{DIY} Rustic Bookshelves

On Saturday, I told you I had a couple projects up my sleeve that needed to be done around the house. Ready for the first one? 

On Saturday afternoon, my husband and I (but actually just my husband. I cooked lunch while he was working on this project) got to work on revamping our cheap bookshelves. 

These puppies have been through a lot. They first started as a cherry veneer. Then I painted them brown. Then I painted them white. Then I put contact paper on the backs of them. What can I say? I like to change things up a lot. 

Then I saw this idea: 

  {source}

Please don't pin this picture from here. You can click the picture to go right to the source and then pin it. I don't want people to think I made that beautiful bookcase!  Thanks! 

The wheels started turning and I realized I could use my old bookshelves and simply use pallets to cover the backs. It would make them sturdier AND give them a little rustic flare.

After scouring around town looking for free pallets and only finding them when I was on a walk (pretty difficult to carry one of those things home while pushing a stroller), Faith called me up and said she knew where we could get some free pallets. Sweet! 

Jesse was gracious and went along with my idea although he wasn't all for it at the time. After we measured the back of one of the bookshelves, he got to work pulling the pallets apart and cutting each board down to fit the backs. Let me just tell you, that wasn't the most fun job that I have ever put before him, but he got it done! We brought the shelves outside and he used his nail gun to attach each board to the back. 

And just in case you are questioning why two shelves aren't covered with boards, we ran out of wood, but you can't tell because the books hide the emptiness. (If we want to later we can get more pallets and finish it up)

Here they are all prettied up:

 I actually pared down some of my books and items that were on the shelves so that things didn't look so busy. Here is what they looked like before I decluttered: 

And after!

One more close up: 

I am loving this rustic look. After they were all done, Jesse even admitted that he thought they didn't look too bad. :) 

 

I have one more project to show you...but you can see that on Saturday. This one I am very happy about!! 

Pallets. Who knew that they would be more useful than just keeping things up off the ground? 

Want some more bookshelf reading? Check out what Melody did to her bookshelf a little while ago.  

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