A bathroom is one of the most personal spaces in any home—a place to wind down, recharge, and take a moment for yourself. So when a customer came to us with a tired pine shelving unit that wasn't doing justice in their beautifully styled home, we were thrilled to step in and give it the makeover it deserved. The result? A stunning Stiffkey Blue eggshell finish that turned a functional piece of storage into something so much more attractive.
Blue Painted Storage Unit Outside the Bathroom
A Classic Pine Bookcase
This is the kind of furniture that so often gets overlooked. A three-shelf bookcase with real character. It features elegant fluted pilasters running down both sides, a graceful scalloped top rail, and a solid, generously proportioned base. It's this kind of detail you simply don't find in flat-pack furniture.
But despite these features, the piece had lost its lustre. The original finish was worn, uninspiring, and doing nothing to complement a modern home. So the vision took hold: paint it in a rich, deep navy blue that would reflect the bathroom colour scheme…albeit on the landing outside!
The space was there. And it proved perfect for the dimensions of the old bookcase..
Step 1
Cleaning. As with every project, we began with a thorough clean. The entire unit was wiped down with a sugar soap solution to lift any wax, product residue, or surface grime.
Step 2
Sanding. With the unit clean, we moved on to sanding. The goal at this stage is to key the surface for the primer and smooth out any imperfections in the wood. We used a medium-grit sandpaper to work methodically over the flat shelf surfaces, then switched to finer paper and a sanding block for the fluted pilasters and scalloped top rail.
Step 3
Priming. We applied a high-quality Zinsser primer across the entire piece, paying particular attention to the end grain of the shelves and the detailed joinery around the pilasters—areas where bare wood is most likely to absorb paint unevenly.
Step 4
The Colour. Stiffkey Blue a colour that works beautifully in a bathroom setting, where it reads as grounded and calm rather than heavy. We applied the first coat, in a Dulux Heritage eggshell, using a roller on the flat shelf surfaces and a good-quality Purdy brush for the fluted pilasters, the scalloped edge, and anywhere else requiring precision. As always with a first coat, the aim is coverage rather than perfection — and with a deep colour like navy, even two solid coats can sometimes be needed to achieve full, even saturation.
Step 5
Sanding. Once the first coat was fully dry, we lightly sanded the storage unit with 240-grit paper removing any dust nibs, brush marks, or raised grain.
Step 6
More colour. We followed up with a second coat of Stiffkey Blue using the roller and brush. By the end of this coat, the unit had been completely transformed.
Blue Painted Storage Unit in the Workshop
The classic pine bookcase is nearly transformed with Stiffkey Blue eggshell paint.
Nearly finished in the workshop.
Step 7
Finishing touches. To finish off the project we removed a few strips of masking tape and checked on the finish with a fine brush. And we were done.
This project is a perfect reminder of what you can do for a piece of furniture. A bookcase that might once have been overlooked, or tipped(!) is now proving useful to the adjacent bathroom.
At Shabby Chic Surrey, we work with all kinds of furniture: bathroom cabinets, bedroom wardrobes, chests of drawers, kitchen dressers, and everything in between. If you have a piece at home that deserves better, we'd love to help you reimagine it. Because we can paint your furniture.
Let's Get In Touch
Contact Details
Please don't hesitate to get in touch for any furniture painting advice, shabby chic style, two-tone painting or a modern painted look.
Phone Number
07766 225329
Email Address
furniture@shabby-chic-surrey.com