Tall Bookcase – Part 1

One of the projects on my 2017 Projects list is to paint the tall bookcase in the girl cave high gloss red.  This past Sunday I got started.  I removed all the items, gave it a light wash, laid it out on newspaper on the girl cave floor, and got one coat of BIN primer on.  Before, during, & after:

               

Then I headed to Aubuchon Hardware up the street to buy some red paint.  I knew I wanted high gloss red, but I wasn’t sure which shade of red.  I’d narrowed it down to 3:  Benjamin Moore Red, Exotic Red, or Neon Red.  I decided to go with BM Exotic Red:

I was leaning toward Exotic Red [the one in the middle].  To help me decide, I brought along an IKEA red shelf bracket like what the cat shelves outside the girl cave are resting on:

Since the bookcase is right inside the girl cave I figured it would be cool to match the reds.  It turns out BM Exotic Red was a near perfect match!  Woohoo!  So I bought a quart of high gloss.

Today after work I put the 2nd coat of primer on.  I didn’t know what to do with the metal shelf supports so I primed them, too… It might be possible to pry them out, but they go under the central shelf which is attached to the bookcase frame.  I’m super happy to have the entire frame primed!

        

        

Each side of the base has places where the wood has flaked off.  Here’s one side:

I filled it in with wood filler but it will need to be sanded and hit with a 2nd coat:

        

The wood filler was kind of like runny peanut butter, so it didn’t completely fill in the gaps.

This is about the time Darwin came in and dove into my pile of newspapers.  The newspapers I’d laid down on the floor were originally under the bookcase, but after 2 coats of primer the bookcase had been moved around so much the papers were all shoved to one side:

        

When I paint it red I’ll be smarter and tape contractor paper to the floor instead.  Not sure why I didn’t do that in the first place.

Birdie was in her usual spot on her shelf in the hallway – whenever I’m in the girl cave that’s where she is:

After playing with wood filler I went down to the basement cage and put a coat of primer on the front, sides & top of the 5 bookcase shelves:

After writing the draft of this post I headed back down cellar and put a 2nd coat of primer on the front, sides & top of the shelves.  All I need now is 2 coats of primer on the bottom and they’ll be ready to go.  I also headed up to the cave, sanded down the now dry wood filler and re-patched it:

I think after one more sanding it will be done and I can flip the bookcase over and wood fill the cracks in the other side.

I’m so close to being ready to paint it red!  I can’t wait!!!