I picked up 2 about 9" deep shelving units at a yard sale. Of course they need to be cleaned up, reinforced a little, and repainted. They are wood.

Should I be concerned about putting fabrics directly on the painted surface?
Did you use a special type of paint? Latex or oil based or spray on? Did you use a clear top coat of some type?
Did you use decorate shelf liner? Was it paper or fabric?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

The shelves I'm using are of several varieties.
One had the super cheap particle board and I covered that with a marble look contact paper.
Some of the shelves are just wood planks stained and finished with clear polyurethane.
The others are just standard bookcases.
I've not used painted shelving specifically for fabric storage so I can't tell you anything on that except that it was never a problem when my kids used painted shelves for their stuffed animals, etc.

My suggestion would be if you decide to paint them, make sure you let the paint "age" for a couple weeks to get nice and hard before you put fabric on it. I had a small bookshelf that I put some FQs on and found that the bottom ones had stuck down, didn't seem to affect the fabric but who knows. My fabric storage closets all have the pre-finished coating on the shelves which I love. I like my fabric to be behind doors or in drawers to keep out the light. I found when I moved from my other house and had open shelving I had a lot of fabric fading where the folds were; and the room was on the north side of the house.

If fabric is in contact with wood for a long enough time, acids from the wood can leach into the fabric. I would use good quality shelf liner, or seal the wood with poly.
ETA: We made bookshelves last year and used polyurathane. Recommendation was that you wait 2 weeks before you put anything on the shelves, and 1 month before you put anything heavy, like books on them.

In my opinion the paint would not specifically matter as long as it was well-cured before adding fabrics. However, light and dust are not friendly to fabrics. I would add a curtain or something to the front of the bookcases if you are going to store fabric there. Fabric also needs to be aired out if you don't want it to smell like used thrift store does. You can alleviate this by keeping a small bar of dial soap or a Bounce fabric softener sheet on your shelves but not touching the fabrics. This also helps repel any pests.

Good luck! There are 4 bookcases in my workspace. They are white so that I can more easily see...but there are no fabrics there...just books, tools, supplies, etc. Fabrics are in drawers sorted by color and type.

Thanks for the suggestions. I never would have thought of letting the paint AGE for a few weeks before putting the fabric or heavier items on the shelves.

I agree with what everyone else has said. The only thing that I would add would be to use the no-slip shelve liner (the spongy kind) on the shelf before you place the fabrics. AFTER you have allowed the paint/finish to cure.

That keeps a barrier between your fabric and the shelf. But it also allows some air circulation under the fabric. HTH

I would be leery of bare wood and oil based paints. Ideally a coating of poly would take the worry away :D Or lining all of the surfaces the fabric could touch with paper, replacing it periodically :D:D:D

I would use contact paper or paint them and use shelf paper, or the rubbery shelf covering you can get at Dollar General or Wal Mart.

thanks for the reminder - I bought 4 rolls of clear contact paper a while back - now I can put it to use :)

Thinking again about repainting them :idea: :idea: :lol: :lol:

These are 'antiqued' bookcases :lol: :D Do you know how much $$$ people have to pay to get "the look". I'm going to scrub them down today. Let them dry out in the sunshine and use them as is. I could always claim them belonged to "my great-great aunt". ROFL