Greek Amber- Stenciled Bookcase

When we bought our house one of my favorite details was our built-in bookcase. It adds the perfect amount of interest to the living room and is a great use of space. I love using it to display family heirlooms, pictures, books, and even baskets full of toys. When decorating our living room, I wanted to add some more color and pattern without commiting to painting the walls yet.  I love the look of a wallpapered back to shelving, but knew that I didn’t want something so permanent in the bookcase space. I found this image and tutorial on Pinterest and knew it was the perfect look to modify for our shelves.

I decided to find something that would fit inside of the shelves the would be easily removable. I got my hands on some foam core board and was able to cut it to size. I chose white so that I would only have to paint one color and could use the white as the negative.

 

Here is the only photo I have of what it looked like pre-stencil. Pretty boring.

 

  
I chose a great burnt orange called Greek Amber for my paint and bought a quart from Lowes. I love how muted and yet bold it is. The stencil is from Royal Design Studio and is called Chez Sheik Moroccan stencil.

           

   
Then I stenciled each piece of board individually. I didn’t specifically try to make the pattern match up to the next piece. I used a brush and painted by hand. The stencil was pretty easy to use and didn’t bleed much. Where it did bleed I just touched up with white paint after the orange had dried.

                 

    
After the pieces dried I arranged them to look the way I liked. Each board fit the space a little differently, but they all mostly fit. Currently they are just wedged in there and not secured in any way. I would like to secure them and make them all fit flat, but they look fine the way they are now. No once would be able to tell a difference but me.

I LOVE the finished product. I think it looks even better in person. The pattern is perfect for the room and adds a lot without being overwhelming.