Fabric Covered Built Ins

Hello and sorry this post is three days late. We went out of town for the weekend and discovered our Internet was down when we got back home. Of course it takes a day or two to fix and so we are here on Wednesday afternoon and its finally fixed.

Enough about my Internet tirade. The real reason for this post is to show off our newly backed built ins. Many of  you might have noticed the built ins in last weeks post about the kitchen being painted. I took a page from Young House Love's book about covering foam poster board with fabric and placing in built ins to give a new look. If you haven't checked out their book yet and you love home decor/craft projects then you are missing out.

Before

After

So step one in this process was to gather my equipment. For this project I only had to buy the foam board because I used some fabric that I got from Walmart about six months ago. I normally do not just buy fabric but it was one dollar a yard and I knew I could find something to do with it. So back to my equipment:

1. Staple Gun

2. Fabric of Choice

3. Foam Board

4. Built in you wish to transform.

5. Exacto Knife

6. Pencil

7. Something with a straight edge (I used one of Jose's legal pads) 

8. Scissors

Next I measured the space between each shelf on the built ins and made my marks. Next I connected the dots using the straight edge on the legal pad. Once this was complete I took the Exacto Knife and cut the board along the straight line.

Then I laid the foam board out on the fabric and cut the fabric large enough for the fabric to wrap around the back and be stapled. Next came the act of stapling the fabric to the foam board. Lesson learned from this: make sure you are on a solid surface that the staples cannot go through. This was a hard lesson for me because at first I stapled our dining table. I am always doing something to injure our poor dining table. Jose thinks I subconsciously do not like our table. I think I am just forgetful and do not always think projects through before carrying them out.

Once the fabric was secured to the foam board I just slid the board into the space behind the dishes and admired my handy work. This is the process I used to complete all six shelves of our dining room built in. Now that I know how easy it is I cannot wait to do our hallway bookshelves!

Any fun projects for you guys over the weekend? Is there a piece of furniture in your home that you absent mindedly cause injury?