before and after: orange bookcase

In lieu Five Things Friday I am going to show off my pretty new bookcase that I mentioned last week.

I have been craving two things for our main living space; more storage and color. I had decided to buy the expedit bookcase from IKEA. It was fairly inexpensive and would give us the needed storage space even though it's bland and cheaply made. The day before my IKEA run I swung by the Salvation Army nearest my house and found this:

I knew immediately that she was going home with me and I knew just what I was going to do with her! I had just seen this a couple of days previous and loved it. Michael helped me add the vertical pieces. I chose Benjamin Moore oil paint (this piece is going to see a lot of wear and oil is so much more durable than latex) in Tawny Day Lily. It is the perfect reddish orange color (though it appears more red in the photos than it really is).

The bookcase was tagged at $50. I was able to get 10% off. $45 is still a ton of money for me to spend on thrifted furniture but this bookcase was perfect! So much better than the expedit I was planning on spending $70 on. My thrifted bookcase is solid wood and it's longer and narrower than the expedit. It fits in my family room perfectly! With the cost of paint, I spent about the same as the expedit shelves but I got something that is unique and won't fall apart in a year!

On top of the bookcase I have a little teal lamp from Target, a rose votive (Michael bought it for me at a local boutique), two thrifted books- I loved the pretty printed covers, and a little bird- also from Target, a few years ago.

I am really, really happy with it. So happy that I don't want to put anything in it! But this house is lived in. It's not a museum. There will soon be library books and baskets of toys and diapers filling these shelves. As they should be.

Happy weekend!