Back of Bookshelves... Not What I Planned


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What a crazy week, last week was... Crazy but exciting because my daughter and her fiancé came to visit. I miss them so much! So between cleaning and finishing up some projects there was ZERO time to sit at the computer and push out a post... That's life sometimes.

Anyways, here I am, with an update on those bookshelves. This is where I left you last time. Empty bookshelves and...
Den Bookshelves

A painted wall...
Den wall painted

If you want to see how I got to this point and the paint colors pop on over to
One Thing Leads To Another...Books To Painting?


It's not to hard to figure out that, I decided that the backs of the bookshelves need to be lightened up. Hence, the taped up paper in the first photo. I just thought that it would really transform those shelves and lighten up the entire room.

My plan was to quickly sand the backs and paint them to match the light gray of the wall. Well, here's how that all went...
Sanding backs of shelves

Typical, nothing difficult. I've done this a ton of times before.  All I need to do is rough up the shiny and roll on my tough as nails primer.  My favorite is Zinsser 123 Primer.



Seriously, this is the best! But this time.... something was wrong. Oh, so wrong!! But it wasn't the primer.
Primer not sticking to surface!

Are you seeing this??? The back of the bookcase is repelling the primer off of the surface! When it dried, I could easily just scratch it off....NO!

So, Hubby got out the power sander and we gave those babies a good thorough sanding... Nope, the same thing! I can not believe this! I've never encountered a surface that would NOT accept primer like this! I was sooo upset.

Now what? I don't have time for this!!

I can't leave them the way they were, now they are definitely UGLY!

Contact paper, that was the only solution I could think of. You can see how they were sanded down. Unbelievable??!!
Contact paper is the solution

It's not exactly what I was hoping for, but hubby picked this out. Seriously, this was the best option available. So, we went with it. 

Let's not forget, that I'm trying to get this bookcase finished and put back together BEFORE my daughter and her fiancé get here! 😳  No pressure, right? Ha!

Well, I got them done! And hubs put the backs on and stood them up. 😊
Bookshelves with contact paper back

Not bad.... Not what I wanted in the first place, but we're going to have to work with it! Okay, now to work on filling those shelves up! Fyi... I did get the room all cleaned up before they came this past weekend! I can't wait to show you how the shelves came out!

Blessings!

4 comments

  1. That surface is so hard to paint! Nice job in the end though!

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    1. Hi Eliesa! You are so right!! Thanks for reading! :)

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  2. What, Zinsser didn't work? That's like the best primer. I use that to cover bad stains on walls. I am so sorry it didn't work. that stinks! But the contact paper looks great though. I guess it worked out in the end even if it probably cause you a couple of grey hairs. lol

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  3. Plan B turned out great!
    :) gwingal

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