My mother was raised by a single, working mother. My grandfather passed away when my mother was very young, and as a result my grandmother raised my mother alone during the Great Depression. My grandmother bought this set of encyclopedias and bookcase for my mother when she was just a child. It was a luxury that I'm sure my grandmother couldn't afford easily, but I love that she sacrificed her hard earned money for these beautiful books. I adore this family heirloom and am grateful the bookcase was passed down to me years ago.
Because the bookcase is 80 years old, the finish had seen better days, so I decided to repaint it to give it a new life. For all you furniture refinishing purists it will be easy for me in the future to strip the paint and go back to a stain if I should choose, but I wanted to give it some color. As you can see in the picture it's going to reside under the "Deer Silhouette Wall Art" that I showed you last week.
I started by exfoliating it a bit with my orbital sander. Just a light roughing up to take off the finish and get down to the wood...
I chose a dark turquoise color for the bookcase to compliment the the damask pattern in the wall art...
Here's what I came up with...
I used Behr paint in "Grand Rapids"...
After applying the paint, I glazed it to call attention to the details and "age" it a bit. Glazing is such an imperfect science, but I do love the end result.
Here is it with the books restored to it and perched underneath the wall art...
I love how these bright pieces play off the stripe on the wall.
Furniture Feature Friday @ Miss Mustard Seed
Friday Favs @ Naptime Crafters
The Inspiration Board @ Homework
Knock Your Socks Off Party @ JoJo & Eloise
Made by you Monday @ Skip to my Lou
