Nesting: Painted shelf project step by step

As I mentioned the other week in a nesting post.- I have a new Home project I would like to get done before the baby arrives in the fall. I decided to use the shelf seen above- that once housed art and knitting supplies, for storage for the baby. We aren't doing the traditional nursery thing and so I wanted to have at least a dresser and this shelf to carve out a little area for our new family member.

We went to Home Depot and had fun selecting a Martha Stewart Paint from her huge collection! We chose "Heavy Goose" a lovely neutral gray. **A little word on Martha Stewart Paint. Each paint card has a symbol in the top corner- a citrus, a snowflake, etc that allows you to match up your paints for an entire interior! So all the snowflake paints "go" and all the citrus symbol paints "go" together. What a fun way to help the weekend warrior coordinate their painting projects!**

The shelf in its context. As you can see the wooden shelf is really visually heavy and dark compared to the brightly painted dresser (which I got 4 free on craigslist & added the yellow knobs!). The shelf also blends in with the dark woodwork. Thus the need to paint it, to make it cheery and to clean it up a bit to store and display baby stuff. Eventually I think this shelf would be lovely in a bathroom, or some fun nook of a hallway etc. Hence our idea to paint it neutral to keep our future options open for the placement of this piece. (click on images to view them larger)

The Shelf- pre sanding.

 It really is lovely, has great lines and details (love the paneling). And the best yet I bought it from my boss for $20! (ps it's not dusty- just stained that way- hence another reason to sand and paint!)

Love the details.

The Shelf after sanding.

We used a harsher 100 grade sandpaper to knock off some of the stubborn areas, the odd paint splatter and to smooth out rough nicked edges. Then we used a finer grade of 120. We bought 150 grade sandpaper for between coats of paint.

The sanded back of the shelf.

The Husband, who has worked as a cabinet maker and furniture restorer, had the idea to use our little dyson shop vac to clean up the sanding dust. In the wood shop he worked in- they had an air gun that would blow the debris off the wooden surface and then they would follow up with a resin-type coated cloth to ensure all particles were clear from the wooden surface. Ah we can dream to have a work shop like that of our own someday! But in the mean time the dyson, a brush and a cloth helped clean the shelf in prep for the primer.

Next step- PRIMER.

We propped the shelf on top of four pint size cans of paint and laid out three trashbags as our tarp. This allowed for a tiny bit of added height and to make painting the very bottom of the legs easier and free of grass etc. The painting process took my pregnant self a good chunk of the afternoon as I wanted to cover every little dark recess and funky area with a smooth layer of paint. One coat of white primer- and the shelf already looked cleaner and brighter. I let the primer dry for 3 hours (that's two hours longer than the label suggests) before sanding the shelf with the 150 grade sandpaper. This smoothed out any rough brush strokes or unseen rough areas. Then a combo of weather, and my fatigue helped me decide to wait 24 hours before painting the first coat of our gray paint.

After 2 coats of "Heavy Goose" the shelf is complete and ready to house lord knows what for the baby...

The gray we chose really is a neutral, but it's nice to have a balance amongst all the other color we have. Plus we figure our future house wont have white walls, so this piece will pop and it provides a great background for displaying colorful objects.

And the shelf- back in its context, so much brighter and cheerier.

We are very happy with the final result and really love the color!

hmmm what to work on next!?