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Home Decorating Paint

Painting these built-in bookshelves?

last year

last modified: last year

We are in the process of updating the guestroom. Currently it’s rather dated and not as bright and airy feeling as it certainly could be. There is a high-quality wool but no longer loved deep red carpet that will be replaced with natural fibre carpet soon, neutral color, and currently the walls are white ceiling and light dusty blue on the walls, a calm hue. This is a condo on the waterfront.

But… Then we have this built-in bookcase surround, around the platform bed on either side. The tone and color of the wood feels dated to me as well. This is a condo that was built in the late 1970s. I’m thinking a simple lovely white paint, specifically BM Simply White, would brighten and make a big impact on the room? I know the whole thing could be sanded and stained to maintain the wood grain but I don’t know if we want to go through all of that. Any input? Thank you!
(ps, please ignore the temporary mess!)

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Comments (10)

Jilly
last year
last modified: last year
I think it would look great, and fit the look and feel you’re wanting.

What do you think about going even further and removing the mirror and some shelves, and doing something with your wall color in the back? Grasscloth, paint, etc? And some fun new cabinet knobs, like sea glass or something.

Or beadboard:
sabigabatini
Original Author
last year
Thank you for the validation! I expected to be shot down haha!
I LOVE your suggestions, and particularly the first photo. The wheels are turning! (The beadboard looks nice too, but my hunch is the former style you posted looks classier and has more potential to look a little more contemporary?)
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"Because the shelves and walls behind them weren't configured for LED strip lighting, so significant reworking would be required, i.e. running power in the walls to the shelves and modifying the shelves to accommodate the lighting?" I'm not sure how familiar you are with low voltage LED tape that you configure yourself (I'm not talking about ready made fixtures) but if you're not, it might be worth a look. It's not as complicated, time consuming, difficult, or require the modifications you might think. In fact it's kind of fun to design and install. You'd only be running one line voltage drop - same as you will be necessary to the ceiling. This is a good website to learn more about all the possibilities and options: https://www.ledsupply.com/ Just another option to consider.
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Personal opinion: 9' isn't high enough to "need" a ladder. If I were doing built-in bookshelves for this height, I'd leave space at the top so I could put baskets on top -- and I'd store things that aren't used all that often in those baskets. Being not-quite 5' tall, I have step stools around the house, and I wouldn't mind fetching one to the bookshelf when I needed something out of those baskets.
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sabigabatini
Original Author
last year
Also, yes the mirror should probably go. I won’t miss it being there however it does make more light bounce around the room via the reflection of the window light…)
Jilly
last year
last modified: last year
Yes, I totally agree. I love the grasscloth. :)

You could certainly keep the mirror, and still do something interesting behind the shelves. I agree with you about mirrors being nice for reflecting light, and adding dimension.
sabigabatini
Original Author
last year
I would never have thought of grasscloth in an application like that. Nice way to show off a beautiful textile.
Jilly
last year
last modified: last year
This is another, if you ever decide to remove the mirror (but I like the mirror, too, just throwing out ideas) …
Sherry8aNorthAL
last year
last modified: last year
Yes to getting rid of the mirror. The only mirror that should be in a bedroom is maybe a small one over a dresser. (For reasons we won't go into here, lol.)
sabigabatini
Original Author
last year
I’m with you Sherry on the reasons!
palimpsest
last year
I might paint them the wall color, rather than white.
sabigabatini
Original Author
last year
@Palimpsest I am considering that too…

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