Has anyone painted Ikea Billy bookcases?

[Londono]

I want to make them look built in and want to use Farrow and Ball paint - has anyone tried this? I can sand and prime them but want to make sure the paint actually sticks to it and the finish lasts!

I did not paint them but stuck beading in the print and painted that. I think it looks great

Front not print

@Butterflyfox That DOES look great and is making me think I could save myself a lot of hassle and stick to white. I'm also concerned about going to all this effort and then wanting to change my mind about the wall colour and that having a knock on effect on the colour of the bookcases. Where did you get the beading from?

@butterflyfox have you put molding or beading along the top as well, or just vertically? Can't tell from the pic but it doesn't look like naked Billy!

Here are a couple of pics. The beading strips I got from Homebase for next to nothing I got two different styles one for the frame and one for the verticals. I like the contrast of the white frames against the walls (f and b shaded white in case you are interested). And once it is full of books you don’t see the insides anyway)

@Butterflyfox - am very impressed. They look like custom built in shelves.

Thankyou. I am neither particularly creative nor skilful but it was so easy and so cheap and now one of favourite things in the house. It also means I can change wall colour as OP said and move shelves about without worrying about scratching paint

Yes, I have done it on white Billy shelves with Zinsser 123 followed by F&B Estate Eggshell. I also filled all the little shelf holes (with Red Devil filler) before priming.

Thanks for the extra info, I'm thinking of sticking to white as a result. @MissLathbury I might do that with the shelf holes too - would you be prepared to show your photo of your painted shelves too?

@Londono they are looking rather tatty these days, after moving, being in storage and then being moved around the house (big renovation project). They will be going to the utility room next. If I repaint them I will also caulk the joins between the shelves and uprights, as the paint has cracked a bit when they’ve been moved and also probably from having heavy books on them.

Here are ours - we (I say we, my OH did the actual work, I was project overseer!) fake built them in using beading and skirting/cornice, primed it all with Zinsser BIN then painted with dulux (to match the other woodwork in the room). I was really pleased with how it came out.

@Zitouna - They also look fab! Thank you for sharing the photo. I am erring on keeping mine white to keep more options open but definitely need beading/skirting etc to make them look bespoke.

We painted ours with F&B Parma Grey. Light sand, no primer just estate eggshell. They look fabulous and there are no marks or scratches after several years.