Bookcase Makeover Part 1

I've completed Phase 1 of my bookcase makeover: Covering the backs of them with patterned paper! As you may recall, I picked up a roll of chevron wrapping paper at HomeGoods during our trip to Ohio. I thought it would look perfect in my bookcases, and for $2.99, I wished there were more of this pattern so I could grab another roll! It was so cute. 

Here were my office bookshelves before: 

They are just simple 3-drawer particle board bookcases I picked up a while back because I needed book storage when I was moving in all my things. They were mainly just functional and a place to keep all of my old textbooks and reference books, along with some books I had collected and bought over the years.

I started out by emptying the first one. Talk about chaos! That "BEER" Book is Trent's by the way. Haha.

Once it was all emptied, I dusted off the inside, then removed the shelves and the little pins that stick into the holes on the sides to hold the shelves up (The shiny silver things you see sticking out.)

Then I just used a measuring tape to measure the length and width of the inside. (It was about 23 1/2" wide by 31" tall). I then marked the back of the wallpaper and cut it to size.

Before I stuck the wallpaper to the back, I pressed it inside and made sure it fit okay. I had to trim it down a little a couple of times. When I knew it would fit, I sprayed the back with 3M Super 77 Spray Adhesive, and carefully pressed it onto the back of the bookcase. It was a little difficult to get it just right, so it's definitely not perfect. If I wanted it to be completely perfect, I would have taken the nails out of the back and taken the entire back off the bookcase first. But I didn't want to do all that, since I am not committed too much to these bookcases - they were pretty cheap. So I can always change it up down the road if I feel like it.

I really like how it turned out, though!

I decided to go ahead and move things in, even though I plan on spray painting the bookcases white, too. Yesterday was windy and this week is supposed to be rainy, so I was planning on waiting for nice weather so we can spray them outside. It's super nice out today though..so crossing my fingers we can do it when Trent gets home from work today!

Instead of going for just function and book storage this time, I wanted to actually style them a little so they're both functional and attractive! I just used things I already had, but hopefully I'll be able to pick up a few cute accessories soon to make it a little more stylish. :) Here's how the first one looked when I started moving things in (I eventually changed a few things in the end):

I then did the same thing with the other bookcase. I cleaned off the inside, then removed the shelves.

I cut some wrapping paper to the same size as the other piece, and used spray adhesive to attach it. 

Then all I had to do was move things back into the second one....

And I had two matching snazzy mini bookcases! I still want to paint the rest of them white though, because I'm not a huge fan of the black. The room is pretty dark as it is, and the dark bookshelves don't help brighten up the space much.

I kept tweaking things and adding different accessories I found around the house, and then I ended up here:

If you're wondering why I haven't shown much of what's behind the bookshelves, it's because that part of my office isn't finished yet. It's still painted brown, because it's in a hard-to-reach spot above the stairs and we never got that far when we were painting it. There's also a storage nook behind there that's full of Trent's old things we have yet to go through! 

Here are my bookcases in relation to my desk:

Kind of a small little space. There aren't any wall outlets up here either, so there is an extension cord going up to the light fixture which has an outlet built in. Eventually we want to run electrical up here.

Here's how my office is looking these days. Not too crazy, but still some things I have to organize. I'm running out of storage up here!

One final tweak to my shelves was adding a few seashells from my box of collected shells I've had since I was a kid.

Now I just wish I had full-size book cases to hold more things :) Lord knows I could fill them up!

I like the end result (so much better than the boring-ness before), but I can't wait to paint it white to brighten it up a little bit! I didn't add in some of the books and notebooks that were stored in here before, so I plan on adding a large basket or storage ottoman next to the shelves to store some of the books I never need and don't really want displayed on my bookshelves. I also want to buy a rug for my office and finish up painting and all that stuff. Still a work in progress!

I'm linking up to Young House Love's Book Project Roundup here, since Project #1, Faux wallpaper the back of a bookcase, definitely helped inspire me to take the leap and get out the wallpaper! Love those guys! See my thoughts on their Book In this Post. Now to complete Part 2 of my bookcase makeover....

  
(I'm also linked up at these awesome blogs)