It is a great true red with a matte finish. I wanted the brontosaurus bookends to have a more kid-friendly vibe, so I gave them a coat of Plutonium’s Hot Sauce. I chose to use Plutonium’s Polar, which is a true white paint with a matte finish. Plutonium goes on quickly and easily, with a reduced chance of messing up the finish. With other spray paint brands you would need to be very careful to avoid dripping or sagging paint when painting on the smooth acrylic frames. You will see fewer oil rubbed bronze metal accents today and far more matte white ceramics. Instead of going for a faux bronze finish this time, I decided to update the project to match today’s trends. Use painter’s tape to “clamp” the toys into place while the glue dries.įollow the glue packaging’s instructions for proper dry time.Īfter the glue has dried and cured, you can get to spray painting. Press the toy firmly in place against the frame, making sure the animal’s feet are touching the ground. Save the rear ends for another project, like these magnets from Love and Renovations.Īpply a bead of strong glue around the cut edge of the toy. If you choose to only make animal HEAD bookends, then you only have to mark the angle on the front half of the toy. I decided to make two sets of front and back bookends this time around. You want to have as much toy-to-frame surface contact as possible for a strong glue bond. Next, mark off the correct angle of the frame onto the toy and trim them to match. Did I mention that you should be careful? To get started, carefully CAREFULLY cut the toy in half with a box cutter. I had to settle for using this smaller-than-ideal brontosaurus and a hippo toy I already had ( minus all his bling). While the dollar store does still carry the clear acrylic frames, their selection of plastic animal toys was disappointing.
You can’t buy them at the dollar store, but you sometimes will find them at thrift shops. If the angles are concerning to you, you can sub out cheap metal bookends for the acrylic frames.
I decided to just be satisfied with bookends that weren’t entirely square. There are lots of angles going on here, but none of them are 90 degrees. (Ahh, the internet.) One commenter suggested that if I softened the acrylic frames in boiling water, I would be able to reform them into a 90 degree angle, so the bookends would sit flush against the books. When I originally posted this tutorial, I received quite a bit of feedback on how I could have done it better. The same bookends that were getting pinned on Pinterest and featured on Apartment Therapy were at the bottom of our trash bin with the coffee grounds and dirty diapers.īut now I have a chance to redeem myself by making new sets of the dollar store toy bookends using fantastic Plutonium Paint™. Soon after finishing the project, the bookends got knocked off the shelf and broke. As much as I loved the project, the animal head bookends weren’t holding up books on our bookshelves. It’s shameful.Įven though I didn’t win the competition, my bookends tutorial post was hugely popular and I got my first taste of “going viral.” I did kind of feel like I was living a lie though. Pay no attention to the photo quality, photo editing, or watermark on this photo.