Painting my Laminate Furniture

So while I was stalking some of my favorite bogs--I came across a couple posts about painting cheapy laminate furniture (THIS one is my favorite and is the one that I followed).  I was OVER JOYED with the idea and prospect of painting cheapy laminate furniture--because my house is FULL OF THE STUFF!

So for my first attempt I chose this lovely little book shelf from ikea.

(It normally is FULL of all of our DVD's and Videos (I forgot to take a picture of it while it was all full)--and yes, we still own a million videos and probably will for a while cause who wants to replace all of them?  And why do we have so many movies?  Because we haven't had and TV for the last 8 years.)

Blah, Blah, Boring. 

Especially since we got our new couches off craigslist (which you can read about HERE)--everything on that wall is just TAN.

Something had to be done!  And since my hubby didn't want me painting the wall--the furniture is getting the makeover!

So we start by spreading out my sheets (they make excellent drop cloths).  And yes--I am painting it right in my living room--cause it was a million degrees below zero in my garage.

Then I primed it with this TRULY AWESOME PRIMER (designed specifically to go over shiny surfaces WITHOUT SANDING!!!!):

I only did 1 coat of primer (Notice the little green vase thing in the background.  It will get a little makeover too): 

Then I started in with the paint (I used Behr Latex Semi Gloss Paint called Bison Brown)--and I started to have a heart attack because the paint out of the can looked SO HORRIBLE.  Look at the color:

And yes--now that I look back, I must have been crazy to paint with that DARK BROWN PAINT so close to my new to us couches!!!!

But thankfully not a drop of paint got anywhere it wasn't supposed to.  And DOUBLE THANKFULLY the paint dried to the nice rich deep brown that I had wanted.

After 3 coats (2 coats probably would have been fine--but I am anal that way) it was ready to put the shelves back in.  And of course while putting them in--THIS HAPPENED (on EVERY SINGLE SHELF I might add):

But really--you want the shelves to fit tightly--so there is no way to get those guys in there without a little scraping.  Nothing a little touch up paint couldn't fix.

And now they are all filled and looking AMAZING!!!

I know they would be much prettier decorated beautifully with pictures and greenery and cute baskets and such.  But in our 1200 square feet--we only have space for FUNCTIONALITY! 

But at least it is now functional AND beautiful!

I love it from EVERY ANGLE!!

Now--see the WHITE END TABLE between the couches?

Now that I know how easy it is to give my furniture a make over--I have selected this piece to be my next victim!  So hopefully I will have another great makeover very soon!