Down & Dirty Nitty Gritty

Jazz up boring bookshelves! 

When we purchased the supplies at Ikea for the craft table, Brian & I also purchased 2 bookscases, something we've been meaning to do since we moved into our house last year. We went for the white Hemnes bookcases to complement the new table. My only issue with them is that they are really, really boring. The solution? Stencil the back! I had seen photos on Pinterest of painted & wallpaper bookcases before, so why not give it a go! I used the leftover paint from the tabletop, and purchased a stencil from the craft store for about $15. Using a foam roller, tape and patience, I managed to stencil the fun pattern onto the back of the cases before Brian finished assembling. I didn't remember to take a bunch of photos during the process, but here are the after shots!

It took 3 painting sessions to complete 2 bookcases. The stencil was about 18 inches square, so I had to work in a random pattern while sections dried.

Here is one case all full of books!

 

You can't see a lot of the pattern with the books on it, but I like the little bit of pop that shows up.  The project overall was pretty easy, just took 3 sessions of painting, about 45 minutes each time.  
 
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Kate's Crafty Table Project

Oh Virginia weather, you drive me crazy!  Due to the wintery weather that was in our area Friday, my mom and her friends had to postpone a visit from North Carolina this weekend. I'm bummed they had to cancel, but it gave my husband and I a little gift- the gift of time! We could easily spent the weekend being lazy and catching up on the DVR, but we decided to get off our butts and work on a project! I've been wanting to make a craft table for the new sewing machine to reside. My craft stuff is all over the place so a table with lots of storage would really be helpful. After looking online for some ideas, we decided an Ikea hack was just the thing for our budget and time frame.

Saturday we hit hardware for the table top. We got a large piece of MDF since we planned on painting it. My favorite part about that visit was having the board cut to the exact dimensions we wanted. Have you seen that machine? It is awesome! And the first few cuts are free! No measuring and cutting at home for us!  Bonus- we have extra pieces of MDF for future projects.  I also selected the paint color- high gloss Behr paint in "Surfer"- something bright and fun! Wheels and screws were also purchased. Once we were home, we got to sanding, priming and painting. Well, Brian did. I worked on cleaning out my old sewing box to get it ready for its new home and making a pin cushion. 

Step One- sanding and painting the cut MDF

On Sunday we got up bright and early, sort of, and headed to Ikea. Our list had grown a bit since our decision to go there, as it always does. We've been wanting to replace some bookshelves with something larger and nicer, so those made the cart too.  A few fun accessories for the craft area completed our list: Lamp, magazine organizer thingies, and a rug.  Oh, and meatballs. Can't leave Ikea without a bag of frozen meatballs. 

Downside of having a Prius as our 'big car". I got to be Miss Daisy for the 90 minute trip back. I was nice though, I let my Hoke stop and make water anytime he wanted.

We made it back home mid-afternoon, so we got right to work on assembling right away. Fortunately, we have much experience assembling Swedish furniture, so had no problems here! After both bookcases were assembled, the 2 drawer inserts were also assembled and installed. At this point I got a hand cramp from using the S shaped screwdriver thingie. Brian used one of the existing screws on the bottom of the shelf to secure the wheels. This saved us loads of time as we didn't have to measure where to put them, only had to make sure they were square.

One of 2 identical bookshelves purchased and built. The drawer inserts were extra- I only got these two for this side.

Close up on the wheels. They had some from Ikea for this bookshelf, but we wanted more of an industrial look.

We attached the two bookshelves with some 2x4s for extra support, drilling them in at an angle. This was a bit tricky making sure we had the boards in the correct space. We thought we might be a bit off, but it turns out we were okay. The table top was purposely made to over hang a tad in case it didn't work out!

Brian's in motion!

Close up of screws

Finally, we attached the top! A 2x4 was also added to the back of the desk for extra support (not shown).  I think it turned out looking pretty good! All I have left to do is decide on what bins to purchase for the remaining cubbies!

Final product!  The rug & the lamp were also Ikea finds from today ($30 each). If you look close you can see the purple pincushion made from scrap felt!

Before deciding to make a table, we looked online for something comparable. All we could find was low quality tables with half the crafty real estate for around $140. Even nicer work desks for $400+ didn't have the storage or mobility I wanted. I'm really happy with what we made with the money we spent. Let me know if you agree!

Total Cost for the project:

1/3 piece of the 4'x8' MDF:$12 
Quart of Paint: $14 (whole qt not used)
Hardware & Wheels: $40
Expedit Bookshelves x 2: $80 
Drawer Inserts x 2: $50

Total Cost: $196