Do you remember the bathroom modification from last week? Before those pretty white shelves went up, I had a different shelf above the toilet.
In the bathroom, it was quite useless. I got it from my late great-aunt almost two years ago. I knew something would need to be done to it eventually, but I couldn’t figure out what. For about a year and a half, I’ve been sitting on this project, looking at that shelf, trying to figure out what to do with it.
After putting up the shelves in the bathroom, I realized that this would probably look nice in the kitchen. Particularly over the kitchen sink. But do I stain it? Paint it? Maybe do some decoupage?
The decoupage part made me think about the Garden Harvest scrap paper book that I bought last summer. (Best buy I ever made at Michael’s, I think. I use it SO much!) After flipping through that for a couple minutes, I managed to find some inspiration! Here’s what I wound up with:
Isn’t it cute? I’ll give you a close up of the top in a minute. First, let me show you how I made it!
What you’ll need:
- a shelf
- two pieces of scrapbook paper
- sandpaper
- acrylic paint (I used Vanilla Ice Cream from Apple Barrel and Fawn from Americana)
- mod podge
- tacky glue/Elmer’s glue
- scissors
- a secondary sealant to go over the mod podge–handy if you’re going to put bottles of soap on your shelf, because the water will leave ugly marks in the mod podge
Step 01: I don’t know who made this, but they did a poor job of sanding. So I did that first. I had some trouble with the inside of the heart, though.
Step 02: Once I was satisfied with the smoothness, I put down a base coat of Vanilla Ice Cream. Originally, I thought I would weather the shelf, which is why I did that. But I changed my mind. However, I think putting down some white paint helped make the Fawn look more even.
Step 03: Once the white paint dried, I put down two coats of Fawn.
Step 04: While I waited on the paint to dry, I tore a piece of scrap paper out of the book, measured it and cut it into the dimensions I needed.
Isn’t it cute? I love this paper.
Step 05: Once the paint had dried, I glued the scrap paper to the top of the shelf. I actually used hot glue because I couldn’t remember what I did with my Elmer’s glue. Don’t use hot glue. It cools too quickly and will not allow the paper to lay flat against the wood. The glue you put under the paper is just to keep it in place while you mod podge, so just use Elmer’s (regular, clear, or tacky would be best).
When I placed my paper where I needed it, I began mod podging. I didn’t just mod podge the paper, though, I mod podged the whole shelf. (It makes such a nice sealant.)
Here’s what the top looked like once it had dried. I know there’s a crease where I had to use two pieces, but overall I’m happy with it. You can’t see the crease at all when it’s hanging up.
Zach hung it up for me since I’m so horrible at hanging things correctly. Everything in our apartment that I hung up is crooked. Bah.
It also looks quite nice with my dish brush holder. I wanted to set it on the shelf, but it was far too heavy.
I don’t particularly like my apple themed kitchen. Though I think an overall “garden” themed kitchen would be cute. I’ll probably start introducing more produce decorations over time. I also have some coffee themed stuff that I have other ideas for. Namely, my coffee station. Which doesn’t exist yet. But it will…eventually.
Isn’t that a nice change, though? 😀
As far as the price was concerned, the only thing I had to buy specifically for this project was the paint. Since I got it at Michael’s and Americana was the only brand that came even close to the color I wanted, I paid $1.29 for it. If I hadn’t had other things I needed to look at, I would have gone to Wal-Mart (Apple Barrel is a very nice brand and it’s only $0.50 a tube.) Everything else I used was already here. If you need to buy the scrap book paper, though, I think Michael’s has it for $1.00 or less a piece, depending on what you want.
If you use a lot of scrap book paper, I do fully recommend investing in a nice scrap book paper book from Michael’s. Find one with a lot of designs you like, wait until it goes on sale, and get it. Mine was originally $25, but it went on sale and I had a coupon, so I got it for $12. I use it all the time…and I have more plans for it in the future. 🙂