Hanging Bookshelf

My good friend Liz approached me and asked if I'd be willing to make/decorate her a small hanging bookshelf for a cozy cottage bunk bed room. I happily agreed!

The only things she said were:

• I should take a paint chip to match the yellow of the other furniture
• She showed me a particular quilt that would be living in that room
• She had the dimensions she wanted for the shelf unit.

The room has a yellow dresser and side table, a top twin sized bunk and a bottom double sized bunk.  I took a paint chip from the dresser so I could match the paint and went on my way.

I sat and thought a lot about how I was going to find a book shelf matching the dimensions... I normally create my projects from things I find in peoples trash or on craigslist. I did a little research and learned that there is a custom wood furniture/shelving place right around the corner from where I live. I talked to them and they said they could make me a shelf fitting those specs.  Perfect!

I went to the paint store in hopes of them matching the paintchip I had. Unfortunately I didn't bring enough of the paint color for them to match using their fancy machine, so it was up to my eye and Peters encouragement to get the right color or at least a close match. I finally settled on what would be the yellow and hoped it would match. IT DID!

I sketched out a number of designs for it, that incorporated the wedding ring quilt idea. I settled on one design and began. I painted the whole shelf yellow. Then I made a stencil, traced it on to the side of the shelf and painted it white. THEN came the decoupaged quilting.

The pictures can tell you the rest of the story.

I cut out paper 'patches' out of decorative paper. I decoupaged them onto the shelf using Mod Podge and a polycrylic top coat.

Next time I am at Liz's cottage I will try to take a picture of the whole room. You can see the quilt in the very last photo. I had fun making this for her, and am glad that it fits in so well with the rest of the decor.