my bookcases.

as i've mentioned, i painted our ikea billy bookshelves. last summer, my dad and i spent a day assembling and installing 2 ikea bookshelves into our living room. we sawed down the bottoms so that the shelves would be flush with the wall, and look more like built ins. we also built a shelf in the middle of the 2.layer to sit. anyway, it used to look like this:

but, i got a desire for something darker, so this is what it looks like now:

clearly, i still need to do the tiny area between the tv and the shelf :)

i painted them with an oil-based primer (that took about 2 days to fully dry!), then hand-mixed a deep grey to paint them. i love them now! i also installed little bookshelf lights in the tops, and have left out the top 2 shelves for the past few weeks.

here are some snapshots along the shelves. i love all the colors.

the bulldog used to be white. i painted him "tomato" last week.

the two paintings on either side are oils from thrift stores a few years ago. i pulled them out of the attic, and they went on display! they look great with the bookshelf lights.