Book Shelf Renovation

About ten years ago, my in-laws gave me an IKEA gift card for my birthday so I could buy a bookshelf (thanks, in-laws!) I bought a $60 shelf, and it has been in the same spot in my living room ever since.

Do me a favor and pretend this is a better photo

The shelf has held up pretty well for an IKEA piece. The shelves are slightly bowed, but not bad enough that I'm wanting to replace it. Since I have a bunch of wood I'm trying to use up, I decided to try a little renovation on the bookshelf.

I stained and white-washed some planks of wood and then cut them into pieces and attached them to the back of the bookshelf for a new look. 

Here's how it turned out:

It was a very forgiving project since most of it ended up covered by books anyway.

Here it is put back together:

In hindsight, I could have just put the wood on the two visible sections, and no one would have ever known! But it was fun, cheap, and easy, and my inability to cut straight lines worked out somehow. 

Also, I highly recommend taking a photo of your bookshelf if you ever need to empty it for any reason. Putting things back on my bookshelf always takes me hours because I think I remember where everything goes, and then I realize I don't and I end up shuffling and re-arranging over and over (during my KonMari phase, the bookshelf just about did me in). My photo saved me this time, and I had everything put back in the right place in five minutes.