A Little Bookcase Love

Bookcases are hard.  If you're like me, you hit on a look you like and then eventually you start tweaking it a little here and there, until suddenly, you're not happy with it anymore.  Something's missing, or maybe there's too much?

For several months I've been considering painting the inside of my family room bookcases.  I have lots of wonderful decorative pieces and books and they just weren't popping against the white.  Now, to be honest, it's not just about the paint.  These had gotten a little chaotic for me, too. 

So last weekend, I cleared them off, took all the shelves down, pulled out some leftover blue paint from the kids' bathroom and ...

That's an electrical outlet in the back of my bookcase.  Nice to have for lighting, but a challenge, too.  The paint color is Behr's Tide Pool.  I decided to go with this one, because I thought that the Martha Stewart blue on this desk would be too bright.

And I've introduced pops of blue on the mantle as well.

I'm really loving the blues, tans, browns, and creams together. I have metallics in there as well: gold frames, silver serving pieces, and my caramel latte metallic pumpkins.  Blue was definitely the right accent color for the bookcases.  But did I get the right blue?

You tell me...

With everything off the shelves, it was much easier to "cull" the contents.  All of my paperback books have a new home stacked in my bedroom (for sorting at a later date!) and I turned some of the books spine inward to keep an overall neutral feeling -- there are plenty of pops of color from other sources. Bonus: I love the exposed page edges! This isn't qutie finished but I'm MUCH happier with these after adding color, culling some books, and even losing an entire shelf (the beauty of adjustable shelving!).  I made the sides symmetrical and it has a much cleaner look.  So here's another look:

Before

and After:

Okay, so your turn to weigh in... should I have gone brighter or darker?  I'm still on the fence to be honest.  But that's the great thing about paint-- it's easy enough to change for not a lot (if any) money.

I'll live with it for a bit, I think, and then decide. :)

Linking up!

 and Tutorials and Tips Tuesday at Stories of A to Z

Urn to Lamp {DIY}

Confession: my home is in serious disarray right now as we deal with a broken toilet induced flood in our finished basment, a faulty water heater, and ... gasp! ... termites.  Ugh.  Just as I'm counting down to out of town guests for my daughter's high school graduation in a few weeks!  We're trying to get on top of everything, but you can imagine! 

All that to say that some of my planned projects this month have gone out the window while I deal with repairs.  Such a bummer.

Luckily, I have this urn to lamp transformation that my son and I did together to share with you.  Remember this sweet little Southern Living at HOME urn in my family room?

It's been around awhile and I decided I wanted a little accent lamp on my family room bookcases.  This was the perfect candidate!

I got both of these in the lighting department at Home Depot - less than $15 for the two.  I wasn't entirely sure I would need the harp, but bought it just in case!

We decided to use the harp as part of the assembly, because I could always remove the top part if I didn't want it.

We just followed the directions on the back of the lamp kit... super easy!

Before we inserted the socket down into the harp base, we tested our connection.  Success!

Here's where I had to get a little crafty!  The lamp kit did not come with an insert large enough for the opening of the urn.  So I simply used hot glue to secure the harp base and lamp kit apparatus to the urn.

See how the arms of the harp apparatus rest against the lip of the urn?  Since this little guy won't see a ton of use, I'm pretty confident that we're all secure!  After all, I'm the only one in my household that actually turns the accent lamps off and on!

And here she is!  I love the pop of red on the bookcase, and the lamp is the perfect touch since it tends to be a dark corner anyway.  I'm not crazy about the blah little shade but it was $4.99 at Old Time Pottery, so I'm seeing a little stencilling or fabric in it's future. :)

I'm hoping to continue progress on my months old home office revamp, so look for a post or two on that coming up-- home repairs permitting! 

Can you relate? Do your home repairs ever get in the way of your fun projects??

Happy Decorating!

Bookcase Backgrounds

I've been contemplating painting the inside of my family room bookcase for the past two months. 

Of course, being the redecorranging fanatic that I am, it looks different today than it does in this pic from a month ago (I know, I know...).  But I still want all my treasures to pop and am thinking color on the inside is the way to achieve this.

realsimple.com

elledecor.com

Real Simple's tips vary from going one shade darker than your wall color to using an accent color instead.  Hmm.

