Vintage Book Trough Makeover

Have you ever heard of a book trough? If you’re lucky enough to spot one of these vintage finds at the thrift store, be sure the snatch it up!

If you’ve never heard of a vintage book trough before, you’re not alone! We only recently learned that this long wooden contraption is called a book trough, or book rack. It’s used to organize and display books or other items. Cool, right? Let’s give this vintage a piece a pretty makeover.

Vintage book trough before painting

What is a Book Trough?

Now you may be wondering about that name.  A trough is usually a long narrow container you’d find on a farm for holding animal food. But this wooden thing certainly was not for feeding. 

I looked it up and an alternate definition is “any of several similarly shaped receptacles used for various commercial or household purposes.”

An image search of this vintage wooden creation had various names including book shelf, book case and desktop bookcase. But they all did the same thing: hold objects that were the size of books or DVD’s. 

Wooden vintage book trough or book rack before

Materials Needed for this Upcycling Idea:

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How to Upcycle a Vintage Book Trough

This old book rack had been sealed with varnish many, many years ago and it was peeling off. So instead of killing myself and trying to remove it all, I just sandpapered the obvious bits off.

I then went over the whole thing with two coats of white chalky paint.

Painting the vintage book shelf with chalky finish paint

Now this was going to be given to my daughter who loves books so much! So naturally it had to be painted in blue.

I had a few leftover craft paints and mixed them together with the chalky finish paint to create that soft blue which you see below. I may have added a bit of yellow in there too- just for fun!

Painting the wooden book shelf with blue paint.

This was the resulting paint color. I then used the sandpaper to distress it in all the right places.

​And to seal it, in I used some black wax. I just put it on with the round brush and then wiped it off with a clean lint-free rag.

Distressing and adding wax to the book trough

All done! And here she is all full of books.

The finished upcycled vintage book shelf.

All that heavy distressing really came out great, I wanted to pay homage to the vintage look of this book trough.

corner closeup of the distressing

It actually looks like it has been in quite a few tumbles and the black wax makes it look old and grungy. Kinda like how we like our books to look – old and worn out – because they have been read.

The books you see here have not been read yet that’s why they are so shiny and new!

But don’t worry I’ll get to them one at a time and my girl will put the trough in her bookcase to store her books in. 

We even share books – nothing like a vintage book trough to bring a family together!

So this may seem like a small post but it actually accomplished a lot. I learned what a vintage book trough is and how to up-cycle it in a fun way.  But I also bonded with my girl over her love of books.

Now you tell me have you ever heard of the word “trough” before, and is it British or is it just my imagination?

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39 Comments

  2. Cooooool Mary, I haven’t seen one of those in years. My Ouma had one for all of her recipe books in the kitchen. Such amazing memories, she always called it a trog, which when you say it in Afrikaans sounds so much like trough in English. I wonder if the word didn’t perhaps originate from Dutch or maybe even German?
    So glad you got to spend bonding time with your daughter too, that makes this one extra special

    1. You know something it does sound like a German word now that I think of it. I had seen it described this way on British websites that’s why I thought it was British, but German makes much for sense.

  9. From one book lover to another, this would be fabulous bed side to house the stack of “must read” books 🙂 It looks so pretty now – love the custom color and distressed finish! I would have never thought it was called a trough for the same reasons as you. Learn something new everyday.

  11. No, that word wasn’t new to me either. Not in Dutch, nor in German or English. My dad used to kneat the dough for the bread in a trog… But I like your through much better! And I absolutely love the vintage look you gave it!

  12. You really know how to give your furniture a worn and loved look Mary. I love the distressing and the color too. I think this is such a cute book holder and my daughter would enjoy this too! I should look out for one here!

  13. I remember these but didn’t know they were book troughs :). The makeover really brings it up to date. You mixed up a very pretty blue. Very nice.

  14. I remember something like this from my childhood. My mom had a book trough built into a little table. So cool that you found a way to update it and put it to good use! Love it!

  19. That’s so awesome, I’m always looking for ways to store my ever-growing book collection! Plus I love how you upcycled it, it looks great.

  20. Hi Mary, Haven’t seen one of these book troughs in many years. Your upcycled one looks grand and I pinned it. Thanks for hosting This is How we Roll, where I shared How to Create an Inspiring Vision Board and Beauty, Healing from the Red Rocks in Sedona. Enjoy the weekend and be well. Nancy Andres @ http://www.colors4health.com

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