Our living room has a really strange built in TV nook on the side of the mantle. For the longest time, we had no idea what we would put in said nook, because it's a very specific size and I'm not even sure what it was really ever intended for.
Fast forward a month, and we found these shelves in our attic! I am guessing the previous owners intentionally left them here because our attic is a walk-in, and they were super visible... meaning there is no way they "forgot" them. So while these shelves are very basic, and not exactly perfect for the space, they at least filled this weird void in the wall. And duh, they were free.
We also had some custom drapes made for the windows a couple months ago that have a little bit of coral in the pattern. So I decided to spruce up the free shelves with an easy paint job.
Free shelves we found in the attic...
I wanted to paint just the exterior surfaces (lazy), so I taped off the inside...
Primed...
Painted and added some knick knacks...
This shows how weird this little wall space is...
Don't you love those black tv cables? We haven't gotten around to getting longer cords that fit through the secret wall holes behind the tv, so for now they just hang out for the world to see. It drives my dad crazy and he mentions it every time he comes to our house. Thomas and I are equally unbothered by it. But when you post pictures of your home on the internet, all of a sudden you become super self conscious about these things.
When filling with shelves, I realized that I am really lacking interesting junk/books to accommodate a situation like this... and that I am also generally unskilled in how to arrange accessories so that it looks cool. I have a tendency to be overly symmetrical, which also makes hanging pictures almost impossible for me.
The project was super straight forward, so I am not going to outline how I did anything, but I do have some tips. There was no way I was going to sand the whole thing before I painted it, so I got a primer that promised to stick to glossy surfaces. And it did. But, when I pulled the tape off, there were some spots where the paint and primer kind of peeled off with the tape and created a crooked edge. It could also be because I used latex paint. They offered me this color in a primer/paint all in one, and now I wonder how it would have worked. The best piece of advice I have for painting wood furniture is to let each coat sit at least 24 hours. And let the final coat sit for 48+ hours if you have time. I had the time, but I didn't have the patience. Anytime I move that little basket on top, it kind of sticks to the surface.
Next up, I think I will be painting these really large bookshelves we got from a family friend for our son's room. This will be a much larger project and it's already a billion degrees outside, so I have no idea when I actually plan on doing this. It's also going to require a lot of steps and I am just kind of dreading it.
Love,
Lauren
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