Painting laminate bookcases

I am sure you bloggers with children understand me when I saw children have A LOT of toys. Literally, they are everywhere. If your house is anything like mine, the toys start in one room and trickle into every.other.room! Seriously, I don't know how my children do it. They start off in one room and the next thing you know is there is a Hansel and Gretel cookie toy trail down the hallway into the kitchen, dining room and living room (which also leads up the stairs to the bedrooms and surprisingly the bathroom as well) I just couldn't take it anymore. We had a playroom, it just wasn't working for us. There wasn't enough storage space to host all those toys. I needed more shelves but really didn't want to fork out the money to buy new white ones.

"Ah-ha" I had 3 laminate blonde colored bookcases down in my basement. They really weren't serving a purpose. A while ago I had all of my teaching materials on them but then I got some new shelving and was using that. So I decided to search the lovely internet to find some tutorials on how to paint laminate products and I came across this one from Centsational Girl. She really sums it up nicely, so instead of me trying to go through the process step by step in great detail you should just go and visit her blog, she's awesome!

I started by sanding my bookcases lightly (sorry no pic). Then I dusted off the, well, dust.

 

Here I am getting ready to start priming.

 

Like Kate says, make sure to use a good primer. I used Cover Stain BIN oil based primer and it went on as smooth as butt-er!

It was beautiful out so I was able to do my painting outside, made for quick drying!

 

I then let those dry overnight. I stored them in my barn. The next morning (after I dropped the kidlets off at preschool and the babysitters) I tackled the rest of this project. I used some left over paint that I had lying around to save some cash.

Paint

 

After I painted, I let them dry and since it was so darn hot out they dried within an hour. I then repeated this step twice. Once they were fully dried I wanted to add some "pop" of color to the backs. I couldn't find a wallpaper in stock that I loved, nor could I find any fabric at the fabric store. So while I was at Wally World getting my necessary things I came across these outdoor table clothes on clearance for $2...Yup...SCORE! I loved the geometric print and it was navy blue. Perfecto. 

Fabric tablecloth for back of bookcases.

 

I laid the cloth out and made my necessary cuts and lined the backs of the bookcases. I was going to use a fabric glue but that didn't work so I just used hot glue on the corners to hold it in place and then I nailed the backings back on the bookcases. 

Laying out the fabric.

 

And well, tada, here they are!

 

I still need to touch up some of the shelves because they got chipped in transition into the house, but over all I am totally in love with the way they turned out. 

 

More playroom sneak peeks to come within the week.