Adding veneer is a skill best left to the pros IMO with all the stuff on the shelves they are best left to match the walls and disappear as much as possible. Maybe post a picture of the whole space to give a better idea of the room .

No.

Sorry it’s taken a while to post a pic...I was hoping to have the calendar that’s missing in the corner in by the time I took the picture, but it has still not arrived.

The secretary is my MILs (she passed away and my husband wants to keep it). I’m looking to repaint it, but need ideas on what color, what color to paint the wall. The space is mostly north facing with windows on both east/west sides; there’s a south-east facing skylight.

The kitchen has marble tile on the walls, so no other paint colors to consider. The first floor open area is painted white.

I moved the large canvas that was in the background of the picture... hubby had moved it while he’s working on re-hanging art.

I would take a look at veneer. It is not as hard as people think and a small project like this would be a good test drive.

https://wisewoodveneer.com/

Contact paper

I think the veneer plus the secretary will be too much wood.

Honestly unless you absolutely need those shelves I would close that spot off . To me it looks like a bunch of stuff that could be put away and let the nice secretary be the star

Patricia, those are all my cookbooks...in my kitchen. That IS their “spot”. The other stuff are recipe boxes from my MILs collection, a box holding her mother’s recipe book from the 1920s, and the small shelf on top has Valentine’s decor. And 3 small vases. None of the books fit on the tiny shelves of the secretary, btw.

Anyone with ideas on paint color?

IMO that area looks very cluttered and detracts from what seems like a fairly calm space. I’d look into having dooors made to hide the shelves instead of adding more visual clutter to that are.

What exactly don't you like about the shelves and how do you think wood or paint will change it? I can't visualize how highlighting the shelves with paint or stain would be an improvement.

In my post from yesterday, I asked for paint color recommendations for either the wall and/or the secretary. I had originally asked if I should change out the shelves to wood, but I take that as a “no.”

Can you share a wide view picture of the space including the wall? Are there rugs or furniture near that need to relate to the wall?

Charcoal or navy might look nice on the wall and but they might make the wall stick out like a sore thumb.

Have it trimmed out in wood and painted white.

I’m still working on decor in the adjacent room. Here are the pillow colors and the entry rug-mostly blues/blue-gray. I’ll see if I can find decent pictures of the kitchen.

This is not the best photo edit, but just to give an idea of black:

Sorry, didn’t see your post before my last one ... a mid to dark gray on the secretary would look nice, I think, with your other elements.

Excuse the clutter...we cook 3 meals a day almost everyday so the kitchen is rarely perfectly clean.

The secretary is on the wall to the left of where this picture is taken.

Beautiful kitchen!

I definitely would go with either navy, gray, or black on the secretary. And I’d leave the wall white. I thinking painting it would chop things up too much.

I reserve the right to change my mind if one of our expert photoshoppers shows a mock-up that looks good. :D

ETA: I really like the juxtaposition of such a traditional piece of furniture, passed down from family, in a modern space like yours. Great feel to it. Updating it with color will bring it all together perfectly.

The more worn-out cookbooks on the shelves are my MILs...I try putting those and the recipe books on the secretary and see if they fit. That might reduce the clutter.

These are built in shelves in a moment of stupidity that I painted white. I wiped out there warmth and character. My hubby got this furniture grade thin wood at a big box store and cut it to size. I then stained it. You could stain it to match your secretary.

That’s an idea! I’ll have to see what I can find and try with whatever I end up painting the secretary.

I put in fabric-covered foam core board in the back of the shelves to make it not so white. I’m wondering if I should have used paint or a plain fabric instead.

I was going to tell you how I'd convert them to wood, but really I agree with above posters and vote for covering the shelves. If you know who made your cabinets you could probably get a face frame and doors only made that match your cabinets. You would just face nail the frame right over the shelf opening and it would look like a built-in cabinet when closed.

I moved some items into the secretary...

You can use PSA veneer on any smooth clean stable surface. You could also use 3/8-1/4 plywood and then reface age fronts. Easy project.

I’ll replace the “bird” box with a plain one...those are old recipe books that are in an acid free photo box to prevent damage. Covering the plain box with fabric was my attempt at bringing in some color. I suck at this!

Hemina - Can you post a photo of the underside of your shelves?

Here’s the underside picture...I just removed everything and repainted the white...it was looking a bit dingy.

Thanks. That's what I was expecting to see. You have lots of options. The shelves are made in 5 pieces - the four 1x pieces comprising the frame and the actual shelf sitting attached on top. I noticed in your original picture that the shelf sits on top of the front edge - I can see the seam just below the Family box.

- My hunch is the shelf was slipped in and then tacked onto the four 1x support pieces. It would take a little bit of finesse, but the shelves could be removed leaving the 1x supports and in place and replaced with actual wood (the most economical choice would be furniture grade plywood with an iron on edge banding.) If you went this route, you'll need a scrap block of wood and a hammer. Hold the block of wood along an underneath edge of the shelf and GENTLY tap the hammer on the block to loosen the shelf upward.

If you want the keep and reuse the existing shelf, once it's off the support frame and out of the cavity, it would be easy to apply a wood veneer. There are veneers with heat activated glue pre-applied. You rough cut the veneer, position it, iron it to activate the glue and then trim.

- Another option would be to leave three of the 1x supports in place (along the back and the two sides) and slip a new wood shelf in place.

- You could also remove all the shelves completely and redo them exactly as you they were originally built but in wood/furniture grade ply. This option would allow you to respace the shelves.

- You could remove all the shelves completely and cut and install two wooden sides on each of the side walls of the opening with holes for shelf supports. Then you could cut new wooden shelves and adjust them to whatever position you want by moving the supports.

- If you don't want to touch the shelves at all, you could frame the existing openings with 1x wood of the appropriate width. You could go along the top the baseboard and either have a lip on the bottom shelf or add another layer of MDF painted white that you would shim up to avoid a lip. Here's a bad sketch of what I'm talking about . . .

@missenigma those are great options! Thank you for your detailed response with all those ideas! I’ll see which one will be the “safest” knowing my wood working skills. I have done veneer before but had to get help with the edges because I didn’t have the tools.

My pleasure. Sharp scissors to rough cut the veneer, a clothes iron, a single edge razor blade or xacto knife to trim, and some fine sandpaper (around 400 grit) to smooth and fine tune the edge if needed.

I didn’t know that you could cut off the edges with an exacto knife...good to know!