Distressed Shelf

With all this warm weather lately, I've been craving touches of bold color around my house. Mainly, I've had a soft spot for shades of teal. I guess I miss living near the ocean sometimes. I've also got an eye for distressed, antique, and vintage furniture. So, when I found an old bookshelf from my very first apartment (my first staining project), I decided to try my very first distressing project. I wanted this to be fun and not worry about being a perfectionist, so Baby Bear and I worked on this project together. He loved being mama's little helper!

I had just enough blue and yellow acrylic paints leftover from another project to mix together and make teal. Baby Bear thought he was big stuff when I let him paint a shelf rather than just a piece of paper! It took a little smoothing over on my part, but imperfections were fine because we were going to start distressing as soon as it was dry.

Later in the day, Baby Bear and I took some sandpaper to the shelf. I focused mainly on the edges because that's where furniture tends to wear and tear most as time goes on. Baby Bear focused wherever he wanted. :-) During his nap, I took the shelf to the opposite end of the house and banged at it with objects that left small dents and scratches... mainly, a light-weight hammer. I tried to imagine how hard I was on my furniture as a child, bumping, knocking, and dropping various objects in my youthful carelessness, and I acted accordingly. I kind of wish I had done this part on a more stressful day because that would have been a great stress reliever!

It turned out pretty well for my very first furniture distressing project, if I do say so myself. I'm glad I chose a shelf I had considered throwing away anyway, and I'm glad I let Baby Bear help. I was able to let go of my perfectionist tendencies and just have fun.