Fois Bois Book Case - the eternal diy project

Whew. This project. I thought it was going to take a Saturday afternoon - and it ended up taking two weeks. Whoops. 

I started with a basic bookcase that my dad made when I was about a year old. I took it with me to college and painted it yellow, which does not fit in with my current decorating scheme.

It all began with stripping the yellow paint.

After spending a million hours scraping old paint off while crying and sweating, it was ready for the new coat of paint. I painted the whole thing a basic light brown. I believe it is called "Hazelnut."

After the Hazelnut was all dry, I drew a basic fois bois pattern on a piece of contact paper and then started cutting. I didn't bother using any "negative" space in my drawing - I just spaced the contact paper out on the bookcase. This made for a nice stencil.

Then I painted two coats of dark brown paint, and topped the whole thing with a matte sealer. It probably would have been faster to use spray paint - but it is ILLEGAL in Chicago. Lame. 

And finally, two weeks later, here it is in my entry way (note the mail basket - very helpful!):

Only took two weeks. Sigh.