Bookcase Makeover

I cannot believe how close the big move is!  I am excited and eager for it and at the same time I need more time to pack, arrgh!  The appraisal finally happened on Tuesday and no repairs were needed and the house appraised at more than we are paying so it went very well.  We have our final walk through a week from today and our closing is next Friday.  So exciting.  This is what the downstairs of our rental house looks like currently:

The sad thing is that I don't feel any where close to being done.

Now on to the bookcase makeover.  I have two bookcases, one from Target and one from Walmart and it has been bothering me that they are two different colors of wood.  I decided that I wanted to make them match and to fit in with the decor plans for our new living room.  I figured this was the perfect time to take on this project since all the books are currently in boxes.  So I had my husband help me move them out to the garage and got to work.

 

These are the two bookcases at the beginning with the removable shelves out.  You can see that the one on the bottom is quite a bit lighter.  

After some research using Pinterest, I found that the best and really only way to paint laminate furniture is to use Zinsser Cover Stain Primer.  This primer is oil based so it was kind of messy but I just used some cheap brushes which I threw away at the end.  I applied two coats just to be safe. 

After the primer had dried (I let it dry overnight just for good measure), I painted the cases with Valspar Ultra White.  This is the same color that I will be using on the trim in my lower level.  I decided to go with a semi-gloss finish.  I used two coats of this as well and a quart of this stuff was just barely enough for two coats on both bookcases.  

 

Here is what the bookcase looked like after painting.  I didn't paint the back because I wanted to cover the back with fabric.  This was where I hit a snag in the process and it was a couple weeks later when I was finally able to complete the project.  I went to every store that sells fabric in Fargo and I couldn't find anything that matched what I was looking for.  I knew I wanted the pattern to be yellow and I wanted the pattern to be large and bold so it would really pop.  There just wasn't anything that fit so I went online and found this:

 I am kind of obsessed with damask so this was perfect.  I love how bright the yellow is and I think it will go great with the blue walls that I plan for my living room.

Here is what it turned out like.  I chose to attach the fabric to the back with Mod Podge (I used the matte finish).  Ideally, this would have worked better if I had done this when I first bought them so I could attach it to the backs before I nailed them to the bookcases.  I didn't want to remove the back because I was scared it would rip when I took the nails out, so I had to measure and cut the fabric to match up with the different sections.  It isn't perfect but I think it will look really awesome once the books and decor are on the shelves.  I will write an update post once that happens.