How I created shabby chic bookshelves

     This blog is slightly different to my recent upcycling series as everything was made from scratch rather than fashioned from existing furniture. Basically, there is a little inset nook just to the right of my fireplace and it had three very rickety and cheap standard shelves in place when we moved in. It was literally a waste of space so I designed the best way to make use of the nook and my very talented other half made it a reality.

The shelves are also great for displaying birthday cards!

     By using cladding wood that slots together it was very easy to make sturdy shelves that spanned the shelves exactly, so that not even an inch went to waste. Each shelf rests on a wooden block that’s been secured to the wall and then everything is concealed behind a piece of painted dado rail. This simple trick means that the shelves don’t have be finished to the highest level as the dado rail will conceal the majority of the work, as well as create a lip on the edge to stop anything else on the shelves from falling off.

Top view of a shelf

Underside view of a shelf

     The cupboard at the bottom was once again designed to provide some concealed storage space, like when I upcycled my bookcase, because storage is something the room desperately lacked. The interior shelves were made with the same method as mentioned earlier, although the cupboard is a little deeper to accommodate an existing plug socket and obviously didn’t need the dado rail trim.

The extra depth has created a handy ledge on top too

Sooo much junk can be hidden away!

      The exterior is made from a thick plywood to ensure that it’s sturdy. I used the same trick with textured wallpaper as on my bookshelf to give the illusion of a solid wood panel. This time I made the design longer and thinner to suit the narrower style of the cupboard. As before I simply used PVA to glue the paper on and then painted an undercoat of dark grey to add depth once the light grey paint had been applied on top.

All that stuff neatly hidden from view - hooray!

The paintwork goes great with all my other upcycled furniture

     I didn’t distress this cupboard as plywood doesn’t exactly take kindly to sandpaper but I used the same paint and polish technique as I’ve used before so that it matches the rest of my furniture. All in all the end result is absolutely brilliant and provides a neat and handy place to store board games and DVDs out of sight, as well as keeping books, and birthday cards, neatly on display.

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