Painting Your Built-In Bookshelves: Advice to Follow in Ambler, PA

While it can be nice to have bookshelves that you assemble and attach to the wall, sometimes it’s nice to have bookshelves that are built into the wall.

However, what you may want to know is that there are things that you can do in order to improve the look of your built-in bookshelves, including painting them — and of course, if you’re going to paint your bookshelves there are some basic bits of advice that you’re going to want to follow.

With that being the case, let’s have a look at some advice to follow when you are painting your built-in bookshelves and want them to look good.

1. Prepare Well

If you’re going to be painting your bookshelves, it’s key to be well prepared before you even get your first drop of primer or paint on them.

This means that you’re going to want to measure the bookshelves and also get the supplies that you need for this kind of painting project before you start.

Doing this is going to be useful in terms of knowing how much paint you will need to know — the greater the size of your bookshelves, the more paint and primer you will need and it’s better to have the right amount of these and neither buy too much or too little.

2. Use Good Quality Tools

When you are going to be painting your built-in bookshelves, you are going to do better for yourself when you use quality tools that will apply paint properly to the shelves.

You are going to want, for example, to have paint brushes that will be better in terms of proper paint and primer application — lesser quality paint brushes will get paint bristles into the paint or primer that you are applying.

Moreover, some of them will fall apart as you are struggling to apply the paint or primer — which leaves you making much greater of an effort than you would if you were to be using even moderately priced paint brushes.

3. Remove Hardware First

Often when you are painting built-in bookshelves, you are going to be dealing with some kind of hardware that is attached to the shelves and you may think it will be faster to leave it on and paint around it, but this isn’t the case.

It’s always better to remove the hardware first, paint the bookshelves, and then reattach the hardware — if you even want to keep the same hardware at all.

When you’re in the process of doing this, of course, you may want to entirely replace your hardware which may even make for a better looking set of built-in bookshelves.

4. Back Panels First

Though it might be good to think that you can just paint your built-in bookshelves in just about any order that you like, the best order is to paint the back panels first.

When you don’t start off with your back panels and you eventually have to paint them, it’s often more of a struggle because you have to navigate past the other parts of the bookshelves that have to be painted.

By painting the back panels first, you will allow time for those back panels to fully dry while you are working on the rest of the bookshelves, which is a good thing.

5. Multiple Coats May Be Needed

Lastly, remember that you may well need to make use of multiple coats of paint — you have to do what is right for your built-in bookshelves but bear in mind that one coat of paint may not look right.

Hiring a professional painting contractor like Aspen Painting guarantees a flawless, durable, and high-quality paint job.
We have years of experience in cabinet and furniture painting with a long list of happy customers in Horsham, PA, Ambler, Dresher, Ft. Washington, and Blue Bell, PA.

Call us today on 215-773-8422 for a FREE estimate to get started.

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