These gray, dreary January days are made so much brighter with our newly made-over playroom.  Miss L and I love spending time in this bright, happy space.  While I still have a little bit of tweaking to do before I fully reveal the whole playroom makeover next week, I wanted to share this sweet little corner of the playroom that I’m dubbing: “The Reading Nook.”

I recently painted some sweet wall-mounted book racks that came from an elderly neighbor’s basement a few years ago.  I have had these beauties for a couple of years, but I’ve been waiting for just the perfect spot to use them.  As the playroom has been taking shape the last few weeks, I was so excited to pull them out and use them.

Here is what they looked like straight out of neighbor Bob’s basement.  They came out of the old Methodist church in my hometown, so they have some sentimental value.  
My first idea was to sand them down and simply restain them in a cooler wood tone.  However, once I sanded and restained them, I quickly realized that they were not going to take on the color I wanted them too.  (The original color was too just too warm.)  So, I decided to paint them gray with some chalk paint instead.

I just dry brushed one coat of paint onto the racks.  (Dry brush means to dip just the tip of the paint brush into the paint, leaving the rest of the paint brush dry….it gives you a distressed look without having to sand after painting.)

I’...