If you have been following along on Instagram and Facebook, then you saw the little sneak peeks that I posted last weekend of the fun and crazy DIY project I have been working on. This was my first time painting furniture and working with power tools so bear with me and come along for the ride of my DIY painted tribal bookcase project!

I have been on the hunt for a while now for a really nice bookcase, but I just couldn't find one that had the details I wanted. I was looking for more than just your standard bookcase. 

That's when, at about the six local thrift store location we went to, my husband spotted this little gem. I was in love, look at how cute she is with the little scroll detail at the top and bottom and the shelf bar across the top. 

So the next thing to do after finally finding the perfect bookcase was to gather up some supplies.

• Behr Paint in Spirited Green, Purple Paradise, and Charm
• 3M Pro Grade Sand Paper #80 (Coarse)
• ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape

I decided on the mint color after seeing this gorgeous night stand from Making Home Base, isn't she gorgeous! 

I was sent the ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape from a PR company along with a few inspiration photos of fun Spring DIY projects and fell in love with this idea from Dream Green DIY, but more on that later though first we have to talk about sanding!

Luckily my husband was already equipped with a Black & Decker® power sander, he's a pretty handy guy to have around and he's all mine ladies! 

Wow, sanding is not fun, but my husband insisted that the nasty stain on the bookcase needed it before we moved on to painting. There is paint out there you can use to skip this step called chalk paint, which I have seen a lot of DIY bloggers use. However, I didn't see any at our local Home Depot so sanding was a must. Also, after sanding make sure to wipe down your furniture with a wet and dry cloth before painting. 

So, remember the charming details that I loved about my bookcase? Well I kept looking at her and wasn't so sure about a few things after others suggested that the scroll was a little dated looking. I needed to see what it actually looked like with a few items on the shelves and after toying with a few looks I finally settled on keeping the scroll but removing the shelf bar. When we removed the bar there were holes in the top shelf for the dowels, so that's when my handy husband grabbed wood putty to fill in the holes before sanding over them. 

THEN IT WAS FINALLY TIME TO PAINT!!! 

Look how pretty! I just love this color, what about you? Is mint a color you would use in your home or on furniture? 

One thing I learned from Monica and Jess of East Coast Creative blog that I took to heart was to not be afraid to try and not to be afraid to fail. There are so many awesome bookcases out there with gorgeous painted shelves, but the color palette I chose just wasn't working together. 

Note: We had already started to paint over the "Charm" purple paint when I realized I should take a photo of the fail!

So after cleaning her up and giving her two to three coats of the Spirited Green paint and letting her dry over night, it was time to figure out what design I wanted to create with the ScotchBlue™ painter's tape. 

After staring at the tribal background on my cell phone for a good minute or two this cool idea popped in my head of what to create.

But first I had to head back to Home Depot to pick up a few other colors, I really love these little sample jars! The two other colors I used along with the Purple Paradise were Bali Bliss and Jackfruit (such fun names!). 

The ScotchBlue™ painter's tape was pretty wide, so to get the triangle design look I wanted I had to cut each piece of tape in half (split down the middle). This was not a quick task, and at first I taped one triangle design, painted it, then laid out the tape for the next one. That's when a light bulb went on in my head and I realized I should tape out each design then paint them all at once! 

As you can see I didn't like the light purple on the inside of the shelves, but the darker purple (Purple Paradise) was a great color to add to the bottom feet. Although for some reason in this photo it looks like a different tint ( in Pic Monkey it wasn't this color but when I uploaded it to blogger it changed!). 

I'm so happy with the way she turned out; the mint, the pop of purple at the bottom, and the tribal design on the side, it's just a fun piece. Well, what do you guys think? 

I hope my DIY painted tribal bookcase inspires you to have fun with color, use power tools for the first time, and try something you have always wanted to do before. Don't be afraid to fail! 

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!

PS, I'm linking up at The 36th Avenue for Desiree's Best DIY Projects and Recipes Party!

Five Things: A Few of My Favorite Female Writers

When I heard the news yesterday that author and poet Maya Angelou passed away it made me think of high school and college, and of all the great female writers who influenced my career path. Not too long ago it was still difficult for women to publish books or screenplays, become news anchors on TV (which is what I thought I originally wanted to do!), or work as newspaper or magazine reporters or editors. I studied Journalism in college and took many English lit classes where I was introduced to many of these women who made a mark for themselves and paved the way for the rest of us. As I continue my journey in writing, I continue to be inspired by strong, independent women in the field (If you didn't know already, I work for two awesome women bloggers!). So here is my tribute to Angelou and to a few other female writers who inspire me. 

1. Five Things link up is posted every Thursday at Midnight EST. Share any five things that are on your mind right now. Whether it's something you are obsessing with on Pinterest, a new and exciting event going on in your life, or even sharing five of your favorite books; it's totally up to you. 

2. Please put the Five Things button on the post you're sharing for the link up; sharing is caring, the more players involved the more fun we'll have.

3. Please follow both your hosts Diana from The World Around Her and Tairalyn from Little Miss Mama via Facebook {here and here} and/or Twitter {here and here}. As it’s not mandatory it is greatly appreciated. 

4. If you tweet about your post or Instagram it, feel free to tag me or Tairalyn and use the hashtag, #FiveThingsParty

5. Check out the other bloggers who have linked up, show them some love and comment on at least one other bloggers link-up post.

Shall we get the party started...

