$1.00 Shelf Makeover

While Mitch and myself were out yardsaling one Sunday morning a couple months back, we ran across this shelf that I really liked. There was nobody outside to help us, and nothing was priced. Frustrated, we left. But I whined and whined about how I really liked the circle shelf, and thought it would look cute in Riley's room {after some altering of course.}

So, Mitch turned around, went and knocked at the door, and got the son to come out and help him. I told Mitch not to spend more than $10 for the thing, and a few minutes later, he was hauling it to our car, after having paid only $1.00 for it!

I was quite happy. Mitch was annoyed that we had another "piece of junk" that I was "planning" to re-do.

I didn't get to it right away like I planned. But over the past few months I {or sometimes we} have refinished every piece of furniture I have bought for that purpose.

Now Mitch finally not only has faith in my ability to finish a furniture project, but he is also impressed with the results, and is more willing to let me shop for future projects!!! YAY!

Wanna see my shelf before and after??

WaaaLaaaaa!

And here is a closer BEFORE....



And AFTER...



I took the whole thing apart and sanded it down pretty good.

Then I spray primed all the pieces once, followed by two coats of Rust-Oleum Green Apple.

The tops were really water damaged.... and since the circle pieces are all laminate, the water damage created raised bubbly areas, and there was NO WAY I was spending that much sanding time in the hope of creating a smooth surface.

So I did the next best thing {which turned out to be a better idea than painting the whole thing} MOD PODGE!!!

I wanted to use products I had at home already. So I found some pale yellow fabric. And used the regular Matte Mod Podge to glue it on.

But I didn't like just the plain yellow with the green, it was kinda boring, and actually looked a bit dirty. So after brainstorming FOREVER, I cut out circles from some orange paper I had.

I arranged them in a way I liked, and Mod Podged them over the fabric. After I finished one shelf, I was VERY happy with the results. So I cut out enough circles for the whole thing... 19 for each shelf, 5 shelves total, that's 95 orange circles I glued on. NINETY FIVE!!!! WAY more work than I planned on doing. And I coulda got the same effect from polka dot fabric, if I'd taken the time to search for some I liked. But I saved money this way, and in the end it was worth it!

I went through an entire bottle of Mod Podge. I believe each shelf got 4 coats. Then I applied 2 coats of Plaid Patricia Nimocks Clear Acrylic Sealer in Gloss.

After it was dry, I put it back together, and smiled lots, because I LOVE the final results!!! It looks awesome in Riley's room, and now I have a spot to put my water, that's within reaching distance from my chair. Which will really come in handy for the hours I'm gonna spend nursing and stuff in the very near future {about 6 more weeks!}

Here's one more picture before I go! :o)



Hope you like my $1.00 shelf re-do!!