Chelsey’s Bookcases

My friend Chelsey has had these Grandma-bookcases (literally) for quite some time now.  Probably two years ago we talked about the “how-to’s” of painting them—but this year, she finally decided to just have me do the work!

The bookcases have some really pretty details on the doors and on the crown molding.  The right one is actually more of a “secretary” with a pull-down work surface.

Chelsey thought all the brown was bringing her living room down, so we went white!

She may not know it, but the white I used is the same color that is on the trim in my house!  When you find one that works, I say, stick with it!

I will admit that this was NOT my favorite project.  Unfortunately, the main construction of these pieces is laminated particle board, and it did NOT want to be painted!  It took one coat of primer (which obviously wasn’t sufficient) and FOUR coats of paint to cover!

I used a dark-brown glaze (antique walnut stain mixed with Martha Stewart glazing medium) to bring out the pretty details.  Plus, there was lots of “natural distressing” on these pieces already—the glaze makes it look like it’s on purpose!

…and I played with PicMonkey’s “Urban” effect for the following pictures!

I miss Picnik—I felt like I was just starting to get the hang of it!  But PicMonkey is very similar, so that’s good—for me!

Anyway, I think we brought Grandma’s furniture into the new millenium!

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This project was featured at Decorating Insanity.

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Mod Vintage Life	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	Thrifty Décor Chick
Decorating Insanity	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Simply Klassic Sundays	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	{aka} design

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Book Birdhouses

By now everyone has seen a book wreath. Probably you’ve seen a book bundle (especially the ones with the covers ripped off). I personally haven’t made the former, but I have several of the latter. My husband thinks it’s a shameful way to treat perfectly good books, but I haven’t seen him actually trying to read any of the books I have brought home!

A couple of months ago I saw my first book birdhouse, and I was smitten. I couldn’t figure out how it was created by just looking at it, so I began an Internet search! Second time lucky; I found the instructions at Country Business. So I promptly dismantled a couple of my book bundles, and made some birdhouses instead! A couple of you noticed them in my pictures of my French Café Table:

…and I promised instructions were forthcoming! So here they are.

First you need an old book, minus the cover. Around 200 pages will give a very nice, fat, birdhouse. If your book is longer than that, you might end up using some of the end pages for another project.

Fold the first page in half toward the spine.

Then fold the top corner down to meet the spine, making a triangle. Flip that page over; you’re done with it now.

On the second page, fold the bottom corner in to meet the spine, making a triangle.

Then fold the top corner in to meet the spine.

Alternate pages one and two, and you’ll be making a book birdhouse like the middle-sized one in the picture above (the bottom edge of the roof is slanted, rather than horizontal).

The other two birdhouses are slightly different. The first page is the same, but on the second page, fold the top corner in to meet the spine first.

Then fold the bottom corner in to meet the spine.

Next, carefully tear the page away from the binding from the bottom half-way up. Fold it up to make a triangle.

This is what method number two looks like when you’re about half-way done.

When you’ve finished folding all of your pages, glue the first and the last pages together, and you’ve got a birdhouse!

I did have a problem with some of the pages wanting to come completely free of the binding. I generously glued them back in place.

My three birdhouses have taken up residence on my French chocolate coffee table. As you can see, I used a little brown craft paint to paint pseudo-openings on them. So those paper birds have a way in, you know!

These are probably going with me to Bella’s Vintage Market next Saturday. I’d like to try tying some twine around the spine and suspending them from my tent! Hope it works!

Confession: My husband may have a bit of a point. I had no problems turning an old math text into a book birdhouse. But for one of the other books, I kept catching glimpses of the story, and I thought to myself, “I might have liked to have read this book!”

Thanks to Craft Gossip for featuring this project here.

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Linking to these great parties, Too Much Time on My Hands, and

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