The Billy Corner is Up!

I've had this corner officially painted and these guys in for over a week now and am trying to decide what to put in them. Mark said no trolls but that isn't much of a problem as I have plenty of other things! The trick is deciding what. I am also thinking I need to slide some white wallpaper in the back of the shelves because they are so dark. Something else to add to the project list. Yes, these are Billy Bookcases from Ikea. Yes, feel free to make fun of me because I like Billy Bookcases.

We just got an Ikea in the Kansas City area last fall which is an easy day trip for us. Yay? My aunt lives about 10 minutes from the Colorado one so I have been spoiled by leisurely making my way over on a Tuesday morning and then maybe hitting it again Thursday or Friday afternoon. You know, barely anyone goes to an Ikea in Denver on a Tuesday but apparently it is THE place to be in KC on a Saturday. Yikes! and it is small. Small for an Ikea.

The before shot of the corner:

and then painted and stained with lots of weird shadows on the window:

Waiting for the Stain to Dry

This section of wall is FINALLY almost to the easy part of painting. I have to layer the stain on thick to match so it takes a couple of days to dry to my satisfaction and then I can polyurethane and paint. A few before and in progress photos:

Yep, looks like 20+ year old masking tape on the bottom of the window sill to me! Also note, the paint is well past the masking tape and onto the front of the woodwork. Why did someone take the time to tape the edges if they weren't even going to try!? The paint scraped off just fine but that masking tape stuck tight. I just used my muscle (which isn't much!) and scraped until it came off. I suppose water and/or vinegar would have helped the process.

Next, above the tape:

Several plants? Drinks? had left their mark on the window sill.

Sanded.

The middle is still a little gloppy in the color as some of those weird stains were not going to come out without more sanding and only the soft sections of the wood sand. So, I either have a few dark stains or a wavy window sill. Which brings me to my next area of concentration. The woodwork by the door...

Bernie (previous owner's dog) or someone he knew, really wanted in and out ALL of our doors and this is the result around most of them. Someone tried sanding this out at one time with what looks like a power sander of some sort which took the soft (currently darker) wood away, leaving the lighter, harder portion of the wood. Bernie then probably immediately put these fresh scratches in but I'm not going to bother sanding them out. I hate changing out original woodwork but this piece is really messed up and gross so it is on my future project list.

Surprisingly, the scratches hid well. You can see the various wood heights on the grains though - especially up by the door knob! The door is another future project. Yes, I believe that is wood filler on the door. I'm telling you, this dog must have spent hours scratching on doors!