Recycled Blue Cubby Shelves

I started my craft studio redo with this bookshelf built by The Welding Man. I painted it shades of turquoise blue with burnt umber drybrushing and Mod Podged book pages to foam board for the backs of the shelves. Then I loaded it up with canning jars full of beads, ribbons, lace and all kinds of fun stuff. What a good start!

I remembered these two cubby shelves in my stash and decided to paint them the same way. I don't know their original purpose but they were covered in a band aid flesh color with some sort of maroon colored texture.

As you can see the cubby holes are just perfect for some striking studio storage with lots of different jars and bottles.

Love this turquoise color from Apple Barrel! Already this looks better and it made me smile to see such an awesome improvement.

I colorwashed with a lighter shade of turquoise then dry brushed burnt umber over all the edges.

You know I had to sneak some recycled book pages into the mix and here they are. Love this!

I was surprised that I already had so many small jars for storage. I love how the different sizes and shapes look in the little cubbies. I added book pages to the jars that had label residue.

And here are both shelves, painted, Mod Podged and stocked with all sorts of neat glass storage jars. I still need a few really small jars for the upper right cubbies. You can see the jars have to be pretty small, about the size of those spools of thread. Even baby food jars are too big! I may try to make containers myself, we'll see how the jar hunt goes.

I LOVE the way these little shelves come out. Having all my small trims and doodads in glass jars gives me a creative lift, and they look pretty darn cool, too. They anchor the left end of my shelves which span the window wall in my studio. Note the yardsticks which we used for shelf edging. I love how they look, I just need more for the rest of the shelves.

These shelves cost me less than $5 several years ago and I already had the paint, book pages and Mod Podge.Can't beat that for cheap and effective craft storage!

Ooh aah. I knew when I started my studio face lift that I wanted it to be organized, functional and visually appealing. In other words I wanted my room to make me smile and inspire me creatively. It's not all the way there yet but boy, it is progressing!

I'll be linking up to the parties in my sidebar. I am amazed and inspired weekly by the creative ladies in blogland. Come visit and have some fun!