Sprucing the den bookcase

We have this nice sized built-in bookcase in the den.  It was a little blah and I guess I just didn't have enough to do one day...it was one of those projects that morphs from something reasonable to something time-consuming...

Those bean bags need to go back out to the garage!

The bookcase needed dusting and re-arranging in the worst way.  Taking the things off the shelves, I realized that in places the shelves were yellowed and scratched up...so I removed them all and gave them a lick of fresh white paint.

 

Then I remembered I had seen other people paint the back of their bookcase a color to make the objects on the shelf stand out better.  We have been in this house 13 years and I haven't cleaned the book case out but maybe a couple times...I'm so ashamed....

 Oh what a fabulous job the person who built it did on cutting out the outlet opening.  Not.

And I am not fond of the random light switch here, but I have an idea of how to deal with both of those things...

I didn't want to rush out and buy new paint and I wanted it to go with everything in the room no matter the color scheme.  So I ended up using the same "oops" paint that I painted behind the couch and over the mantel.  It probably wasn't the best formula of paint - it has no primer in it, so its gonna be easy to destroy by scratching things against it until it cures... so, ya'll don't do that, K?

 I painted over the switch plate cover so it would just blend in...

I bought a blank to cover that outlet, which was inconvenient to use anyhow, then painted over it, too. 

Can you see it?

 I love this shade of green - Italian Olive - I painted hubby's owl in that color, too.  

This basket holds magazines.

 I'm not gonna win any wards for decorating, but it looks so much cleaner and nicer now.  It's a functional bookcase as it houses our DVD's, VHS tapes (yes. We have them), textbooks, and hubby's weather station.

But there are a few little touches here and there just  for pretty

No one here even noticed I had painted the back wall, and it ended up taking most of the afternoon, but like the crisp white against that sandy brown.  I'm thinking about making room for the owl to live over here, too.

Whatcha think?

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