1. Maya Angelou was so much more than a writer and a poet; she was an activist, a college professor, a director, actress, and was even nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She inspired the world with her words and one poem of Angelou's that always stuck with me is "Phenomenal Woman". Because no matter our size, our shape, our color, no matter what, we are all Phenomenal Women. Thank you for leaving your imprint on this world, may you rest in peace. 

2. Toni Morrison's book "Beloved" scared the crap out of me! It's very dark and twisted, but sadly there is truth behind the story of what the main characters went through in the real lives of slaves. The imagery that Morrison's words formed in my mind frightened me. The first time I was introduced to the book I was in high school. My English teacher read it to us and played a few scenes from the film that was inspired by the novel. The second time I was in college and actually read the book myself and realized why we probably weren't allowed to read it ourselves while in high school! From a teenager to a young adult, and now a grown woman, Morrison's book has stayed with me and always will. If you haven't read Beloved, I highly suggest you put it on your Summer reading list, it won Morrison a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and The Nobel Prize in Literature. 

3. You may not recognize her face, but you probably know her name and one or more of her books. The novel that author S.E. Hinton wrote that sits high on my book list is "The Outsiders", which she wrote while she was still in high school in 1967. That's a pretty amazing accomplishment to achieve at 17 years old, which is probably the age I was when I first read and fell in love with her book! Did you know that Hinton played a nurse in the film adaptation of "The Outsiders"? I bet she was pretty excited to play alongside Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, and the rest of the cast! In 1988 she was the first to receive the Margaret Edwards Award, which is given by the American Library Association for authors' outstanding work in young adult literature. 

4. For many of us Elizabeth Gilbert didn't hit the map until we heard about her novel, "Eat, Pray, Love" in 2006, but her first book, "Pilgrims", was actually published almost ten years earlier in 1997. For me, Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" and "Committed: A Love Story" are books that I will always cherish because my husband and I read them together. Yes, they are great reads, but when you can connect a book with a person you love, it makes the book and author even more special and memorable. "Eat, Pray, Love" was published around the time we started dating and "Committed" was released just before we said 'I Do'. So as we were following Gilbert's journey to find herself and find love again, we were on a journey together building our own love story! (AWW...haha!) Right now I'm on a Nicholas Sparks kick but I have her new book, "The Signature of All Things" on my 'books to read' list!

5.  I was a junior in college in 2004 when Emily Giffin's book "Something Borrowed" was published and wasn't really thinking about wedding bells at the time! The title didn't register with me until I heard about the film adaptation years later in 2011. By then Giffin had released four more novels; "Something Blue", "Baby Proof", "Love the One You're With", and "Heart of the Matter". In 2012 I finally got around to picking up my first Giffin book and was immediately hooked! I pre-ordered "Where We Belong"  that Summer and it was on my door step just in time to take to the beach! Her latest release, "The One & Only", just hit bookstores last week. I can't wait to pick up a copy. I was going to pre-order it, but I'm currently reading Sparks' newest novel, "The Longest Ride" and still have Gilbert's newest on my list to purchase, but then again when you're an avid reader your list just keeps getting longer! 

So this was probably a little too wordy, but it is what it is! This list is only short to go along with my link up party, but it does by no means reflect the list of female writers who inspire me. 

There you have it, now it's your turn to link up with us! 

DIY Painted Vintage Owl Lamp

I shared this little vintage owl lamp on my Facebook and Instagram pages a few weeks ago and asked you guys what I should do with him... "To Spray or not to Spray Paint?"....

On Instagram everyone said to spray; some suggested that a white or gold would look good and Monica from East Coast Creative said spray then glaze him! However, on Facebook the ruling went a bit differently; three said to leave as is, while two said to SPRAY, SPRAY, SPRAY! 

Can you believe we actually left him in this condition for a few years?! 

Well after thinking about it a little while longer and consulting my aunt Eileen, who was his first owner, I decided that spray painting him wasn't the way to go. We didn't want an allover color, nor did we want to lose his awesome features. So instead we decided to use Testors Acrylic modeling paint...

I'm not sure how long my husband has been keeping these around for, but before we met he used to paint model trucks as a hobby and these little bottles have been sitting in the garage just waiting to be used again. 

The paint colors we used were a glossy black, yellow, gold, and a ghost grey that Mike (my husband!) mixed with the black to get a darker grey tone for the face and stomach of the owl. 

As you can see he was very excited to help me with this DIY project, hmm maybe for Father's Day I should stop at Michaels Stores to buy him a model truck or car he can paint!

 In the top right photo you'll notice that at first we kept the black spots on Mr. Owl's belly, but I really wasn't loving the look. 

We went back and forth about the spots, he loved them and I didn't. So I figured we could paint his stomach completely grey and if we wanted to add the spots back on we could! Well, I won that round...the black spots stayed away!  

I really love his transformation and I'm so happy that we decided to hand paint his makeover instead of just spraying one overall color on him. What I love even more is that my husband and I did this together and I can't wait for more DIY projects to tackle with him. 

So, what do you guys think? Would you have spray painted him allover, or do you like what we did? The eyes were the most difficult to hand-paint, we wanted them to be exact but it can be tough to get the shape and size to match up perfectly. The final look of his eyes are probably the tenth pair we gave him!

Remember my owl bookends that I spray painted...

Well, they definitely need an overall color makeover, but I'm not sure that I'm digging the white any more. I wonder how a turquoise or navy blue would look?! 

What are some DIY paint projects you have been up to lately? 

Thanks for stopping by today, have a safe and Happy Memorial Day weekend, don't forget to remember and honor our troops. 

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