IKEA Reclaimed

During our time in Pasadena, we lived twenty minutes from an IKEA store. We availed ourselves as often as we could of the bounty therefrom for our 500-square-foot apartment. One of our early IKEA buys was a set of adjustable shelves. The uprights and shelf pieces are the ubiquitous white pine of IKEA: cheap, easily warped, but tough enough. Eight years later, here we are in the Southern Tier of New York, renovating our bedroom. And for this little nook on the right side of the new closet, we needed shelves:

So we got to work reclaiming the IKEA shelves. With two coats of paint, the knotty white pine became a complementary "honeysuckle bloom" color, the perfect accent to our ochre and pine two-toned bedroom walls. This part of the project lined up nicely with Sophie's visit the first week of August; like all of our houseguests, she was put to work:

Here's that process with my infrared lens:

And of course every successful project has a watchful supervisor:

After painting, installation, and touch-up, the new nook has a new look:

And I've freed up another few feet of bookshelves in the living room (which will go to Gwendolyn's toys).

I'll bet we can make these IKEA shelves last for at least another eight years now.

~ emrys