Today’s post wraps up my week of blogging about the revamp of our family room fireplace and built-in bookcases (Monday’s post detailed painting the bookcases and adding new moulding and hardware and Wednesday’s post was a low-down on designing the stone veneer fireplace).
Start out by cutting your piece of burlap so that it is about 4″ longer and 4″ wider than the back of your bookcase. Iron out the wrinkles. One of your four edges will be a straight, “finished” edge (the original edge on the bolt of fabric) whereas the other three edges are probably a bit uneven because they have been cut – uneven is ok at this point! Starting with your finished edge, fold over 1″ of burlap along the entire length of the side and iron it down, keeping the ironed edge as straight as possible. Next, do the same thing (fold down and iron) along the entire length of one of the neighboring sides, making sure that your folded edge is straight and that there is a minimum of 1″ of burlap folded over along the entire length of the edge. Then, using the measurements of the height and width of your bookcase back, fold down and iron the length of the other two sides of your burlap piece so that the height and width of your burlap match that of the bookcase back. The final step to prepare your burlap is to cut the entire length of the three unfinished burlap edges exactly 1″ from the ironed edge – do so by using a yard stick or tape measure and marking a straight 1″ line with a fabric marking pen or chalk:
Once you have done this to all three unfinished edges, the back of your piece of burlap should look something like this all of the way around:
I’m loving the warmth and texture that the burlap adds to the room and that the burlap is a neutral backdrop that gives me a lot of flexibility in how I style the shelves. Speaking of styling my shelves, I used a lot of the frames, etc. that I had on the shelves before the makeover but also added some new elements based on some of the inspiration photos I collected on my “styling bookcases” Pinterest board.
Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend!
Claire @ a little something in the meantime . . . says
This looks incredible! The texture of the burlap adds so much to your already gorgeous built-ins and fireplace stone.
I think your styling on the shelves is worthy of its own pin!
Visiting from your feature on Serenity Now 🙂
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
Thanks so much for the nice comment Claire! Have a great weekend!
Jason Marut says
What is the depth of your bookcase and cabinet? I’m in the process of creating something very similar for around our fireplace. This is our inspiration!
Jason Marut says
What is the depth of your bookcase and cabinet? I’m in the process of creating something very similar for around our fireplace. This is our inspiration!
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
Hi Jason! The base cabinets are about 18″ deep and the shelves in the bookcase are about 10″ deep. The shelves were a bit difficult to decorate because they are so shallow – I would consider making your shelves a few inches deeper than mine are. Good luck with your project!
Julie says
I love your bookcases and am thinking of doing the same to my 15 year old bookcases. They are an ugly orangey-brown oak and I just hate them! Just wondering how much time the painting took you? I read that you sanded, primed, and painted 2 coats. I also have crown moulding around the ceiling in the room that I would need to paint. I don’t want to get in over my head. I got a quote from a painter for almost $2,000 (he was going to paint the walls and ceiling too but come on $2000?) Anyway, how long did it take you for each step? Did you let it dry for days in between coats? Thanks so much for inspiring me! I loved that I was able to show mu husband what it would look like painted.
Julie
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
Hi Julie! I’m guessing that in total it may have taken me about 20-25 hours from start to finish – that sounds like forever but (#1) I am meticulously picky about a perfect paint job and (#2) I just painted 2-3 hours here and there when time allowed over a period of a few weeks rather than trying to knock it all out in a few days. I did let it dry about 1-2 days between coats but you don’t have to – I just did it that way because it’s how the timetable worked out for me. Also, my shelves are removable and I removed the doors of the cabinets and painted the shelves and doors on sawhorses in the garage which was much easier than painting them in place. I did not paint the inside of my base cabinets so if you open them up, you see a whole lot of ugly going on! I figured I could do that paint job down the road if I’m inspired to do so (which is unlikely!). Good luck with your project – it will make a world of difference in your home!
P.S. After the paint job was done, I did also add a coat of clear polyurethane just to the tops of the shelves to protect the paint from being scratched by the things I placed on them! Wait several days after your entire paint/polyurethane job is done before placing things on the shelves so your paint and poly is 100% cured and items on your shelves won’t stick!!
Lisa at Shine Your Light says
Your bookcases look great – thank you for sharing this great idea of the burlap and upholstery tacks – the end result is fabulous!
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
Thanks Lisa!
Anonymous says
Beautiful! We are trying to figure out how to update our bookcases now and this is a great idea. What is the paint color on your walls? Thanks!
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
The wall color is Benjamin Moore’s Annapolis Gray . It’s a really nice, light taupey gray that runs throughout my kitchen, foyer, and family room.
Anonymous says
Thank you for the paint color! I can’t seem to reply directly to that thread, so I had to start a new one 🙂 I’ve purchased the burlap to install on our bookcases. It shreds so much – did you put anything on the burlap first?
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
I didn’t put anything on the burlap but I did make sure that when I made my cuts in the burlap that each of the four ends had burlap strands that ran the entire length of the side. I would guess that this is why I didn’t have any issues with shredding. Good luck!
jeanette says
this is a great tutorial… I used burlap on the shelves on the Crystal Creek house….but your idea with the tacks is a much better way to finish off the edges….mine weren’t so pretty! I might have to copy this idea soon…
thanks for sharing…..
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
Thanks Jeanette. I’m trying to decide if I should do this again in our new house. Seems kinda boring to do the same thing again but I really do love the change that the burlap made to the feel of the space!
Stacy Connolly says
Looks beautiful! Love the burlap. Where did you find the gold sunburst mirror (Ballard Designs) ??
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
Thanks Stacy – yes, the sunburst mirror is from Ballard Design. They don’t have the exact same one anymore but they do have one that’s almost identical.
Susan Jackson-Rafter says
Love the burlap and would love to do the same. I think I’ll use foam core board and wrap the burlap around that. Decorative tack heads could be added with glue to get your look, but much easier to change out to achieve a different look. Stumbled upon our site through Pinterest. Love it!
Kris Jarrett says
I thought about using a foam board because I agree it would be nice and easy to change out but I didn’t have the space for it behind my shelves and didn’t want to cut my shelves down. Love your idea of glueing the nail heads!
Susan says
Where did you find the white ceramic two handle jug/vase!? I e scoured the Internet and can’t find it.
Kris Jarrett says
That was a HomeGoods find 🙂