Last October I did a post called a Golden DIY. It was a simple craft, spray painting resin animal figures gold to use as accent pieces in a bookcase or on a table. I thought they came out pretty cool, and I have been wanting to do another set of them and add them to unfinished bookends.
You would think that finding unfinished bookends would be so easy — not the case!! I called several local unfinished furniture stores, visited the local craft stores, searched for them on Etsy and could not find them unfinished. My girlfriend did a little sleuthing (thank you!) and her search on Etsy proved more fruitful than mine and I was able to get a completely unfinished pair of very simple looking bookends ($10). This was several weeks ago and I’m still waiting for them to arrive.
What did arrive last week however was another pair I picked up on Etsy. They were billed by the seller as “vintage” for $20. Upon arrival and inspection they were most definitely hanging around unused on someones bookshelf for quite sometime. But I have to say I didn’t mind the color of them at all, in fact I was going to keep them as is and just tack the animals on, but in the end I decided to paint them (I noticed one of the books was upside down on one side so they actually looked funny). I painted them black at first and then changed my mind because I thought I might use them in my new little office space and black would not work. So I painted them with Benjamin Moore’s Silverland Pine. I think I will be able to use them, we’ll see!
Here is how it went….
“Vintage” bookends purchased for $20 on Etsy
Sanded them a bit and primed them
Sprayed the elephants purchased at A.C. Moore ($7.99 each)
Painted black and changed my mind
I added a touch of gold spray paint with a kids brush to highlight bookends and tacked on elephant with krazy glue
Finished product!
I know not everyone is into the animals, this is such a simple project and you can use anything, block letters would be cool too, baseballs for a little boys room or something for a babies room would be fun as well. Wherever your imagination takes you!
Have a beautiful day!!
Valarie – Your bookends came out stunning!!! What a fabulous idea!! I never would have thought of doing that plus I would have thought it would be too much work. Great job you make decorating so easy…,absolutely love your color choice, the white with gold touches and then adding the gold elephants are just awesome!! Great job!