Perhaps you’ve heard of the phrase “slap a bit of paint on it and it will look brand new.” There’s something to that phrase. While damaged items certainly need a little bit more help, by and large, something that has become dull or boring in aesthetic can sometimes be rejuvenated with a simple dose of new paint. Take your old bookcase and drawer for example. Have you considered how painting those items might completely transform them? Instead of just serving a practical purpose in the background, you could make them the focal point of the room. In fact, the entire aesthetic of the room could change simply because of that one painted piece of furniture.
17 Simple Old Bookcase and Dresser Paint Color Inspirations That You Can Finish Quickly
Knowing just what to paint the dresser and bookcase, however, may not be as clear. After all, you want to transform the piece into something attractive not accidentally create an eyesore. To give you a bit of help, there are 17 paint color inspirations that can take those old and worn bookcases and dressers and make them something worth talking about. With a bit of elbow grease, you’ll have easily given the dresser or bookcase–and the entire room–an entirely new aesthetic.
1. Sophisticated Medium Grey For Simplicity
For those who want their bookcase to look smart, then greys are always an excellent color choice to depict sophistication and modernity. The medium grey is light enough that the earthy nature of wood still shines through. This allows for a mix of earth and modernism to co-exist together. With this aesthetic, you can decorate the bookcase with practically anything.
2. Dark Black Paint To Highlight Decorations
If you want the focus to be on the decorations or nick-nacks on the bookcase’s shelves themselves, then using a dark color like black is an excellent method to do just that. The dark color allows the items to pop against the background. It also makes the bookcase appear modern. A light coat of paint allows the structure of wood still to be displayed.
3. Dark Grey Paint With Color Splash
To make that woodsy bookcase or dresser look like it should belong in a magazine, painting it dark grey takes it into a modern and post-modern direction. However, by adding a splash of paint for the knobs or handles, you can add just a bit more of visual delight for the piece. The dark and small bit of bright color combination offers simple elegance.
4. Bright Blue And Red For Fun
Whether you want to go for a surf or beach aesthetic or you just want to have a bit of fun with your bookcase or dresser, then think about using bright colors like blue and dark red. Not only does this make a whole lot of fun to look at, but it can actually brighten the entire room around it.
5. Dark Blue Paint For Unique Modernity
Colors typically associated with modernism are bold dark hues or bright whites. Shades of grey are also quite common. To embrace that aesthetic of modernism but place your own unique twist on it, you may want to consider using a dark blue paint for your bookcase or drawer. It maintains the integrity of modernism but still adds an attractive quality.
6. Stick With Nature With Dark Green
Instead of dressing up the natural source of wood for the bookcase or dresser as something else, why not let the source become the focal point for the aesthetic as a whole? Use a dark green paint to promote the sense of earthiness and nature. Create a stunning piece by mixing nature with modernity.
7. Utilize Back Drops With Bright Blue
Another excellent way to make your shelf display your items instead of hiding them is to use paint color to draw attention to them. You can do this by painting the bookcase as a whole a bright white color. With the attention captured, by painting the inside of the shelves a bright blue, the eye is then drawn to those items.
8. Light Grey For Modern Rustic Aesthetics
To add that popular and trendy style of modern rustic, light grey is going to be your best friend. Applying it your bookcase or dresser allows the grain of the wood to be exposed. This maintains that connection with nature while the color itself harkens to a taste of modernity. Add black paint to the hinges to make them pop.
9. Light Blue Paint And Natural Tones
An interesting paint color inspiration you may not have considered is to use a light blue paint for the front of the bookcase or dresser while allowing the natural wood to maintain its rich color for the inside of the shelves. This interesting mix of color and natural tones makes the piece extremely interesting to look at.
10. Simple White Paint And Black Top
An extremely simple paint job you can perform in just a day is to paint the dresser or bookshelf a bright white. To contrast with it, paint the top of the dresser or bookshelf a deep black. This simple form of elegance can allow the piece to be used in any room, regardless of that room’s aesthetic.
11. Using Grey-Blue Paint Can Promote Soothing
Besides looking modern, a shade of color that is grey-blue can come off as a soothing hue. It invokes the sea and the calming affects that reflecting near a still body of water can provide. This is something you can achieve as well by using this unique blend of paint on your dresser or bookcase. It promotes images and sensations of water.
12. Bright Blue Can Attract Attention Immediately
To really make your bookcase stand out from others like it, use a bright color like blue. Not only does it harken beachy themes, but the blue color itself allows it to be used in any room of the home, unlike other bright colors. Adding in yellow paint for the inside of the bookcase makes the piece bright and happy.
13. Simple Grey For A Simple Elegance
Never underestimate the power behind simplicity. This paint color inspiration invokes the phrase that less is more. By remaining understated, the grey paint allows the focus to be placed on the objects on the shelves. Its color also allows it to be used in any room regardless of that room’s aesthetic.
14. White And Bright Blue Beach Paint
If one of the themes or aesthetics of a room–or even a corner of a room–is beach-related, then the colors you need are white and bright blue. These are the staples when it comes to the fun beach aesthetic. It is bright, playful, and can cheer up an entire space.
15. White Paint With Unique Wallpaper Backdrop
If you want the focus of your shelf to be on the unique design or wallpaper that you’ve placed for the shelf’s backdrop, then white is going to be your best friend. It attracts the eye enough but doesn’t become the center of attention when you have something bright and colorful as the backdrop for your shelves.
16. Natural Wood With White Artistic Renderings
Another extremely cool and unique direction you may want to take your bookshelf in is to actually paint the inside of the shelves. Let the natural wood color of the bookcase speak for itself, and then draw the eye to the artwork within the shelf by using a bright white paint. You can create your own little forest.
17. Bright Blue Paint Can Enhance Wallpaper
Besides using white, if the wallpaper you intend to use has a certain shade that runs throughout it, you can use that shade to paint your dresser or bookcase. One paint color inspiration to consider is blue. It can work tastefully as the paint for the bookcase as well as remain attractive as a theme in the wallpaper.
