The house Reno’s continue, I’m a bit behind schedule as I promised myself I would have my office/studio completed by end of February, but hopefully soon! One of the items on my wishlist for my office was to refurbish this IKEA bookshelf for the purpose of organizing and displaying camera gear and books in my office. Even though it was relatively inexpensive it still is wood and I wanted to retain it in some shape or form. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it until I attended a make night at Branch Market and Studio. They introduced me to the application of Milk Paint and it got me motivated to make over my little bookshelf.
This bookshelf was missing the handle on the storage drawer and the natural wood tone just wasn’t working with the idea I had for my office, oh and the paint- yes it’s called Spice and also has to go.
So I decided I wanted my bookshelf to have that rustic look and chose two milk paint colors to achieve that distressed look, I painted Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in Typewriter on the base layer and Ironstone on top.
The base layer of the Typewriter color. The awesome thing about Milk Paint is how easy it is to work with. Milk paint provides a completely breathable coating and is ideal for painting wood, plaster, drywall and a variety of other surfaces. It is environmentally friendly, non-toxic and contains no VOCs. So it was easy to apply this inside the house when the weather was cold out. Making it a fun little winter project. Also the paint drys super fast so it was on to the top coat color in the same day, which is perfect for the impatient DIY’er in me.
So I wanted my bookshelf to look very distressed, like left out in the weather for many years distressed, so I did more of a whitewash of the top coat on mine. However just apply a thicker or multiple coats for a more traditional look. I also didn’t paint over the base color at the back of the bookshelf, I wanted the drama of the darker tone to lend more of an industrial look to the overall feel of the piece.
And the wall color? yep bye bye Spice! I painted out my office the same Fossil color as the great room upstairs. To gain function of the drawer again I added a new pull tab on the drawer. Step one of office makeover is complete!
