Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Tutorial: Fabric Covered Shelves

I've slowly but steadily been making some progress on my studio.  Up until recently, I've been scrounging around for my crafting supplies amongst 15 half-unpacked boxes sitting smack dab in the middle of the room.  It didn't really lend itself to a very efficient or organized creative process - both of which I lack in even the best of circumstances.

While I was hoping to thrift or purchase some sort of lovely storage system, our budget didn't have room for anything to my liking, so we ended up installing a super cheap track shelving system.  It definitely gets the job done, but isn't very pretty to look at - especially when all that we were using as the shelves themselves were 6 foot unfinished pine boards.
I decided to pretty them up with some vintage sheets this past weekend, and here's how I did it....

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First I painted the boards with two coats of primer.  I'm not entirely sure if this is a necessary step, but some of the sheets were on the sheer side, so it keeps the knots and the wood grain from showing through.

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Starting at one end, I coated a section of the board in spray adhesive and smoothed the sheet flat. 

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I continued all the way down the board until the first side was covered.

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Then I flipped it over and did the same thing to the other side.

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I folded the ends up - gift wrap style - after giving it another good shot of spray adhesive.

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Then I painted a good coat of Mod Podge all the way down the seam and on the folded over edges.


And voila!  It took about 15 minutes in the sunshine to dry, and I had them screwed into the shelving system in no time.  Overall this project took maybe an hour to complete and didn't even use up the entire can of adhesive.  

Even my husband was impressed at how smooth and clean they turned out.  And I thought for sure I was going to end up in a sticky mess of glue and frayed sheets. 


The only thing left to do is load it up with craft supplies and think about what else I'm going to cover in fabric!


24 comments:

  1. super cute, will post this next month when giveaway month is over...!

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  2. nice job! dang i wish i had that much shelving in my workroom.

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  3. Great idea!
    I have a set of the bouquet sheets too! [3rd from top when the shelves are hung]

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  4. What a great idea to spruce things up a bit!

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  5. Between the shelves and the scroll supports, it looks lovely. Not at all like you would except a track shelving system to look. Well done!

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  6. OKay, had to pin this one! So cool :)

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  7. I blogged about this one here - http://emilyflippinmaruna.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/make-make-monday-vintage-sheets-upcycled/

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  8. Now those rock! Great way to add a lot of style with minimum effort and not a lot of cash. They look fantastic.

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  9. Very cute. Great tutorial. I wonder if I'm brave enough to cover some furniture in sheets. Hmmm. I'll have to ponder that one.

    Thanks again for playing in the Vintage Sheet Blog link party.

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  10. So cute. I absolutely love this idea. Thank you so much for sharing. I am always looking for more storage in my shipping area and I was about to put up ugly track shelving. Now I can put up pretty track shelving!

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  11. Super cute way to pretty up and personalise your shelves. I can't believe how smooth they turned out! Great job. :)

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  12. Adorable, Thank you for the great idea!!! I miss you, I'll call soon!!

    Auntie Carol

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  13. Yes! Too cute! I'm bookmarking this. Thanks for poasting.

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  16. This is pure genius! I found the tutorial through Pinterest, naturally, and I also featured it, with a link back, on my blog. The post is due up on Sunday.
    http://raindropsandrotini.wordpress.com
    Best,
    RW

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  17. Brilliant idea and easy enough for me to do!

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