Saturday, November 26, 2005

Recovering Bookcase Shelves, Updating Fireplace

I've been thinking that it might be nice to place fabric at the backs of the built-in bookcases in our living room....that whole end of the room seems just really white and a little boring. I was originally thinking of using MDF and covering that with fabric, but just last week, the Style Network (which is running the old episodes of Martha Stewart Living) had an episode of MSL dated 2005 and called the 'special decorating show'....and on this show, Martha was decorating a curio cabinet just like I was thinking, except she used foam board as the base. What a great idea! Seeing the show gave me new inspiration for finally doing this project - and using her idea for foam board rather than MDF....below are pictures and instructions for going about decorating a bookcase with fabric:

First of all, here's how my bookcases used to look:


I bought Elmer's foam board at Office Max, and fabric from Hancock Fabrics. They had lots of great choices in the upholstery department, and I chose Waverly fabric in the Grand Central design (pic here). The foam board cost about $30 and the fabric cost about $70, so the total project cost came out to approximately $100. The only other supplies needed: box cutter (for cutting the foam board), yard stick, measuring tape, scissors, and hot glue gun (I used 3 sticks of glue).

Here's a pic of the empty bookcases:


While I was at it, I also spruced up our fireplace a bit...which I actually use as a place for candles. I took everything out:


Here's the fabric I've been using as a backdrop in the fireplace. It's stapled to a piece of wood that stabilizes it across the back of the chimney:


...and it also has little hooks screwed in, so I can hang lights:


Here are the edges, which are just hot-glued:


The bottom hem is hot-glued also, so it's the perfect length at the bottom:


Here's the fabric, reinstalled: (a pic of the finished fireplace is a few pictures below)


In the meantime, Av helped me by cutting the foam board for me (this one has a hole cut out for an electric outlet in one of the shelves):


Here's the fabric about to be cut, and some of the already-cut foam boards:


I've got the hot glue gun set to high, and I just wrap the fabric around the board...


...and hot glue it to set the edges:


Here's the piece of foam board cut specially for the shelf with the electric outlet. I cut the fabric in a X pattern and hot-glued those edges. It turned out perfectly:


Here's another shot of a completed board, ready to be installed. I made gift-wrap corners so those turned out nice. See the little piece of ribbon at the bottom center? I hot-glued that on so that when I take these off (for instance, if I want to do this project again, for another season) I just tug on that little ribbon and the whole piece will come out rather than digging at a corner to get them loose. Av gets 100% credit for that idea!


Here are all the pieces installed - it makes that whole end of the room look differently!


Here's the fireplace - I put everything back in it - some grapevine ball lights, lots of candles, etc. So pretty!


...and here are the bookcases, with everything back on the shelves! I really-really-really like the way everything looks now!

posted by ginger Saturday, November 26, 2005