Yes, that's right, I color-coded our books. Didn't you all stay home and do the same? No? Well, our bookcase was driving me crazy. It was overflowing with books, art, photographs, junk, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I mean, I spend a lot of time in our living room sitting on the sofa that faces these bookshelves (which, by the way, were an incredible IKEA purchase!), and the mess was making me angry. So I decided to do something about it.
My inspiration came from a photo I saw on design*sponge, and I can't tell you how pleased I am with the results. I sit there and stare at them in awe now. I am so proud. Gone are the books that were never going to be read, gone are the photos and the artwork (they aren't really gone, they have just been moved), gone are the days of wishing it looked better. Now I see the whole bookshelf as a work of art in itself.
Along the bottom there are a number of bankers boxes which contain the junk that just could not be organized in any sort of logical way. Why bankers boxes, you might ask? There are tons of containers and boxes out there, but we really didn't want anything too natural (baskets), colorful (those plastic storage boxes from the Container Store), or childish (buckets or pails), so we bought some of these at Staples as a temporary solution. But our temporary solution has me pretty pleased, and in a way, I like the humor that the bankers boxes add - something so ordinary that is now a prominent feature of our living room.
By the way, just out of the frame of this photograph is my baby girl, her beach ball, and hundreds of toys that we play with all day long. But at least for a moment there it looked as though our apartment had some sort of order.
One more thing, the EXPEDIT bookshelves from IKEA which I absolutely adore can be found here:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40047675
They are a pain to put together (expect some sweating and maybe even some name-calling), but once they are standing, they are amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment