Painting a Bookcase: Before & After

I rescued these two small bookcases from my parents' barn. I wanted to use one in our little boy's room. I chose the one on the right for this purpose.

I may make the left one into an art cabinet...but I have to figure out how to remove the bottom part. It was apparently a radiator cover.

Here is the 'after' picture of my bookcase.
You can't tell very well, but I did a glazing technique.
Here are the steps:

1. Prime the whole thing with plain old interior wall primer.

2. Paint the whole thing with interior semi-gloss paint.

3. After it dried, for the glaze, I used a gel stain meant for finishing wood, let it sit on the paint for a few minutes, and then wiped it off. It gave it a grainy look. I don't love it, but it is more interesting than plain off-white.

4. To do the blue back of the shelves, I used a satin finish spray paint. I masked the sides really well, shown below:

I applied quite a few coats of spray paint to cover the white and the glaze I'd already done. I really like it and can't wait for our house to be finished so we can use it! By the way, the blue shelf backs were a last-minute decision. I wouldn't have painted and glazed them if I thought I was going to spray paint them.

Update: See this post of my toddler's room to see this shelf in action! Love it.