Bookcase experiment - the before

You'd think we would have had our fill of home improvement stuff after preparing our home for the Sacramento Mid-Century Modern Home Tour. But we have lots of Big Ideas and it's time to get back to work.

Our palette - colors chosen from George Nelson's Sunburst clock

When we designed and installed the bookcase, it was always our intention to paint the various shelves and their backings different colors. We simply never got around to it. That's a good thing as I'm not sure we would have picked the same palette.

Our bookcase sans paint - picture by John DiDomenico

Now that we are ready, we also want a system that will be flexible to changes over time -- something that would allow us to return the bookcase to neutral or switch out colors later on. We decided on painting wood panels and slipping them into place. Our friend and contractor John DiDomenico is helping us out with this.

Applying where we want the colors to John DiDomenico's excellent color layout

designed to avoid the same colors touching each other

The panels, primed and ready for color

I'll let you know how it turns out!