Easy Bookcase Makeover with Rust-Oleum

Some of you may know that I've been working on my dining room lately; I mentioned it when I wrote about this lampshade and if you follow me on pinterest you'll be bombarded by my dream ideas!

I'll admit that in the past (and now a little bit too) my dining room has been a bit of a dumping ground for paperwork, boxes and just about everything else. One of the main areas that suffered from this was the bookcase.. I just piled stuff on there and then wondered why I could never find anything! Well enough as enough, it was time to do something about it... so today I'm going to share with you the easiest bookcase makeover you've ever seen (*obviously this is just my opinion*).

So the bookcase was black, it was from the 90s.. possibly 80s.. and I've grown up with it, but I was bored of the black. It didn't match anything, it was dark in a light room and it was retro in the worst possible way. But a picture is worth a thousand words so you can see for yourself below!

Not pretty is it? It was time to get serious and give this sad old bookcase a revamp. Now I know that chalk paint is quite popular at the minute for painting furniture, but I have quite a chalky paint on the wall so I wanted some shine for this project.. plus I didn't want to have to varnish or wax afterwards. So what were my options? Well not many it turns out.. if it's not chalky then there isn't much choice for furniture paint. Which explains why I was thrilled to find Rust-oleum's furniture paint that comes in a range of finishes; chalky, satin (which I used), gloss and metallic (see full product range here).

I think a lot of people associate Rust-oleum with metal paint and normally in a small tin or spray can.. and I certainly didn't know beforehand that they did furniture paint!

As I said I didn't want a chalky finish, but I didn't really want a full on gloss either so for me the satin finish was the perfect middle ground.. so then I just had to pick a colour. This was definitely the trickiest part because whilst I adore some of the blues I knew they wouldn't work against the pink wall in the dining room, so I had to keep that in mind. Eventually, I settled on mocha because it's a clean grey that will look good with any other colour combinations.

So tin of paint ready and brush in hand where do you start with a bookcase? Follow my step-by-step instructions below:

1. Take all the books off.. this is fairly obvious I know but it's important to put this here!
   
2. Give it a wipe down to remove and dust.
   
3. Depending on the type of surface you may need to give it a quick sand.. using Rust-Oleum's paint you won't need to with lots of surfaces but if your surface is very smooth you might want to just in case. Remember to wipe down again after sanding.
   
4. Remove the shelves, and any fixings.
   
5. Make sure your floor is protected.. we don't want any ruined carpets!
   
6. Open your tin and give the paint a stir.
   
7. Get painting!
   

I decided to paint the inside of my bookcase first.. simply because that way if I ran out time that day at least I could put the books somewhere overnight! Once the inside had it's first coat on I did the top and sides of the outside, then the shelves. When I'd finished that the inside was dry enough for it's second coat, and then I continued that way until it had all had two coats and I was happy with the finish.

All in it took me about 5 hours from start to finish.. which includes the small amount of prep work at the beginning, two coats of paint and drying time.

The Rust-Oleum paint went on really easily, and left a smooth finish which look fantastic as soon as it went on. I chose to leave a little bit of the black wood showing through rather than giving it another coat.. as it looks better that way I think!

You can see some of the finished project below..

So there you have it... my super easy bookcase makeover using Rust-Oleum furniture paint! I told you it was simple didn't I?

I'm really thrilled with the finished shelves, and they look fab in my dining room (and I've kept it tidy so far)!

The Rust-Oleum furniture paint comes in different finishes and different colours, and is available from varies stockists (find your nearest here). From Homebase a 750ml tin costs £19.99, but I used less than half of a tin on this bookcase so you get plenty of paint for your money!

Once you've revamped your shelves, you might be wondering how to style them, to help you out check my Pinterest board:

Follow Hannah S's board Bookcase on Pinterest.

I'd love to know what you think of my bookcase makeover.. is it something you'd like to try for yourself?  Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!

Stay safe, x