apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

oooh, i love the white lacquer ones. very groovy. but at that price -- yow!!!

Holly from Decor8 did a little post on this piece, and on the version that Thomas O'Brian did for Target.
$239 for the knock off, although it's not exactly the same, but still very nice.

http://decor8.blogspot.com/2007/07/design-within-our-reach-pimp-my-obrien.html

These are very similar to the Thomas O'Brien bi-fold shelves from Target ($239). Perhaps they could be painted for a more affordable alternative to the above?

We had one of these in my living room when I was growing up! (Of course it got sold at a garage sale about 10 years ago!) I have actually been looking to have something similar built (my mom's SO is a p/t carpenter) and at these prices it looks like the way to go!

genius! the knock-offs look wicked.

this is probably a totally different topic and research project, but how difficult is it to lacquer, vs. just painting? same process, different material? or entirely different process? i love the white lacquered shelves for their mod appeal, and just wondering in general how to d.i.y. replicate that on pieces...

I own the O'brien shelves from Target - they are beautiful. It would not be difficult to paint it a different color. However, the contrast of the brown and black is perfect.

biskinikill - I ahve been able to achieve a similar laquered look on furniture. The way to achieve it is, superb professional boar bristle or some other very fine brush, good paint, oil based work best, paint one layer, sand with fine sand, wash, repeat the process, then the last layer, mix 50% paint, 50% high gloss laquer and do a final layer. It is easy, but time consuming - as all good things in life :-)

oh, forgot to mention - prime first and sand before starting to paint.

I have the Thomas O'Brien shelves from Target and absolutely love them. I'm very wary of RTA furniture but these are real wood and well made. There's no construction at all, so no risk of edges being out of line.

It would be cool if there was a section on AT for expensive designer original and its corresponding affordable knockoff. That would be a real resource.

Anyway I love the Thomas OBrien shelves I just dont have the space for them. Where oh where will I find some nice woodenshelves.

i have a question about wooden shelves...
i inherited a nice small bookshelf from my mother in-law recently and would like to find a mate for it (something very close at least). It’s a mission style folding bookcase that seems to be a pretty common thing now but I’ve been having trouble finding one close enough to the same size and wood tone.

it's pretty similar to this one from target but has 4 shelves and is walnut not so dark brown: http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-5298082-9367026?asin=B000IBFI5S&AFID=Nextag&LNM=B000IBFI5S|Folding_Bookcase__Espresso&ref=tgt_adv_XSN10001

After some investigating I found a label under one of the shelves that said it was made by the Great Eastern Lumber Company. I googled around and found that this is the company that initially created this type of shelving and that this bookshelf is at least from 1978 but probably a little older.

Anyone have any ideas where I may be able to find another one of these, I can't seem to find much information on the company that made them.

Someone forgot to proofread this post.
"bing"
"accordian"

I like these a lot, but would like them even better in glossy black!