Time to bring new life to an old piece of furniture with a shelf makeover.

For years, this our family room had a hanging apothecary cabinet I made over. And it was perfect for what we had, but I always knew something was missing and it needed more. Then one day, when we weren't looking, we found it.

There is an awesome antique store 20 minutes from our house and we randomly decided to stop by. I don't get there often so I am never expecting to find anything when we do get a chance to go. But this time, we did. After scouring the main floor and basement, coming up empty handed, we headed to the 2nd floor where we spotted it.

It was this 7 foot pine shelf in great condition. I was expecting for it to be at least $400, but it was only $150 (feel free tell me if you can find something like this cheaper where you live, it will definitely make me jealous...but for southern California, this was a good price).

We measured it and said we would think on it. When we got home, we thought about 2 possible places we could put it. And then life moved on.

A few months later, I mentioned to Ron and that I thought we should check to see if the shelf was still there. Ron headed over there {I told myself it would be gone} and it was there! So Ron loaded it in the car and brought it home.

It has beautiful trim details along the top and bottom, and the detail which holds the shelves makes me love it even more.

My original plan was to keep it as is. However, once we got it home, I decided I wanted to lighten it up a little bit. Shelf makeover it is! But then it sat in our garage for another couple of months before I was able to work on it. Once time allowed, I began the sanding process.

It took me 2 months with lots of sanding, sanding and more sanding, but I finally finished. This orbital sander is my favorite tool. It has various speeds that make life easy. I also used this utility tool for the detail as our detail sander died in the middle of sanding.

Shelf makeover - me with utility tool in front of shelf

Once I finally got it to how I liked, I sealed it with a non color changing sealer and we brought it in. This shelf just feels “meant to be” in our family room. I love that it gives us lots of extra storage as well as another place to decorate for the changing seasons.

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