{ the jaunty magpie }

So one can either give credit to or put the blame firmly upon the shoulders of InStyle magazine for putting the Inspired idea in this Birdie's head to paint an old bookshelf bright red. More specifically, it was InStyle's April issue focusing on bright colors. Apparently shiny-shiny sparkle isn't all that catches the Magpie's eye. I blame you, Gwen Stefani, with your brightly colored ensemble and subliminal suggestion using the power of your bright lipstick hue!

To be fair, I had an old particle board bookshelf that was begging to be a guinea pig and I was curious about the Krylon spray paint that makes the boast of not needing to prime the surface and that it was specially made for being applied to plastic. All these claims seem true enough; the paint went on fine and didn't peel off (yet). The only blunder was spraying a can of clear sealant over the finished paint. It was raining, I was spraying the shelf in the garage, and there was enough moisture in the air to make the sealant cloudy, so a couple of hasty trips to the hardware store were necessary to pick up extra cans to fix everything.

I go through odd phases of home improvement, but instead of buying new things, I'm trying to work on updating and changing what we already have. The newly-painted red bookshelf has given rise to inspire new projects, and if all goes well, they may show up as an Inspired post as well!

Jaunty Fine Print: Bookshelf photos by Denise Sakaki; magazine cover taken from InStyle.com