Black bookcase stunner

A $30 find, patched, painted and finished with a bead board backing, turned into this black bookcase stunner!

Thursday I showed off the black desk makeover and gave a little sneak peek at the bookcase I refinished to make an office combo.

I won’t go through every single step again, if you want to know how I refinish furniture you can read the desk post or the “How to refinish furniture” post I put up a couple of years ago.

Today I’m going to share a long-winded explanation of how I got to the desk-bookshelf combination… but I’ll try to shorten it down.

I want to make over my office to include a wall of built-in shelving.

I was/am intimidated about making the built-ins so I was looking for pre-made cabinets and shelves that I could incorporate and just trim them out so they looked built-in
I found these on an auction site:

They are trimmed out as though they were built-ins already!

I didn’t measure my space before buying them, so after I bought them (for $30 each) and lugged them home with my Step-Dad and boyfriend, I found that they were too big. 🤦🏻‍♀️. (I really am a donut. lol)

But they are SOLID MAPLE! The sides are doubled-up with two ¾” maple boards and the drawer is faced with a 2″ slab! These are ridonculously heavy and well-made.

I begged friends and family members to see if anyone wanted the bookcases, but had no takers. I really didn’t want to sell them – I can’t buy maple for $30!

I started sanding to see what I was working with:

Oh yes, oh yes, OH YES!! How could I possibly get rid of them now – this grain is GORGEOUS.

I took one bookcase apart completely to use as wood for another build I have coming up, but the second bookcase had some staining and damage that stain wouldn’t cover.

What number am I at? Oh yeah…

I decided if I had to get rid of this gorgeous wood, I was going to make it look awesome and (hopefully) make some money on it.

Sand, patch, sand, prime, sand, paint, sand, paint, cut and attach a (sanded and painted) bead board backing…

As a black bookcase it is STUNNING!!!

It would have been even more spectacular stained, but with an outlet hole in the side (I’m assuming the previous owner cut it to access a plug for a printer or router).

With a fair amount of dings and dents that needed filler, and a large black stain in the wood (upper shelves), this piece had to be painted; the problems just couldn’t be fixed and hidden with a stain.

I left the side hole as-is – it could be disguised pretty easily with an outlet cover and you might never notice it – or you could use this black bookcase in your home office and set the printer on that shelf. Either way, it’s pretty inconspicuous.

The bead board backing made a HUGE difference don’t you think?

I could have put more work into it; replace the trim with crown moulding, add a more decorative baseboard, but at $40/gallon for primer, $78/gallon for paint and another $70 for the headboard backing – I had to gauge how much I could sell it for and not invest more than I’d get back.