Trash-For-Mation #2 Bookshelf Tutorial

trash   (trash) ,  n.  1. anything worthless or useless; rubbish.

I found this shelf on the side of the road in the big and bulky city pick up.  It was just waiting to be rescued by someone who could see it was clearly not "trash".

                                   

The paint was peeling too bad to just paint over it, so I scraped most of it off and then sanded it down.

I added a plywood back to give it stability and well, a back!  Here it is sanded with the back.

I then took a scrap piece of molding I had and drew and cut around the shape of the curved back of the side so the top shelf would have a back too and be a little "spiffy".

 
                        

I also added a piece of the same molding to the bottom as there was nothing there at all to start with.  I had already started painting it and realized it needed "something".

It was a pain to do two different colors and I don't know if I would invest again in the time it took to tape off, paint one color and then tape off the other surface and paint the opposite color.  (Had I known ahead a time I was going to use two colors, I would have painted the backing before I put it on.  This would have saved hours!) I then distressed it and rubbed a stain over the whole shelf to antique it.

Here it is finished:

  This is what they saw:                Here is what I see: 
BEFORE                                                         AFTER