project list progress

I crossed a couple of projects off of my to-do list yesterday.

Let me just start off by saying:

I'm happy to have them off the list - completely finished.
Now I can move onto this month's (and next month's) main attraction, the kitchen cabinets.
And

I'm IN LOVE with the results.

Let's start with the bookshelf.
Here's what it looked like before it graciously accepted 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of Valspar's "du jour" paint.

It was dark, ugly, and just stood there looking heavy.

After a couple coats of primer, it was already looking a heck of a lot better, and much slimmer.

And after 3 coats of paint, it was looking pretty darn good.  Such a difference, right?

Ok, side note.  Genius me thought masking tape would do just fine as a substitute for blue painter's tape.  I was completely wrong.  I would have bought painter's tape if Hobby Lobby had any.  We had taken a walk over there last week solely for the purpose of buying some.  Lowe's isn't within walking distance, well, not within a safe walking distance, otherwise we would have just gone there instead.  (This town has no crosswalks or sidewalks.)  Anyways, long story short, my point is: don't use masking tape in place of painter's tape.  Spend the extra $5, or whatever it is, and get the good stuff, otherwise you'll end up with the same headache that I had as I pulled/scraped/cursed the tape away from the wall.  What should have taken me 30 seconds took me 20 minutes.

Not only did I have to go back and touch up where the masking tape failed, but I had to do some caulking around the molding of the bookshelf.

Call me strange, but I like to caulk.

With the painting and caulking done, and out of the way, all I had to do was wait on the decorative (wrapping) paper that I had ordered for the back of the bookshelf.  It arrived yesterday - I might have done a little happy dance when it got here (days earlier than expected).  I (patiently) waited until Callan was playing nicely by himself in his toy corner to cut the paper to size and to apply it with some spray adhesive.

I really love the way it looks.
It's subtle, but dramatic.

I had to snap these pictures last night, hence the poor lighting, because I just couldn't wait until morning to accessorize.
Looks pretty spiffy, right?  I'm uber pleased.

So here is what it looks like this morning, all dressed up with a few of my favorite things.

I just love the dimension that the paper adds to the bookshelf.
I don't think I could be happier with the results.

I'll be back in a bit to share my other finished project!