the thrift whisperer

Okay, so you might be thinking, Jenna, what kind of amazing, mind-blowing projects do you have to share with us??? And I’m here to say that we are embarking on this journey together, and I am no expert, so please don’t hold me to Ron Swanson-level standards just yet.

Picture it: I was hitting the town in a city I don’t visit often. This means that while driving along, I caught sight of a [new to me] Goodwill. Blinker on. Turn in. Park. You never know what awaits you in a new Goodwill. You never know what awaits you in a familiar Goodwill, either. That’s half the thrill of shopping there. It was almost Halloween, so there was a huge rack of Halloween costume ideas. There was also some pretty good looking furniture. And that’s when I saw it. A tall narrow bookshelf for… $15. It was pretty, too.
This was perfect, because I was in a reading kick and was lacking a bookshelf. So I was doing that thing that all the cool kids do now, which is stack my books on the floor along the wall. There was even this weird little notch in the room that was essentially dead space, so it was the perfect spot to start stacking my books. But I was thinking, I have this small little nook, what if I could find a small shelf to put there? Of course the ideal solution would be built-in shelving right there, but it was a rental apartment so that wasn’t going to work.

*Incredibly* high-quality shot of my book situation, pre-bookshelf:

No matter how cool the influencers made that look, it definitely wasn’t working for me. So I took home the $15 bookshelf, used lots of Lysol and all-purpose cleaner, and got to work getting the bookshelf ready for its new home.

Here’s a better look at the odd corner we were dealing with.

And here is the new bookshelf in its new corner. Can you believe how perfectly it fit? I don’t think I could have done better if I tried! Also notice how scuffed the sides of the shelf are. But that’s okay.

It was honestly a perfect fit! I loved the color, but didn’t think it went with anything else in the room. I pretty much only had neutrals with pops of green, nothing dark at all. I already had paint that matched the wall color, so I thought, why not paint the bookshelf to be the same color as the walls? That way, it would visually act more like a built-in and not stand out so much.

I love the way the dark shelf made the books pop, but it just didn’t match the rest of my room. Also, the sides were really badly scratched up and it drove me crazy. One pretty styled shot before I re-did it:

Primer on! I also ended up using some caulk, as you can see there were quite a few gaps.

You might notice those bars in the front on the top and bottom half. There’s also a small indent there. I believe there may have been glass shelves at one point for those two spaces. Ideally, I’d get some glass cut to fit those perfectly, and will effectively double the shelf space. Some day, I’ll get around to that.

And here is is all painted and stocked! So much better than the pile on the floor!!! And all for $15 and paint I already had. Can you tell that I was very into Jane Austen while doing this? How could I not be. She was so cool.

Extremely dark, moody pic below because that’s actually how I like my room to be all the time (cave vibes). I liked that you could see the bookshelf peeking through when you were in the hallway.