Built-in bookshelves: Finishing

With the fairly monumental task of Hacking our Ikea Billy bookcases to fit our very specific design complete, it was time for the next fairly monumental task: finishing. For this part of the project, we took care of a couple things up front:

• Tested various wood finishes for the oak trim and wood paneling we'd be using
• Picked up a Graco 360 VSP paint sprayer

We tested a bunch of finishes because we weren't satisfied with how orange and dark our go-to polycrylic left the wood backing. We bought a paint sprayer because we didn't want roller marks. Read: we wanted a factory finish look. In the end, everything turned out pretty nice. I'm a perfectionist, so I find flaws in everything and nothing's perfect. Bother all.

Backing up a bit, one of the things we couldn't control was the fact we're building these things in the dead of winter. Not the best time to be painting a hundred linear feet of shelving. Give or take. It never got much above freezing. So we also bought a propane heater and cleared out space in our garage. That was only for drying, though. For painting, we decided to build a booth out of plastic sheeting and an old REI Alcove frame. It actually worked pretty well, though in hindsight may have been overkill. There wasn’t in fact a lot of overspray.

Backing up another step to where we started the finishing, we had to prime all of the shelf surfaces we'd be painting. In a rare show of solidarity, the internets seemed to agree on the type of primer to use when painting Ikea furniture: Zinsser B-I-N shellac. After applying it to our Billy bookcases, I could see why. It dried very quickly and evenly before bonding to the surface. We tested painting a sample with and without the primer and the one without scratched without really trying. The one with the Zinsser and two coats of paint did still scratch but it was much harder to do so (read: it took some effort). Bottom line: I'd listen to the internets on this one and prime any Ikea furniture before painting.

Once everything was primed and ready to paint, I'd move the pieces from the heated garage out to the booth, spray them (which took a matter of seconds), then rush them back into the garage.

Oh, speaking of overkill, I also splurged on a $10 paint suit. Good times.

The process worked, but was far from ideal. I kept everything in the garage until the paint was dry enough to touch, then brought every piece inside to cure. I'd read how it takes 7 days to initially cure and basically a month before the pieces are ready to be abused by putting books on and taking them off. It's been about that long since we initially painted.

But we weren't done there.

Spending hundreds of hours on a project only to skimp on the finishing process would be a disappointing waste of time. So on top of the single coat of paint, I applied two coats of Minwax Ultra Flat poly. After testing this as well against the more readily-available Clear Matte version, I liked how the Ultra Flat left no additional sheen to the painted surfaces. So I caved and bought a couple quarts on Amazon.

We did apply the poly with the Graco sprayer. Even turning the speed up to the highest setting it still didn't lay down as even of a coat as it did the Magnolia interior eggshell latex paint. I knew the poly self-leveled, though, which it did. Mostly. Again, spraying poly outside in twenty-degree weather and trying to dry it in a garage is far from ideal. In between coats, I sanded with a 600-grit sanding pad.

Once the final coat of poly had dried, I sanded it lightly before buffing it with a 3M finishing pad stuck to an orbital sander. The result: a buttery smooth surface on all of our shelves.

With the painting and poly finally complete, it was time to move on to finishing the natural wood pieces. After testing, I ordered a can of the Rubio Monocoat 2C Natural. It's actually a pleasure to work with. For the shelf fronts I picked up 1x3 lengths of oak. Then ripped them in half which was cheaper than buying the length we needed in 1x2. Coincidentally, as I was about to finish them I came across a post in the woodworking sub-Reddit that asked the question: chamfer or round-over? The photo of a beautifully chamfered edge and the subsequent discussion that seemed to lean heavily in favor of Team Chamfer, I asked K her thoughts. She was just as easily sold.

So I broke out the router table, fitted it with a chamfer bit, and beveled all the shelf edges.

At last, it was time to break out the Rubio and figure out how to apply the stuff. It comes with the colorant/oil and an accelerator that have to be mixed at a 3:1 ratio, respectfully. To do the mixing, I used extra 10mL droppers we had lying around from kiddos medicines. It doesn't take a lot of product. A little goes a long way. For each 30"x8' piece of plywood backing, I used a mixture of 30mL colorant + 10mL accelerator. It was just enough. To apply it, I also used the dropper and literally squirted it out in sections before rubbing it in with a 3M finishing pad. 

After letting the colorant bond to the wood grain and the oil to slightly dry on the surface (about 10 minutes), I buffed the entire surface with an old scrap towel. It looked gorgeous. Just a slight sheen and a wonderful feel.

The final phase of the Billy bookcases would be to assemble them and stand them up into place. Almost there…