Here's our family room paint color: Porter Paint's Lincoln Beige.  Because my bookcases are tucked into a somewhat dark corner of the room, I would be afraid to put anything darker than this inside them.  I could use this exact color though.

Or, I have some spare Behr Tide Pools left over from repainting the kids' bathroom.

In the kids' bath, it looks a lot bluer than the chip, so I'm thinking it might be a pretty accent color.

Or I have this lovely gray-green, Porter's Ripe Riesling, in my foyer, but I'm afraid it would be too gray.

Ugh.  OK, here's my plan:  Try the Tide Pools.  If I don't like that, try Lincoln Beige.  If neither of them work, head to the paint store for more options.  Here's where you come in, readers...

Would you go with a shade of the wall color, or would you try an accent color? 

Tune in tomorrow-- I'll be posting my Spring mantle and linking up with Beth over at The Stories of A To Z!  And next week I'll be guest posting over at Fancy Little Things. :)  See you then!

Happy Decorating!

Maybe This Is Next?

Yes, I said on Friday that my family room bookshelves were...done.  Hmmm.  But into my Inbox pops my weekly ideabook update from Houzz (do you Houzz??) with a potential gamechanger.  What if I were to paint the interior of the bookcase?

This is the color of my family room walls... Porter Paint's Lincoln Home Beige.  I love this color for its neutrality, but it also has a nice punch against my white trim.  At certain times of day, it even takes on a teeny bit of olive, which I adore. 

I'm thinking I may even go a shade lighter to avoid the darkness that I was trying so hard to get rid of.  Or maybe even an accent color?  Celery green?  Blue?  Check out the Ideabook over at Houzz that got my wheels turning and then come back and tell me...

What do you think?



Family Room Bookcase-- Done!

My journey to refresh in our family room continues with our built in bookcases.  Several years ago, I painted all the woodwork in this room white-- best thing I've ever done.  It probably is almost time to repaint but I'm determined to wait a bit longer before taking this on (think dog/kids).  Somewhere along the way, I had filled the shelves with darker items (?)-- lots of wood accents, dark book jackets, pottery pieces, some of my husband's duck decoys-- so I knew much of that would need to go.

I simply took EVERYTHING OFF and gave the entire bookcase a good dusting (I can't blame this on my cleaning lady because I only have her in periodically-- I totally own how horrible this was!).  Then I went through what had previously resided on the shelves and pulled out the handful of lighter pieces and books that could return.  I then visited my spread of freshly polished silver pieces on the dining room table and pulled out a few pieces that I thought might work.  Next up-- shop the house.  I found framed photos in silver tone frames, a framed watercolor by my great-grandmother, and a bit of greenery.

I started with the shelves on the right, because they are in the darkest corner of the room and that is where I wanted the most light reflected.  After a couple of hours of shifting and tweaking, here is the finished product.

You probably recognize my flea market blue decanter (love this piece!).  The tall ship watercolor is by my great-grandmother.  I think it needs a stand to elevate it just a teeny bit.  I kept a few ducks and my husband's humidor but I like them much better where they are now.  The little red urn (a Southern Living at HOME piece) will be made into a lamp this weekend.  There's a plug right behind the abstract print so, yet some more light will be shed on this corner.

You can see where a few of my silver pieces ended up.  This corner was perpetually cluttered and dark, but I love the more open feel and light reflective quality.  You'll notice, too, that in doing so, I could add back in a few of my darker accessories.

Love these silver bowls as bookends.

You might recognize the Willow House Terrace Accent plates here, too.  They come in a set of four and I used two of them on the sconces over my mantle.  I love now having them on the other side of the room, as well.

And again-- the finished (for now) product! 

I say for now, because I've been known to keep tweaking and changing things. :)  The best part about this redo?  It was virtually free.

Do you have bookcases that are in need of a makeover?

Happy Decorating!  Happy Friday!

Willow House and Southern Living at HOME products are available through me.  Visit my website to shop online.