My Weekend: There's Always Something to Paint

Our bookcase went blue this weekend!

I've been dying to paint the back wall of our built-in and we finally knocked it out. It's the first thing you see when you walk into our house (via the back door) and I really wanted it to bring your eye past that giant t.v. and welcome you into the room. We decided on a dark blue which was pulled out of our old Pottery Barn accent pillow in the room and it worked perfectly. It's the perfect balance of a bold color without being overwhelming or too dark. 

After painting, I rearranged all the items on the shelves and changed up some of the existing elements. Although I would like purchase some new items to display, I used what I had in new ways to make it work for now. Here are a couple simple ways I changed the look of my bookcase:

• I took book covers off the hardback books to display the monochromatic binding and grouped the like colors together.
• I wrapped the softback books in butcher paper to neutralize all the different patterns and to build a common thread throughout the shelves.
• A few of the books I even wrapped together with a piece of twine I had sitting around the house.

We also painted the bedside table my dad built me, but that's waiting on a nice coat of poly so I'll wait and post it once it's fully ready. 

Did you do any house projects this weekend?

Until next time...

Do Bookcases Scare You Too?

Bookcases terrify me. Is that weird? 

Our new home has a large built in bookcase that sits directly across from our back door (which is also our main entrance.) Although the room is still filled with unopened boxes, I couldn't stand the idea of having everyone walk in and stare at empty shelves. I mean, even when the boxes are gone, we'll still have to distract from the fact that we have basically no furniture in the room. 

Before our small group arrives tomorrow night, (holy crap, tomorrow night?) I decided to tackle those scary shelves. I know they probably won't stay the same and I'll more than likely start hating them by this weekend, but at least the bookcase is no longer empty. I scrimped and scrapped for items to throw up on the shelves. Any thoughts?

Hey. Stop looking at those boxes.

Not too terrible, right?

Well, those are our shelves for now. It has at least a little bit of personality. There's even a gas can on the bottom left that my father-in-law Doug found in one of our storage sheds. How fun it that?

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by organizing displays on your bookcases or shelves? What do your shelves say about you? (I think mine says...hmm...well, maybe I don't want to know.)

Until next time...