Before & After: Knotty Pine Looks So Fine
Malcolm found this bookcase at a flea market — it had been salvaged from an old barn and treated with polyurethane. He really dug the layers of paint that it had accumulated, so he bought it with the intention of making it a little more polished and intentional.
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Nice! We love how Malcolm didn’t try to fight the rustic vibe but instead added even more shades of wood for a gorgeous and interesting piece. And those new legs make it feel lighter overall.
We’ll let Malcolm tell you more about his process.
I thought that a natural way to finish off the bookcase was to enclose it in a similar wood that would compliment the original structure. I took a trip to this awesome lumber yard/hardware store (ABC Distributors in Arlington, VA… super helpful service and a huge selection of great stuff.) Since the bookcase was already pretty rustic, I wanted to find some slats for the back that were also kind of worn and imperfect. I searched the yard like a noob until I happened upon a bunch of scrap slats of pine wood that were about 7.5 feet long. The guys were able to cut 8 pieces down to 44 inches, which is the height of the bookcase. I snagged the wood for a total of $8, which I was super stoked about. While I was there, I figured that I would ask if they could trim about four inches from the bottom of the bookshelf so that I could easily add metal piping for the legs. I then headed to The Home Depot to pick up the piping for the new legs and some polyurethane for the unfinished pine slats. I grabbed three pieces of pipe for each of the four legs, a flange that would be attached to the wood, a pipe that would twist into the flange, and an end cap that would twist onto the pipe.
I’ll probably eventually do something completely different to the piece that might involve stripping it completely, but this was a fun experiment in changing a pretty basic flea market find into a more rustic/modern piece.
See more amazing photos at Mas Means More.
Thank you Malcolm!