Before and After: Painted Office Bookcases in Seagull Gray

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Early last week, I spent the day painting the office bookcases in Seagull Gray using General Finishes Milk Paint  for the home office makeover. It felt really exciting to be making progress on this project because we originally started working on the office way back in February.   Of all the goals on our summer list, finishing the office was definitely at the top.

After searching every estate sale, thrift store and charity shop I could think of for months we finally decided we would have to build bookcases because we couldn’t find exactly what we were looking for. Then on a random day in July, I spotted these…

I couldn’t believe it. They had a closed storage on the bottom and everything!

Not to mention all those pretty details…

The bookcases were in great shape so I wiped them down with a damp cloth, lightly sanded and then added a coat of Zinsser 123 Primer. This primer sticks to a lot of different surfaces which makes it really easy to use.

It says “sticks without sanding” on the can but in my experience if the piece your painting is shiny even a little bit you need to lightly sand to give it a bit of tooth. I’ve been painting furniture for years now and I swear the first coat is still the scariest.

I almost didn’t even use the primer but you guys, anything that has an orange or a red tint is worth taking the extra time to prime. You just never know how it’s going to react to paint or if there will be any bleed through.

When I first saw these bookcases, I immediately saw them painted white backed with navy plaid paper. But once we decided to use the rug from the living room to warm up the office I knew we needed a plan B.

Given we’ve used varying shades of gray in almost every room of the house, gray became the obviously choice specifically General Finishes Milk Paint in Seagull Gray which is the same color the kitchen island is painted.

Two coats of Seagull Gray later, the office bookcases were finally starting to take shape.

We moved the bookcases into the office and my mom added the accessories I’ve been collecting here and there for a few months. You can check out what we’ve found on the treasure trail here.

Honestly these bookcases were such a lucky find because the size was perfect and they’re a great focal point surrounding the big picture window in the office too.

We were also able to organize the drawers and it’s made a huge difference cutting down on the paper clutter already. We had a small file organizer type drawer in here before and it was filled with papers related to the house.

So, there you have it, the office bookcases painted in General Finishes Seagull Gray. They really changed the look of the entire office. I can’t wait to show you the rest of the makeover tomorrow.

Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

 

Many blessings,

CoCo