I spend approximately 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at my desk at the office… and probably more because I have a crazy job and deal with things like breaking news and late night football coverage at 1am. When you do the math, nearly a third of your life is spent at work. I think it’s safe to say your workplace is your second home.
National Clean Off Your Desk Day was back in January and I made an effort to beautify my desk at the office (aka second home). Adding things such as motivational art prints, silk flowers, glasses to hold pens, and these DIY gold bear bookends helped. The clean off and redecorating was needed not only to “make my desk prettier” but also to make my workspace less cluttered, as I was definitely in danger of an impending newspaper avalanche.
Before and after pictures of my desk. The headline for myself that I avoided:
Woman Presumed Dead After Desk Newspaper Avalanche
Rescue dogs are searching through the night for signs of life. Authorities hope to find her under the piles of crumbled newsprint, 35mm film from the 80’s, police dashcam footage DVDs and empty Girl Scout cookie boxes.
These gold bear bookends add a nice fancy feeling to my desk. I’ve seen similar projects on Pinterest that include spray painting the brick/stone/base, but while at Home Depot I came across these 5 x 5 x 14 natural limestone edger bricks. This brick I found was actually cracked, but split diagonally in a perfect way for this project. With the white limestone, it sorta looks like a polar bear perched on an iceberg in the arctic! Scroll below to see full instructions on how to make these gold bear bookends.
DIY Golden Bear Bookends
- two bear figurines (the ones I found are about 5 x 2″)
- primer (this is optional, but I find primer really helps the spray paint stick, such as Rust‑Oleum American Accents Ultra Cover 2X Flat White Primer)
- gold spray paint (I used Rust-Oleum Specialty 11 oz. Metallic Gold Spray Paint )
- glue (I used Gorilla Super Glue)
- two bricks (I used a 5 x 5 x 14 limestone edger stone that was split in half)
- felt (to prevent limestone brick bottoms from chipping or scratching surfaces)
- Make sure the bears are clean: wash and dry off the figurines.
- Lay down some newspaper or flattened cardboard boxes outside and spray the figurines down with primer. I did two coats with an hour of dry time in between.
- I like to stay on the safe side of making sure everything is completely dry, so I left the primed figurines outside overnight before getting to the gold. Spray the figurines down with gold spray paint. I did two coats with an hour of dry time in between. Let dry overnight.
- Use a wet rag or towel to wipe off any limestone dust on the bricks. Place a few drops of glue on the paws of a bear figurine and attach to the top of a limestone brick. Do the same with your second bear figurine. Let dry overnight (…slow and steady wins the race.)
- Cut out felt rectangles to fit the bottom of your bricks. Place a few drops of glue on the corners of the felt and place the bricks on top. Let dry.
In the end, this was about $21.50 to make, with the bear figurines being the largest cost. And I have plenty of extra spray paint, glue and felt scraps to use in future crafting projects.
– two plastic bear figurines: $10.49 (I used a Michael’s “40% off one item” coupon)
– primer spray paint: $3.76
– gold spray paint: $3.76
– super glue: already had at home
– 5 x 5 x 14 limestone edger brick: $3.10
– 9 x 12 sheet of felt: $ 0.39
