Over the summer, my husband and I picked up two amazing shelves at a yard sale. They were old, dusty, and outdated but their potential was hard to miss.
In this post, I'm sharing all about the easy DIY Mod Podge project I tackled to give one of these shelves new life.
(The other shelf I'm saving for a chalk paint project. More on that later.)
I'm a collector of chachkies (this is the yiddish word for trinkets and collectables) and this shelf has
plenty of storage space for random stuff. That being said, knowing this shelf would be holding things and would be restyled every now and then, I knew I wanted to use a Mod Podge that could handle the commotion.
For this reason I bought "Mod Podge Hard Coat." I have never used this type before but after reading a bit online, I found out it's great for a more durable finish.
With my 50% coupon, it was $6.50 at the craft store.
For this project, I also needed spackle (the kind you put in holes in the wall before painting). We had this at home but if you're in search of it, check a hardware or craft store.
I decided right away that I did not want the bottom wooden part sticking out. My poor husband (who was told he would not have to help with this project) was bothered 5 minutes in. He used pliers to pull out the wooden pieces and was a good sport about it. ;)
At this point, I realized it was 11 degrees outside and I was working in my slippers (see photo) so I decided it was time to bring it on in.
Next was cleaning. This shelf needed a good wipe down. Paper towel with some water and a drop of dish soap was all it took. A whole lot of dust came off. That photo is just from the bottom part. Gross-ness.
Now comes the Patch-n-Paint. You won't need to dirty or purchase any tools to get this on there. I used my finger and then smoothed it out with a piece of cardboard. (Again, thank you, hubby! His idea, not mine.)
After days of waiting for warmer weather (we had a ridiculously cold week), I decided to give up and just work inside the house. If you have the chance to do this project outside, I recommend it. The Mod Podge fumes get VERY stinky.
I worked on a cut up paper bag on the kitchen table and prepped all the materials I'd need:
Scissors
Mod Podge
lots of pages from a book
a good brush
This next part took a long time but I enjoyed it. The pages needed to be cut up into various sizes. I then painted the wood first with the Mod Podge, covered it with the piece of the page, painted over that page with more Mod Podge, and then repeated this step over and over.
It took a few days (because I only worked on this while my toddler was napping), but it could have easily been done in one day.
The BIGGEST PAIN was getting the edges. I needed to cut up, glue, and re-glue very thin slivers of paper on those tiny edges. If you are doing this project on a straight edge shelf, this part wont be as tedious for you.
And here it is. All done and hung up in the living room. Ta- Da!
The Mod Podge seal is amazing. Very impressive. I will do an update here in a few weeks to let you know how it's held up. Especially after dusting.
If you take this project on please let me know how it goes for you!