Glamorize Your Shelves

In our dining room I wanted a way to display my Great-Grandmother's
 beautiful Milk Glass. I put the pieces in shelves we had gotten
from Walmart quite some time ago. One of the shelves had even been
used in the office for several months to hold the printer and TV.
So, the shelves never really looked right with the beautiful glass
pieces in them. I researched how to spruce up shelves online
and came up with a solution .... adding fabric! 

This is what I had going on before the glamorization ...ugh

As you can see they needed some work. I started out pulling
 off the backing on the shelves, with a knife (this high-tech idea was Jarrett's).
The backing got pretty beat up, I had a lot of tears and holes
where all the nails were, but it didn't matter at all because
fabric would go over the whole back.

Here is the fabric I choose, it is from Hobby Lobby. I got 2 1/2 yards
 for the two bookcases, which ended up working out great.
I even have leftover fabric that I am already envisioning for another project!

All I used to adhere the fabric to the backing of the shelves was
Mod Podge glue (one of the greatest things on earth). I cut out a piece of the  fabric
that was bigger than each of the backings. I found that the best way to make sure
I avoided wrinkles in the fabric was by gluing the fabric down in sections
 so that I could smooth out an area before I moved on to the next. 

After I got fabric covering the whole backing, I flipped the backing

 over so that I could cut off the excess. By the way an "X-Acto" knife 

will make this project and a lot of other projects so easy!! Jarrett just bought 

me my knife set at Micheals last weekend, he's the best :)

Now that all the excess fabric was off, I was ready to attach the

 backing back on the shelf. I was going to use a hammer and nails, 

but then Jarrett brought me the staple gun he was using in the 

basement. The staple gun made it easy (and fun), 

but nails would have worked just as well.

I flipped the shelf back to upright and found out that my idea worked!

I dusted the shelves and I used a little bit of black acrylic paint
to cover up the holes on the sides for shelf height adjustments. 

I added the Milk Glass and some other items and
 the shelves finally looked complete!

~Supplies~
Shelves you want to cover, fabric,
 decoupage glue, scissors or and 

X-acto knife, a hammer and nails
 (or staple gun), and maybe some paint

*Cost*
per shelf: $20ish 

-$6 for the fabric

-$10-15 for the shelves
***Almost Free if you use old shelves***