Decision making: Black or White Bookcase?
Ana Alegrett
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
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Jilly
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoanitamo
2 years agoRelated Discussions
need ideas for painting bookcases
Comments (3)A picture would really help us give you a good answer. Just based on this tiny amount of information, I'd glue some of that narrow wood (or what is it made of?) trim that looks like rope up the front side edges. Then if there's a place for it, I'd glue some type of wood medallion or fancy trim to the top center. Then I'd sand the rest lightly, fill in the knot holes, prime it and paint it. Hard to say what color without seeing your room or knowing your taste. One choice would be to paint it white and do some cute fabric or wallpaper on the inside back of the shelves. Another choice would be to introduce a jewel tone, like bright red, green, or blue. Of course, with any color you use, you can do a cute colored or patterned back. You can paint the inside back of the wood. OR you could cut a piece of matt board to fit the opening and decorate it one color/pattern on one side (winter?) and another on the other side (summer?). That way when you get bored you could change it. I recently did a whole thread on that... see this link... Here is a link that might be useful: Pretty cabinet insides...See Moreseeking opinions on these bookcases for the library
Comments (36)loribee and Connie, thank you for the kind words. Connie, I just spent some lovely time on your blog, totally captivated by your new kittens and your roses. (I'm a new native gardening.) I love seeing what people have done with customizing other pieces but we're just not DIY folks at all. Hubby has ZERO interest and my abilities are limited. So mostly we either have to buy ready to go or pay someone to do things. One other reason to replace these is that I can then move some of them into my office which has shorter shelves and into hubby's office which also has shorter shelves. We need a lot of bookspace. les - no, the store won't come out here and it's not custom as in them building various sizes. Plus the store is an hour away. The fitting is pretty basic - I have 67" on one side of the fireplace and 73" on the other. All bookcases are 12" deep and there is 33" and 46" wide one to be used. So 12" + 46" = 58 with 9" left on one side and 15" left on the other because of course the fireplace isn't in the middle of the wall. :) Those gaps are too wide on either side of the fireplace to look decent and if I use these cases, I can't really make something to fit the small space and match. If I use the pine ones I have more widths to choose from, 24, 30, 36, 48 so I could do a 24 and 30 on one side and 30 and 30 on the other side which, when I add in the 12" depth for the cases from the other wall, gives me an inch to spare. But I need to figure out the heat registers and look at the case bottoms better today to see if we can cut the fronts for registers or mount them on bases of some kind. I tell you, I'm exhausted by all of this. Watching them demo the ceramic tile for the wood floor is going to be a piece of cake after this. :) The other think you might consider, and I dont know for sure what would be cheaper, would be to have the bookcases made of stain-grade plywood, or paint grade that you do in a deep black brown, or a white to match the fireplace. I spent another couple of hours looking at the various manufacturers on the stores website and found a couple of entertainment units that should work. I'll ask about them when we go today. Hubby is picky. We need something for the TV, no problem, but then the 4 components (DVD, TiVo, subwoofer and CD player) need a space that is open on both the front and the back. He won't use glass or cloth doors and wants an open back. (We'll just cut what we need from the back if it doesn't come open.) But like I said, I think there are a few pieces that would work and the handyman came by last night and said that he could do the bridge stuff I wanted. It's the heat registers to solve now. And can I just say again, thank you to all of you who read and comment and hold hands through this process? I don't have anyone local here to bounce this stuff around with so I really, really appreciate it....See MorePlease vote on Billy bookcase color
Comments (40)MonaBlair...you ain't no thread killer girl! Thank you for your warm compliment on my color skills. You may wish we had an edit feature on this board once you see what I did! ;-) Teeda, I love your front door on the other thread. So pretty. As for the snow....well, I am a bit in shock still. It is gorgeous and I even went down the giant hill out back....once. (You must know that hill!) No pics yet. Sorry. Batteries died and I need to put in more books before I take pics. They are soooo red! I am hoping books will cover them some and temper it all. I did buy a red pillow at Target today. (DH may try to suffocate me with it when he sees I've brought one more pillow into the house!)...See MoreDark stained built-in bookcases and FP
Comments (21)I changed black on the fireplace for antique brass, lol. And an old one at that. Everybody and theirs aversion I guess.. Together with that, whitewashing seems more natural looking. (I remember one of the last entries in Maria Killiam's blog was dedicated to changing a brick fireplace..many comments about fully painting vs whitewashing vs completely changing..if you want I can find it for you. Commenters share their experiences and all. ) Otherwise, I don't think the transformation is better than what they had. They like it more because it's newer, and they got tired of the old look. But for me, who sees it for the first time, nothing screams "What a great transformation". (and yes, I am somebody who hated her newly inherited fireplace so much she changed it as much as she could. (Still not done). So I get it. I fully get the desire to completely change the look of an irritating fireplace. I am just not particularly impressed with the article) I agree with nosoccermom-it's better to tackle(or not) the fireplace last. You'll see better what it asks to be, when you change other things around....See MoreUser
2 years agoPatricia Colwell Consulting
2 years agoHU-187528210
2 years agoMaureen
2 years agolyfia
2 years agogsciencechick
2 years agoAna Alegrett
2 years agoLars
2 years agodecoenthusiaste
2 years agoLars
2 years agoDarci Hether New York
2 years agoGJ Gardner Homes Denver
2 years ago
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