From bookends to bathroom shelf

The work on the kids' beach themed bathroom continues!  I didn't forget about it; did you?  I've been working on it for..oh...I don't know...a month or two...(maybe three?).  Things move slowly sometimes when I'm in charge.  But guess, what?  I finally put up a little shelf in the kiddos' bathroom....and the smiles from them were well worth the time it took me to put it all together! 

 You can read my previous post about painting the bathroom and the little bathroom updates I've done so far.  This shelf I put up came from these.  Can you believe it?  I used everyday bookends and hung them together to make the shelf.  It's a little bit of perfect to the beach themed bathroom! 

So, as you can see, these started as wood bookends that you can purchase at your local craft store.  These happened to be sent to me from my mom who came for a visit in the middle of my bathroom renovation.  She saw my theme and sent me these bookends after one of her craft store visits a few weeks later.  THANKS, MOM!    I wasn't sure what to do with bookends, though.  I thought about just hanging them up separately; then I thought about actually using them as books ends.  With my uncertainty, I did the smart thing and just set them aside until I had a clear idea of what to do??????

After using primer on the sandals, I used craft paint I had in my paint stash.  This is the part I love.  I sat in my garage with music playing and I painted my heart out.  Painting like this is so relaxing to me.  I didn't know exactly how I was going to paint the shelf, but whenever I put paint to a brush, it turns out alright.

 I wanted to use the colors from my shower curtain and bring them onto the shelf.  After painting the sandals blue, I wanted to add more color.  The grey stripes bring more of that beach theme to the stark white shelves.

I used two coats for every section that I painted and did a lot of touch ups.  

 When the bookends were dry, I glued then stapled these "hangers" onto the soon to be shelf.

 I used my tape trick to hang the bookends evenly.  Place tape across your picture or shelf in this case, and just mark the tape where you want your nails to go like the picture below.

 Stick the tape up on the wall where you want to hang your newly painted with love craft!  Like that one?

 Now just hammer in the nails where you made your marks and you should have an even steven, leveled shelf. 

 And after, I added a one of my sweetpea's surf camp trophy from a few summer's ago and a craft another one of my cutie patooties did during summer camp.  I love adding my kids' creations and recognitions to their space.

 It's coming along, finally. I still have another shelf to add; but for now, this works and it works well.

I love those stripes that compliment the shower curtain.

 And one last picture, just because!

 So what do you think?  For a quick, low cost project, I 'm really liking it.  It's awesome, dude!  Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Have a great Friday everyone!  I'll see you tomorrow for my first Straighten it up Saturday.  I'll be showing you my budget (savvy) ways to organize my hidden, disorganized spaces in my home.  Hope to see you back here.

Blessings,

Lisa

I link all my projects with some wonderful blogs.  To visit them, go to the {Link Party Love} page found at the top of this page on the {Home} bar.
Also linking to:
Between Naps on the Porch
Savvy Southern Style
No Minimalist Here
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Saved by Love Creations 
Miss Mustard See
Funky Junk Interiors
Coastal Charm 
Restore Interiors
Tip  Junkie