A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.

When you're expecting a child, you start to think about things that may not have crossed your mind before. Of course, many people think of how many children they might want to have, what they'd like to name those said children or what kinds of sports and activities they'd like them to partake in. Additionally, if you're anything like me, you will be awoken from a deep slumber with anxious thoughts such as “what if my child doesn't like to read”. It’s a real fear if you, yourself, grew up an avid bookworm.

I know that we won’t have complete control over whether our first born daughter is a literary prophet or if she frequents sparknotes to complete her half-assed book reports, partially because I think that enjoying to read is both a mix of nature as well as nurture. You can lead a horse to water, but, you know the rest. However, we do plan on doing everything in our power to pave the way for her to read and to love reading.  What better place to start than by making sure she has her very own bookshelf? Which leads me to share this week’s post – our simple, DIY bookshelf refurbish.

We bought the shelf for $10 at our local Goodwill. Correction, the bookshelf was on sale for $10 at our local Goodwill and my mother, being who she is, went on Senior’s Discount Day and got it for us for $8. The lady is a bargain vulture; she circles far above your average bargain hunter, watching... waiting. Anyways, we got the bookshelf for 8 bucks and being the theme whore that I am, I knew it needed that extra ‘something’ to make it perfect for the nursery (which is, grey and white in colour with pops of yellow accents everywhere I can fit them). Note: Grey and Yellow is my absolute favourite colour combo of all time. It was also the colour theme for our wedding. When I like something, I really, really, really like it.

This DIY was an easy one, partially because it was my first attempt at refurbishing a bookshelf, and partially because I didn't want to spend too much time or energy on an intricate, detailed design when 90% of the shelf is going to be covered in books for the remainder of its life.

So, the steps are as follows.
1. We popped the back of the bookshelf off
2. We spray painted the back of the bookshelf
3.We nailed the back of the bookshelf back on

I thought, momentarily, about using painters tape to tape up a pattern which I could then paint over before removing. I also shopped around a bit for a nice fabric or paper that I could modge podge to the back of the bookshelf, but, I ended up taking the simpler route this time and I don’t regret it!

Whether she ends up using it to store her most favourite dog-eared, escapes from reality, or not, at least I will be able to sleep easier knowing that we are doing our part to give her the best start possible. If nothing else, the bookshelf makes a super cute feature piece in the corner of the nursery.