Creative Vintage Shelves

I love having many shelves and I hate boring bland things. So this time I decided to decorate my shelves before putting them up on the wall.

The final look of a shelf

Firstly, get some wooden planks, which will become your shelves. I then took some newspapers, modge podge, sandpaper, stain&seal wood stain (rustic yellow) and I even had some washi tape.

Step 1:

Apply modge podge to the plank and cover the top with newspaper cuttings (or paper, patterned paper, serviettes of your choice). Rub out most air bubbles by using a brush, and paint more layers of modge podge over (I did another 2 layers).

Step 2:

When completely dry, I used the sand paper around the edges and over the newspaper. This gives it a more torn and used look, which is what I want.

Step 3:

Paint over with the stain&seal wood colour. I painted two layers, giving each layer a chance to dry properly.

First layer of wood stain

Second layer of wood stain

Step 4:

After the wood stain has dried properly, and remember to paint both sides of the plank otherwise it looks silly (or at least it looked silly to me), you can put your shelves up.

Shelves up

Step 5:

I think this step is optional, but I felt like something was missing. I used washi tape on the sides of each shelf.

Washi Tape

Note:

• You don't have to use newspaper to cover your shelves, in fact any paper will look good and serviettes can be used as well.
• When using serviettes, remember that they consist of 3 layers. You need to remove the layers carefully and only use the printed layer. Work carefully, as this thin layer tears easily.
• You can cut your paper into different shapes, for example stars and cover the shelves with stars.