I would say this has been the most exciting step of our (continuing) front room update but then, I've been pretty excited about all the completed parts (having the house torn up for a few weeks...not so exciting).
To refresh, here is what we lived with for our first 11 years in the house:
The wall hangings have changed (a little), pillows, what's on the book shelves but the wall color, floor, and furniture have been here since almost the beginning. (My biggest takeaway from this picture: "WOW...Lemur used to be fluffier.")
Then we refinished the floors last spring:
And bought a new couch in July:
I wrote last summer that we still had some parts of this room to finish up, namely replacing that bookshelf with larger shelves (where we are today) and then, eventually (this spring, hopefully) replacing our coffee and end tables.
That is where we were for months. And I wrote that the shelves would be done by the end of September.
HAH.
Someday we might get better at estimating project timeline and expense...
(Probably never.)
Matt bought the wood last summer, worked on turning them into shelves through the fall, and we hung the larger ones on Thanksgiving morning, between church and our first meal, while watching the parade. It was SO EXCITING.
We picked a light wood to contrast a little with our medium toned floors but also tie in with the arms on the chairs we recovered and finished a year ago.
I cannot tell you anything about how the shelves were built, just that it took a lot of time and got sawdust all over the basement. And that the walls in our ~80 year old house are NOT square, at all.
I helped hold boards for cutting to be flush with the wall, held shelves to be hang. Gave my input on wood tone and spacing. But otherwise, it was all Matt. I really excel at coming up with house ideas for my husband (although, I was just suggesting the longer side and he came up with adding the shorter ones too...which I had been wanting but didn't want to overwhelm him with projects, so he's a tiny bit to "blame" for this too.).
I decorated them for Christmas a few days after they went up but never got to fill them for real life until we took Christmas down in early January. Which was exciting all over again!
 |
| print from London trip | Target frame |
 |
| fabric covered books |
 |
| pineapple cookie jar | photobooks | fabric covered books |
 |
| IKEA pot | pineapple bookends | Grace, Not Perfection | A Simplified Life | A Paris Year | City Map | Target frame |
 |
| IKEA magazine file | Target bookend | IKEA pot |
 |
| Star Wars Pop-Up Book |
 |
| IKEA magazine file | Christy Miller saga |
 |
| Sea of Tranquility | Loving my Actual Life | Target bookend |
My goal was to mostly fill them with what we already had...which turned out not to be a problem. I only bought some frames and a city map from Etsy. Updated the pictures. But otherwise, everything else we either had or was a Christmas present (books, bookends, I knew these were coming and filled my Christmas list accordingly.).
I'm still figuring out what to do under the shelves, looking at a lot of baskets/bins/etc. Luke still has a few things stored in the baskets under the coffee table which the new coffee table won't have, so brainstorming on that. But, other than that, these are done and we are SO PLEASED with how they came out.
(Let's play a quick game of "spot the pineapples!" There are 3...plus the pineapple bookends on the smaller shelves...)
I am constantly tweaking what's on them. Keep wondering if I should put MORE books on them. (Because I definitely have more...in a cupboard.). They'll get changed up a little for holidays but I'm mostly happy with how they look. (But will probably rearrange them 5 more times before Christmas comes back out.)
 |
| Target basket | Target milk crate |
 |
| travel gallery wall | 30 Minute Pillow Covers |
If you need me, I might be staring at the shelves, before moving something over ½ inch and then sighing happily.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment