DIY: wall-shelf retrofit

Our condo has a spacious window seat at the midlanding on the way to the third floor. I wanted an open wall shelf overhead of the window seat, so that it can serve as a reading nook. I found an industrial style three-tiered shelf at Kirkland's online store that I liked for the price. I hung it high enough so that someone can easily slide into the window seat without knocking their head on the shelf. But once I hung it, I realized that only the underside of the shelves were in view. And this underside is black and sort of boring to look at. So then I decided to do some doodle on the back of these shelves as you can see in the image....

The seat is large enough to be able to comfortably chill while having your belongings along with a cup of tea around.

This is what the shelf looked like before.

So I took them off of their frame and started painting freehand with the Sharpie Paint Marker.

I chose the color white because it would be a good contrast against the brown black. First, I outlined the rectangular edge with the marker.

Next, I drew two diamond motifs on each corner to find where the inner rectangle will be. I used a regular pencil to guide me.

After placing the inner rectangle I went over it with the marker.

Here are the two rectangles. This is supposed to be organic so I was not looking to have perfect lines.

Then I went in and marked each diamond motif with my pencil so that they were sort of evenly placed.

My pencil marks were rough. I was more careful when using the marker over them.

Once the diamond motifs were drawn, I focused on the inner rectangle and freehanded some swirling leaves to fill up the area.

Once I did the first shelf, the other two went by pretty fast.

If you look carefully you will notice that all three are different from each other. I was not looking to be perfect. I wanted more of an organic freehand look.