From Drab to Doily

All credit goes to my creative mother on this one. I am merely the messenger telling you what she did for this easy, DIY furniture refashion.

I do not have a picture of the original, bare wood bookshelf, so you will have to imagine it. It  was a very reddish stain, and it did not go with anything. The first step in the bookshelf's transformation was a black bath. It looked so much better painted black, but it was rather plain. My mom decided to dress it up with some doily designs.
She repainted the top of the bookshelf tan, as well as the very top of the sides. ("Sauteed mushroom" is the official name of the color, in Lowe's Valspar latex enamel interior/exterior paint) and it's the same as the neighboring walls. She also bought paper doilies from Wal-Mart and used them like stencils. Sticking them in place with tightwad's double-stick tape-- single-sided masking tape rolled into a double-stick loop-- she eyeballed the placement of the doilies. On each end of the bookcase half a doily hung over the edge. The other half, of course, was on the horizontal top surface.
Next, using a foam paint brush, she painted around the doily edge, and in all the little holes.

 

The paper plate you see in the picture is where she kept her paint. This was one of those on-a-whim late night projects, so I am excited that I have all these pictures of the process. Most, if not all, of the 'during' pictures were taken by my talented sister. Can you tell she loves close-ups?

Anyways, the doilies were not just on the ends. Another picture (below) is faster than a thousand words to show you the staggered placement of the doilies.

And finally, the finished product, in the lovely light of day:

(I took these 'after' pictures. The "BLESS OUR HOME" mirror matches perfectly, and we didn't even plan it. The mirror was a gift. The framed photo on the bookshelf, which I intentionally stayed away from, is of little old me. My sister took the picture of me and edited it.)