Brightest Young Things

I keep changing my mind about what direction I want to take this column. I keep telling myself I want to do more hands on things, with photos, more detail, etc. These thoughts usually occur on the weekends, when I have some precious time where I could work on things. Unfortunately, I usually get distracted by episodes of the West Wing (oh God, the memories) or Ghost Adventures.

Anyhow, I was going to continue with my wood working series, but as it may happen, I was inspired to continue on a subject I briefly touched on earlier... bookcases. I discussed a while back putting fabric on the back of a bookcase to give it a creative look. Well bookworms, I'm dedicating this entire column to snazzying up your bookshelves.

Ikea Hacking

In case you're not familiar with the term, there's a whole legion of people out there who practice Ikea Hacking. That is, using Ikea pieces as building blocks for homemade designs. One cool bookshelf-related Ikea hack is featured over at Apartment Therapy.

Ikea hack using EXPEDIT bookshelves (Photo from ApartmentTherapy.com)

Notice the use of halogen lamps to provide illumination on the center row. I like that look, though that will add a bit to the expense of the project, and you'll need to wire those to power. That whole project, including the cubes, probably cost around $550. The bookshelf alone was $200. The end result is very snazzy, but it ain't cheap. So let's see what we can do to cut that cost down a bit.

The KILBY bookcase at Ikea does not have the "cube" units that EXPEDIT does, but it does have a nice $39.99 price tag. It comes in a the standard plain "pine" color, but we can take care of that.

To start, we need to do something about this very plain pine color. I know some of you might enjoy this look, and to each their own. However, I would recommend painting. Before you assemble the bookshelf, lightly sand all of the pieces to prep for painting.

Black is always a good option for paint, but feel free to use anything else. I would recommend putting some primer on the wood first, and then putting on your paint. Since you're probably going to do all of this painting indoors, I recommend using water-based products (for less odor). You'd want to use a waterbased primer, a latex paint, and then put a topcoat of a water-based poly. Refer to my painting primer series for some more information on painting.

Now let's take care of that ugly plastic backing. You could paint this (I would suggest using spray paint, outdoors, for that), or wrap some fabric around it. Or, find some Contact paper or even wrapping paper with a nice pattern.

I think this damask pattern would be cool, it's available as gift wrap for $4.99 a roll (you'd need two rolls). You'd want to glue this onto the bookshelf's backing, and then spray it a clear matte or gloss finish (matte would probably look the best).

The other day, I was at *cough*Anthropologie*cough* and happened to notice something clever they had done. They had covered the some shelves with guest checks, and then put a topcoat of poly over it. This was an interesting look, and could be accomplished for the price of a stack of guest checks (and the poly, but that has other uses). Something to consider. Also think about wrapping the shelves themselves with fabric or paper.

Instead of the halogeon lamps, you can purchase some of those small battery operated push lamps.

These guys run about $5.00 each, and run on AAA batteries. No wiring required! Just stick 'em up.

Having a nicely done bookshelf isn't the end of the project, though. How you display your books is half the battle. If you've got a ton and a half of books, think about expanding this project to two or even three bookshelves. Decorate them in ways that complement each other, and complement the colors in your room. Think about matching the bookshelf paint with the color of a piece of furniture, or even the primary colors in a poster or print you might have.

While the "public library" look of books shoved everywhere certain bookworm/packrat/John Nash charm to it... it is cluttered. Stack some books horizontally, and others vertically. Put some picture frames in there as well, and maybe some vases (and hey, let's fill those vases with decorative things--maybe dried flower petals, stones, or corks). Be creative, but also keep the books you do actually read accessible.

Even with two of those bookshelves, each with 2 LED lights, you'd end up spending around $125. That includes the cost of paint, and contact paper/fabric. You could put these together in the course of a weekend (time for the paint to dry) and you'll have a bookshelf to show off to people, rather than hoping they will notice your cleverly placed Ayn Rand anthology.