I’m sure that many of you are familiar with Liz Galvan’s blog, Liz Marie Blog. If not, you should definitely check it out.
I’m obsessed with her style. I mentioned last week that I wish I had a magic wand for decorating and could just wave it and magically transform my house. If I had that wand, I would wave it once and my whole house would now look like Liz’s house.
Not only do I love her style in general, but I also admire her bravery when it comes to things like painting all of her floors white. I love that she doesn’t aim for perfection, or feel the need to spend a lot of money on every project. Her recent staircase makeover is a case in point.
Well, as we’ve already established, I don’t have that magic wand so I’ve decided to start transforming my house in a more practical way, one step at a time.
Item no. 1 on my to-do list was repainting and restyling the built in bookcases in my living room. I’ve totally taken my inspiration from Liz’s home office built in bookcases.
After all, my bookcases already had the bare bones in place. They even have the same bead board backs. They just needed a fresh coat of paint. Here’s how they looked before. White on the outside, and a blue green color on the inside.
By the way, have I ever mentioned that my handyman/neighbor Ken built these bookcases? And he did it for the previous owners of my house. I didn’t even know that until after we’d lived in our house for 20 years or so! I always just assumed they were original to the house.
Anyway, they’ve undergone a couple of transformations since we’ve lived here. The last one was a coat of blue-green paint on the insides that would showcase my pottery collection.
To prep the shelves, Mr. Q sanded them lightly all over for me and vacuumed up as much of the dust as possible. Then I wiped them down with hot water and a cloth.
Next came two coats of Fusion’s Raw Silk (thank you Fusion for supplying the paint needed for this project). It took most of two jars to paint the insides of the shelves along with the long shelf that sits on top of the radiator under the windows.
Fusion Mineral Paint is always my go-to paint for things like shelves. It’s extremely durable and washable once cured. It doesn’t require a topcoat, so less money spent on products and less time spent applying them. I painted the plant ledge in my dining room window in Raw Silk two years ago and it has held up beautifully, even though it frequently gets wet and dirty.
I also decided to remove the wood corbels at the inner corner of each shelf and replace them with a rusty, crusty pair of metal brackets that I had on hand. I found these at a garage sale several years ago and always intended to use them somewhere in my own house.
Luckily my bff was here helping me paint this weekend so I was able to have her and Mr. Q hold them in place so I could see how they would look before we installed them.
I gave the shelves a couple of days to dry thoroughly before putting things back in. You need to give any type of paint time to cure to reach maximum hardness. I find that is especially important for shelves that you’ll be putting lots of stuff on. Total cure time for Fusion paint is 21 days, but surfaces can be gently used after 24 – 48 hours of dry time.
Next came the fun part. I pulled out all of my black and white vintage goodies and started styling.
I brought in quite a few of my vintage cameras, as well as a couple of my vintage alarm clocks.
I returned most of my white pottery to the shelves as well.
I purchased this gorgeous old scale at Reclaiming Beautiful a while back and hadn’t quite found a home for it until now.
I added a few old family photos too.
I absolutely love the new look of these shelves, and now I can check off the first project on my magic wand decorating list!
Next on the list is painting the walls in the living room and as I mentioned, my bff came over to help me with that over the weekend. I’ll be sharing their new look on Friday, so be sure to stay tuned!
q is for quandie 
I love your home…it’s just so…well, homey. As beautiful as all of those white, white, white blog homes are, they leave me feeling cold. I love the new look to your shelves too.
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Well, I admit I do love that all white look. But I haven’t quite gone in that direction entirely with this room, as you’ll see when I share the wall color later this week 🙂
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Revamping living spaces is so rewarding. It always makes me feel good when I can check things off a list that I have created. Don’t cut yourself short. You have a great eye for design and decor! I am sure that this space will be fabulous!! I am looking forward to following you on your journey and seeing the finished projects. 😊
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It feels so good to have made some headway on my list!
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The corbels are the perfect touch. Love the black and white theme, it’s so classic. Great makeover (but I loved the turquoise, too). Looking forward to the wall update!
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Thanks Laura!
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Man I wished I had stood like Mr. Q. He had a way better pose than I did. Those shelves look incredible!!!
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LOL, yeah, he has the ‘hand on your hip’ thing down pat 😉
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When I saw that photo, mostly I thought, “Old bald guy!”
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You forgot “handsome”!
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Raw Silk is a perfect white! I like how the new corbels add a touch of “movement” and the color pulls your black and white theme together nicely. Looking forward to the full reveal!
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The Raw Silk definitely blends well with all of my existing white trim, which is fantastic because I didn’t have to repaint everything! Just the insides of the shelves got painted.
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Beautiful. Love the metal brackets. Mr. Q’s stance looks like he’s thinking, ‘hurry up and take the photo.’
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LOL, that is probably pretty accurate mind reading Maureen!
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I love the re-do! Those brackets are awesome! How strange, I know, but they kinda made my heart skip a beat! They definitely”spark joy” in me. Lol!
I just can’t wait to see the rest on Friday!
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LOL, you must be watching that Marie Kondo show. But you’re so right, they spark joy in me too 🙂 I’m glad I finally got them up. Once again it was one of those things that wasn’t at all difficult to do, made a huge difference, and leaves me wondering why I don’t make these sort of changes more often.
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So lovely! I love Liz’s blog also and your bookcases look amazing! The power of paint always amazes. A small change with a big impact!
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For sure! And just wait until you see the walls 😉
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So c-o-o-o-l!
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Thanks Valerie 🙂
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Styled to perfection! They look wonderful! The brackets really fit well there. Can’t wait to see the full reveal!
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Thanks Meggan!
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Love it, love, love it. I’ve been into black and white for a couple years now. This has such a fresh, crisp look buffered a bit by your fabulous non collections. Look forward to the Friday reveal.
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I knew those non collections were going to come in handy one day 😉
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Love Liz Marie too! I want our shop to look like hers! I loved your shelves before but also love the black and white😊we are up to the same things-just painted kitchen cabinets raw silk and am changing from blues and a bit of red to black and white-urban boho farmhouse vibes!
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One of these days I’m going to have to tackle the kitchen cabinets at my house too. I bet your’s look fantastic!
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Beautiful job again! Funny, I turn to you for painting, styling and decor ideas. I love the way you staged your shelves with all the wonderful vintage items you adore. Every part of your home you’ve shared with us has given me ideas on what I’d like to do in my own home. Your bedroom is amazing and I’d love to be able to do something like that. Congratulations on completing step 1 of your home refresh plans. I’m looking forward to seeing step 2.
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