I found this old free standing sling bookshelf out in the alley behind our house one day. I wish I had remembered to take a photo when I found it; it was covered in dirt and cobwebs and was totally gross! But I knew that under all that grossness was a gorgeous piece just waiting to come through. So I snatched it up, took it home, cleaned it up, remade a few pieces, gave it a coat of paint, and now it’s looking brand new! It’s a great size to be a kids sling bookshelf for AJ, so I set it down next to her toy storage area, and it’s perfect!
Kids Sling Bookshelf Makeover
Here’s what the sling bookshelf looked like before (this is even after I brushed away the worst of the dirt and cobwebs!)
I started by taking it apart. There were a few screws holding each bar into the legs on either side, so I removed those.
Then I cleaned all of the metal pieces, let them dry, and gave them a coat of silver spray paint.
To make it easier to paint the bars, I drilled a few holes through a scrap piece of wood, then I screwed the bars onto the wood to make them stand up.
While the spray paint was drying, I got out my sewing machine and went to work on making a new piece of fabric. I used the old piece of fabric as a guide and cut out a large section of canvas fabric approximately to size. I wasn’t too worried about making it exactly the same size; I knew I wanted to use this for AJ’s books, so if it was a little smaller, that was fine because her books are pretty small too.
I copied the exact same seams and loops that the original piece of fabric had so that I could reinstall the new fabric on the bars.
Once the spray paint was dry, I reassembled the sling bookshelf with the new piece of fabric in place, and I was done!
So much prettier!
I put it next to her toy storage, and it’s the perfect place to hold her library books!
We’re all big readers in our family, so AJ already has a TON of books. But, there is a great library in walking distance of our house, so we also take her to the library a lot and let her play in their toddler area and pick out new books every few weeks. I always worry that the library books are going to get lost in our house somewhere, so this is the perfect solution. Her library books can go in this sling bookshelf, and all the rest of the books can go in the regular bookcase or in one of the cubbies of her toy storage area. (Read more about how we organize toys.)
I really love finding treasures like this in the alley and fixing them up! It’s definitely true that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. 🙂
Remember that old mirror makeover I did a while back? That’s another story just like this one!
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