A little up-cycle project using an old, bruised & battered Billy bookcase.

This bookcase (well-used and well-loved) was looking a bit sad and was heading for the bin if I wasn't able to bring it back to life. With the help of a bit of chalk-paint, some pretty sheets of craft paper & some white glue, I think its looking pretty cute and is now allowed to stay for a bit longer.

Here is the bookcase after a coat of chalk paint on the outsides (I made up the chalk paint using an emulsion that I had left-over in the cupboard and some chalk). The top shelf was an "add on", handy, but pretty ugly, still, the chalk paint made a huge difference, especially after finishing the look off with some dark wax - not so shabby anymore. I knew that filling the shelf with books would hide the plainness, but I wanted something more striking.

I thought I'd enjoy trying a bit of decoupage again (the last time was back in the bad old '90's - actually - you can see it in the left side of the above photo, on the fireplace) and I was excited at the prospect of trying it again.

I had this craft paper sitting in my stationary drawer (I have also thought about card-making at some point), but I thought this would work really well.

I measured out what I'd need and loosely ripped it up into 4 and 6 bits per page - I knew I'd end up tearing up small bits to fit in too.

Here is the finished project - I think it's worked very well. Call me pretty pleased with myself!

All in all - it took about 3 hours to do and cost next to nothing!