Back when the weather was a bit warmer, I whipped up my own version of those DIY animal bookends you see all over the internet these days. My main inspiration was these cute elephant bookends I spied on Pinterest.
{source}
I ended up using little plastic lions instead of elephants because we already have one brass elephant bookend on the shelves where these babies were headed. I found the lions at Walmart for a whopping $1 each and the wooden bases were $0.79 at Hobby Lobby. A blast of gold spray paint was all they needed!
After letting the lions dry and adding a dab of hot glue on eight little paws, here’s how they turned out:
Since these aren’t the heaviest or tallest bookends, I decided to use them on a shelf of mostly paperbacks and small hardcovers. Of course around here, one little project usually leads to several others. Adding the lions made me want to restyle the whole bookshelf, which led to finally finding a spot to display some shadowbox art I made from starfish my grandma gave me. I’m pretty sure she found these starfish at the beach when my mom was just a baby.
Another (much larger) project I tackled was lining the back of the bookcases with blue paper. I picked up a roll of bulletin board paper at Hobby Lobby and spent the majority of one weekend cutting pieces of paper off the roll, laying them under lots of heavy textbooks to flatten them out, and taping them up. I used heavy duty removable poster tape to attach the paper to the back of the bookshelves.
After all that work, I’m still not sure I’m sold on the color. It’s great in small doses, but on the back of three bookcases it’s a little overwhelming!
One last change I made was to throw some stain on a wine box that we’ve had for a few months. The richer wood tone works better on this shelf than the raw wood did before. By the way, that brass bucket has to be one of my favorite recent thrifty treasures – ten bucks baby!
Whew! What started out as a quick DIY post has somehow turned into a smorgasbord of bookshelf projects. What can I say, it’s been too long since I’ve gotten to share stuff with y’all!
In case you’re curious, school is still going well, it’s just really time consuming. I started my second year in the program (Masters/PhD in Math) this January, and I think my favorite part of the whole experience has been getting to teach undergraduate math classes. Guess it’s good to know I enjoy what I’ll be doing when I graduate!
Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I’m not planning on being gone for long this time since the Pinterest Challenge is coming up (hosted seasonally by Sherry and Katie). Check back next week for a couple of dining room posts that fit the “inspired by Pinterest” bill.
Have you been getting crafty lately?
