How Not to Mod-Podge Your Shelves

I did this project back in August, with the intention of making it into a DIY. It didn't turn out too badly, but it taught me some important lessons about how not to Mod Podge your shelves. I'm going to go back someday and fix it, but here's the project as it is now.

You all saw the shelf when I put up last week's owl DIY:

This is how the shelf looked when I began--plain black. A couple weeks earlier, I had re-painted the shelf, because the shelf had a splotchy paint job when I acquired it.

I made the first mistake when I cut the paper down to size. Well, that's probably not the truth. I made the first mistake when I selected this paper--it was too thin, so it ripped and peeled a few times when I was applying the top coat of Mod Podge. I put a layer of the Mod Podge on the shelf, then laid the paper over it. Then I applied enough Mod Podge to make a white layer on the shelf. The problem here, though, was the difficulty in placing the paper on the Mod Podge. I should have allowed the sheets to overlap a little, but I didn't want to do that for some reason I can't remember. It may have been because the paper was so thin that you would be able to tell if it overlapped.

If you look at the right side of the bottom shelf, you can see that the Mod Podge tool peeled off the top half of the paper. This might be because I didn't use the flattener roller tool soon enough after I put the Mod Podge on the paper. Thus, a layer of the paper stuck to the roller and peel it off.

Overall, though, I don't think the bookshelf looks bad. After the Mod Podge dried, I sealed it with the Pod Podge Spray Sealer (both the Mod Podge and the sealer have the "glossy" finish). It's sitting in my front room, and I got a couple of compliments on it when I hosted a Halloween party last night (I'll put up some pictures later--a lot of us had some good geeky costumes).