Sunday, March 28, 2010

Land of Nod Bankable Bookcase Knock Off

Ana from Knock Off Wood is a genius. Pure and simple.

She saw this:

And created these:

Which I used to make this:
Which I already mentioned here.

Most of you said to paint it white or pink. To quote my current favorite film:

"I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm gonna ignore your advice."

{For the rest of that exchange click here or just watch the movie. It's brilliant.}

I bucked the trend and did YELLOW. And I.LOVE.IT. It took a little longer than I hoped, but only because I have project ADD and I had a little snag along the way.

I wanted all my pieces of wood to be flush with one another, and for whatever reason (whether it was my fault for not squaring them up as I built or maybe they weren't cut completely square) I had little spaces between my side supports and my shelves. So the easy solution? A tiny bead of caulk smoothed to give it a polished look. The problem? I bought one tube of caulking to re-seal the shower surround and the drywall and didn't pay attention to the big bold lettering that said NOT PAINTABLE and realized this only after I applied it to every nook and gap on my bookshelf and attempted to paint all the corners before rolling the rest of the color on. OOPS! So it probably took a good day to scrape all the thoroughly-dried silicone caulking off and another day to reapply with a paintable latex caulking.

I chose to leave the curvature off the top of the bookcase for a more modern, adult look, as well as leaving the supports at angles instead of curving. The result is a lot of perfect lines that make it 100% useable storage for kids and adults alike!

If you're sitting there, possibly scratching your head and thinking...hmm...is that a purse down there in that picture? Is that purse the same color? Uh, yes. Yes it is and yes it is. It's obvious that I love that color, no? 'Cuz I really do. Truly.

I really think without Ana's plans I wouldn't have ever attempted this, so a heart-felt thank you goes out to her. WAY out to her {she's in AK}.

What's next? Well, besides two more of these in the works, I think I need a bench with storage for my project room/studio. We shall see, shan't we?

9 comments:

momtofatdogs said...

WOW ! That is really beautiful. you did a great job. I like yellow too........painted 2 bedrooms tha same color. Yellow. Benjamin Moore's "Moonlight" - it's the same color I had my kitchen & guest bedroom painted in my house in Alabama. There is nothing wrong with liking the color yellow. It's bright, it's cheery, it's mellow. It's YELLOW !!! ha Ha

Sam

Tatia said...

You are freakin' amazingly talented! What fun to find you have a blog! I added you to my list, let the blog-stalking begin! I sure miss you chelsea!

Micah and Melinda said...

AWESOME!!! I am glad you didn't listen to me!

laura said...

i love the color! it looks awesome!

Becka Beacham said...

I can't get over how crafty you are. I should, I've known it for years (how crazy is that) but it seems every week you come up with something new that is just outstanding.
When I grow up, I'm making you my decorator.

keighty said...

So I saw this and said, "Honey! Honey!" and showed Bobby the website. He's so excited to have a basement and a shop at our new place. His response? "That takes the fun out of it."

Sigh. But it's SO cute! And good color choice (as if your taste should ever be questioned).

megs said...

This is so awesome!! I love it, and feel totally inspired... not enough to actually make a storage bench (genius idea) or a toy chest... but I can picture it and think about how I would totally love to try it!

Chelsea said...

Thank you so much everyone. I can still see the flaws in it and know it's not perfect, but now I know how to do it better next time!

brooke said...

so does that mean you will want to get rid of the first, flawed one?
i could totally take ot off your hands.
hehe
i love it and can't wait to see it in your craft room all cutely doing it's storage duties!!