Furniture Facelift

This little shelf unit was redone for my friend's mom and I was given free range to do whatever I wanted with it, so I was excited to see what I could come up with. This piece was in very rough shape when I picked it up, but I knew I could modernize it and make it functional again.

Supplies: 

Sandpaper - a sander helped a ton on this project, but it could also be done by hand

Wood putty

Primer

Paint - latex and spray paint

Two drawer pulls

Acetate scrapbook paper

Spray adhesive

Painters tape

Paper towels

Paint brushes

This piece started out looking pretty beat up - a few holes right through the sides, the back was beginning to mold and lots of dings and scratches. So to begin with I took the back completely off and secured the drawer back into place. 

After a quick sanding, I began patching up the holes. 

Round two of sanding and it's already starting to look better.

Time to prime!

So I had some pretty grand ideas for a mercury glass-esque faux finish for the top and sides of this piece. I used paper towels to cover the front and back and spray painted the top and sides a shiny silver.

Then I went in and painted the shelves beige and the front white.

Once I had given the faux finish a try, I knew it wasn't going to come out how I was hoping so back to the drawing board(aka Michaels) I went. I came home with some clear acetate scrapbook paper with a black damask print on it. I also picked up this paper cutter that I'm not sure how I lived so long without. I cut the paper down to 2"x2" squares so that they would fill the space evenly.

With the cutting all done, I layed out the squares like tiles, alternating the orientation of the pattern. 

I was nervous for the gluing part, not knowing how the glue would show through the clear acetate, but ultimately it looked great. So I sprayed enough glue to lay down two rows at a time, making sure the glue didn't dry out too much before I got to it.

This is the point where I decided I wasn't loving the beige on the shelves and slapped a couple coats of the white paint on instead.

I also sprayed the top and sides down with a clear gloss, just to protect the squares a bit from lifting up.

Hopefully I can get a few pictures once it is installed in the McKelvey home!

--Heather