Bookcase Gussy Up

My lovely husband has a unique hoarding gene for books. He loves to read, which is great. Read on, man. But, he also loves to keep every single book he reads. No matter what it is. Of course, we have to keep the Harry Potter series - I get that. But, the $4 fantasy/science fiction books he buys on Amazon that aren't even pretty to look at? That I don't get. He says he might read them again. Someday.

Anyways, long story long, we need more book storage. So I went down to Ikea and picked up a cheap-o bookcase for $25. Not particularly pretty, but not ugly. Just basic. And that meant I could do something to spruce it up. So before we put the whole thing together, I went on down to T-ville, aka Target, and picked up some wrapping paper for about $3 in a pretty pattern. 

Before using the 50 nails they give you to attach the back piece to the bookcase, I took some double sided tape and attached the wallpaper to the backing.

I rolled out the paper to see how much I would need.

Applied the double stick tape to the front side of the backing. I used it fairly generously, but it was only wrapping paper so it was pretty thin. Not a lot needed to keep it to stay. Plus, once we nailed it on it had extra staying power.

I turned the wrapping paper good side down, as well as the backing, then applied the double stick tape to the back side of the backing. Then I just folded over the excess wrapping paper so it pulled snug against the front of the backing (kind of like wrapping a present).

Then, the husband and I had a contest to see who could nail in the most mini nails first (I think I won). I really like the end result! It's like a surprise pop of color!

Isn't it fun? It would be so easy to do with any kind of fun wrapping paper, or even wallpaper (although it might be a little more expensive). You could even use some fabric to add some texture too. I'd like to paint the bookshelf white, but that might be a little bit down the road. For now, it's just the added color we needed to spice up the office.