I used my handy-dandy clearanced 220 grit sand block to smooth it out. Took all of 3 minutes to just quickly go over each surface. I also tried to distress it, but I ended up switching to some big guns for that.
(less work.....uh, no. But you can believe that if it brings you comfort. Maybe they meant less time? It did go quicker because of the shape I suppose.)
See? Horrid picture I know, but the 220 just wasn't distressing fast enough, so.....
....enter the aforementioned big guns. As you can see, it worked FAST! Afterwards, I went back over the distressed parts with the 220 again, so everything was all nice and smoooooth.
At this point, I considered using some stain on the exposed wood, but I'd already planned to go over the shelves with brown glaze, so I skipped it. If you didn't want to glaze, now's the time to do a couple coats of poly in a satin finish, letting each coat dry at least 24 hours before adding another. Or don't seal it at all....if you don't mind the 'shabby' look anyway, and touching up paint here and there doesn't give you nightmares. Sometimes I seal, sometimes I don't. Lots of help I am, eh?

So here's my hi-tech mixing cup. I used 1/2 taupe glaze, 1/2 brown paint. Looks like Ovaltine....raise your hand if you remember Ovaltine?
I really must apologize for my photography skills. They suck, plain and simple. I promise to work on it as I build my blog. No, seriously. I mean it. Kinda. Anyway, here's a closeup that I had to tweak in picasa to even see....and I'm not sure what I'm wanting to show is even see-able. (ok, now I'm making up words) I put the glaze on with a brush and kept spreading it around until the brush was pretty dry. Then I took a microfiber cloth...the really smooth kind....and wiped off any excess that would come off. Just kept wiping and wiping....uh, that sounds gross, but you get the idea. The above shot shows the streaking effect better. I didn't get all anal about putting the glaze on or taking it off...I was purposely going for an antiquey, not perfect effect. That's my way of easing my perfectionist personality.
This picture was supposed to show how thick I put the glaze on with the brush. Can't see the blue thru it at first, then as you keep spreading the glaze with the brush over a larger and larger area, the blue begins to peek thru. That's when you take your rag and start wiping that puppy down til it's almost dry to the touch.
First swipe with the rag. See the difference? And if you take too much off, slap a bit more glaze on there again and repeat. Slap it on with brush, push it around with brush, wipe it down with rag. Repeat.
This pic shows how bright the blue is compared to the glazed areas. I almost forgot to take a pic of this because I was bookin' girls. I was in conquering mode and wanted it DONE.

So now I'm letting them dry and cure for several days before putting a couple coats of satin poly over it all. I'm pretty happy with the result. And the biggest reason I painted these babies is 'cause I'm procrastinating the organization of those shelves. I am SOOOO bad at shelf decor. I'll need some hand-holding, k? I promise to post a picture once they're full of crap, er well beautiful decor. Hope this was helpful, even if the photography was um, totally ridiculous. Thanks for hanging in there with me anyway. :o)

There are others who undertake such things. Lots of 'em. With much better photography skills, I promise. See them at Kimba's A Soft Place to Land, Gina's Shabby Chic Cottage, and Kendra's Me and My Insanity. Go get your drool on, k?