Ikea Bookcase Makeover

Hello lovelies,

I'm very excited to share the results of my latest furniture makeover with you all :) As I mentioned on Friday, after a long and fruitless search for a suitable and reasonably priced storage unit for our dining room (aka my craft room) I finally realised that I could use the Ikea Expedit bookcase that was lurking in our loft.

I searched around online for some bookcase upcycling inspiration because there was no way I was letting something that black and boring into my bubblegum-pink room of crafty goodness. After spotting this genius makeover on Apartment Therapy I knew there was hope for the bookcase after all. 

I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner to be honest. After all, I've decoupaged furniture before... Before I share the eye-popping result, let me remind you of the "Before": 

YAWN.

I took the bookcase apart* and then covered each individual section in a layer of PVA and something pretty. The something pretties included:

• wrapping paper (from Paperchase, Ikea and Tiger)
• craft paper (some from Tiger, and some left over from a Christmas present)
• maps of Hungary, Ashdown Forest and South Africa (from Oxfam)
• washi tape (from Etsy and Tiger - are you sensing a pattern here?)
• a mirror (left over from another quick-fix DIY project that I'm going to share later in the week)
• Pages from Mollie Makes and Harpers Bazaar magazines
• comic books (old ones from the local flea market. Perhaps should have checked they weren't rare first editions before tearing them up... Oh well.)
• a still-life oil sketch from my GCSE artwork
• a postcard from last year's jaunt to London
• a dinosaur book (from Oxfam). Yes; you read that correctly. I AM A MONSTER and have defiled a children's book by snipping it up. Shame shall be heaped upon my family and I will no doubt be struck down by the God of Literature, whomever that may be. Richard and Judy, perhaps? I bought the book purposefully for cutting it up and figured if I helped starving people in Africa by buying it, it may lessen the anger directed at me by The Rest Of The Internet; who hate people cutting up books/melting terrible 90s records to turn them into fruit bowls. 

Covering all of the shelf-type surfaces took me approximately sixty billion years. It's incredible I fitted it all into one weekend, really. But, I did it. And I think it is beautiful, despite the fact that I could not get any of the surfaces to remain completely air-bubble free. Stupid air. What do you think?

Close-ups of the individual uprights between the shelves:

Katie xxx

P.S. Apologies for the shoddy photos- it was getting dark when I'd finished but I just couldn't wait to share :) I'm hoping to take some new pics during daylight hours this week to replace the ones above. 

*OK; Tom did it. I supervised, which is just as important.

P.S. Linking up to the lovely Lakota's Ta Dah Tuesday.