This is a DIY project that has already been tried and trued, but I wanted to write up a post on my experience in building the ever so popular gold and marble bookshelf. It’s incredible how much of a different paint and contact paper can do to give furniture a completely new look.
It’s amazing how much of a difference paint and contact paper can do to give furniture a completely new look. The Ikea Vittsjo bookshelf is a standard one, with not too many bells and whistles. If you’re looking for a display shelf, this one will do the job. The glass shelves give it a more contemporary look, and keeping it the black or white colours that it already comes in can work for many rooms. However, as all Ikea items go, you can always spruce them up to personalize them and make them your own. For this project, it doesn’t matter whether you buy the black or white one, because you’ll put a coat of white primer beforehand.
Caution: The box is extremely heavy when you go to the store, and it just fits in a sedan. I suggest that you go with someone (ideally someone who’s strong and muscular to effortless help you lug this giant box to the car) and to load it into a roomy car. I drive a Mazda 3 and the shelf ran from the trunk through the front passenger seat. I went to a local hardware store to pick up a can of primer (white), lacquer (clear) and metallic gold paint. I initially bought 2 cans, thinking that it would suffice, but I had to go back the following day to pick up 2 more cans.
The DIY was complete in all a day’s work. The assembling of the shelf took longer than expected because although they’re simply rods that screw one into the other, there are some that have holes for screws and need to be in specific places (I learned this towards the end of assembling and had to take it apart to switch some around, so be careful kids!). I noticed that the metal scuffs very easily, but I didn’t mind so much because I was painting over it, but if you choose to keep it au naturel, make sure you assemble it on grass or on a soft surface. Once it was all in one piece, I placed a open garbage can on the grass and stood the shelf on top of it. An alternative would be to lay the shelf on its side so that you’re working horizontally, but I thought in doing it vertically, I would paint it 360 all at once rather than one half, letting it dry, flipping it over, and painting the other side.
Priming the shelf was really quick and it dried fairly quickly. This is an optional step, but I really wanted to gold paint to adhere properly on to the metal. When I started spraying the gold paint, it took me some time to get used to spraying in long strokes back and forth rather than concentrating in one area until the gold colour really set in. It took some time because I would start painting the front, then go in the back to paint the back rods, but then I realized that I needed to also paint the back of the front rods. Although there are only four sides to the shelf, I felt like there were tenfold. The paint dried fairly quickly as well and I kept going back and putting several coats to really enrich the gold colour. Once I was satisfied with the gold all around, it was time to spray the lacquer. This is a protector that will shield the gold paint from any scuffs or marks. Again, this is an optional step. You can simply get away just the gold spray paint, but if you know me, if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it properly.
This shelf comes with two boards, one that goes on the top and one on the bottom as the last shelf. To tie in with the gold metal, I bought marble contact paper from the dollar store and covered them.
Overall, I’m ecstatic with the results and how it looks in my bedroom. I wanted to redecorate the room and already just having it in here makes a significant difference. It’s so pretty and allows me to display pretty things on it. In all, it cost me $150 to complete the DIY. If you were to purchase a gold bookshelf, it would run you at least $200+, so this is an excellent alternative.
Like it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Leave a Reply