Well it is Sunday afternoon and I have officially accomplished my weekend bookshelf project and I have to say, it could have gone worse. No, seriously I am 99% happy with the finished product. I’m not fully convinced yet that it was worth the amount of effort I put into it (I’m also not totally convinced that any other person would have had to put as much effort into it as I did), but I am completely thrilled to have a bookshelf up in the kid’s bedroom with lots and lots of fabulous books!

When I started this project on Friday, I had visions of a quick and painless painting project that would end in a gloriously beautiful soft yellow bookshelf. What I got was 5 trips to Lowes, 3 looooong days, a sunburn, and a mustard colored bookshelf. “Golden Maize,” my foot. Seriously, right now I look like I just finished some sort of hot dog eating contest. I’m gonna chalk this color fail up to false advertising and painting while wearing sunglasses. So while it’s not exactly what I envisioned, it is an awesome bookshelf hand-painted by moi that they better will enjoy for years to come.

And, even though I’m not thrilled with the color, this is definitely my very favorite part of their rooms so far. I LOVE to read and I hope to pass that love onto [A] and [G]. I remember in elementary school, the only thing I ever got in trouble for (but it happened quite a bit) was always finishing my work too fast so that I could just take out my book and read. One of the most wonderful things I remember from my childhood was every Christmas for many, many years my awesome Maw Maw and Poppy would give me a Belk sweater box full of books. Those were always some of my very, very favorite gifts growing up and I have always cherished each and every book I have ever owned. There are so many books (many that came straight from those sweater boxes) from my childhood that meant so much to me and seeing them now brings back such great memories. As I put [A] and [G]‘s books on their new bookshelf, I couldn’t help but wonder which of these books will mean that much to them? Which book will be their favorite? Which book will I read them at bedtime 2 or 3 months from now? I feel like sharing these books is sharing such an important part of me and I am so excited to finally do it!

So here are the pictures! Thanks again to Mandy for giving us this beautiful bookshelf!

This is the “before” after I had sanded it down.
And this is the “after!” Whaddaya’ think?
And I have to close this post with one of my very favorite quotes ever:
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
-Groucho Marx