A lick of paint...

...makes such a difference!  In between making my slapdash shelving, I was also painting an old bookcase.  It has been kicking around at home since time immemorial and nobody really likes it.  I adopted it when I moved out, mainly because I couldn't afford a nice new one (and my mother, who cannot throw anything away, was glad to see the back of it).

My original plan was a sort of off-white shade, but when I got the undercoat on, I spotted a problem with this.

Far too anaemic for a room with white walls.  Then I remembered the tester pots that I'd been using to paint some plant pots. There was half left, so I decided on blue.

Much better!  I went back for another couple of pots and of course bought the wrong shade.  Never mind, there was enough in the pots to cover the whole bookcase with a good coat.  I should add that being wholly incapable of Doing Things Properly, I was using emulsion.  Yes, that matt stuff that's designed for walls.  No matter, in my collection of spray paints, I had a can of 'clear', so I used that as a varnish layer on the top.

Much, much better!  What I had meant to do, having started in one colour and ended with another, was lightly sand it all to give it a bit of a distressed look.  I forgot.  You can just see in the photo above that some of the spray got a bit bubbly though, so in my usual DIY spirit of botching, I sanded it post-spray instead.  It worked fine.

The whole thing has a nice smooth finish without being glossy and there are places where the paler layers and even the orangey wood pokes through, but in a good way.

I hereby declare that I love my new-look shelves!