Tuesday, April 9, 2013

grown-up furniture and my foray into shelf styling

Finally, the results of Zach's game of Ikea Tetris. Alright, here's what we were dealing with before our new purchase.

yippy skippy

It's been this way since Christmas. Before that, we had the tree in the corner.

Aw, look at the little baby with the MASSIVE bald spot. 
Teehee. Her hair's coming in nicely now.

And before that, the TV was diagonal in the corner which was ergonomically pleasing from a TV watching perspective, but it wasted a ton of space.

I've been scouting out these VITTSJĂ– shelves from Ikea.


Can you believe they're only $70?

And gleaning inspiration from the "Pin"osphere. 


Drexel Heritage's Pinacle Etagere, formerly sold by Higdon Furniture


via Ikea



I knew how I wanted to arrange the pair of shelves we purchased, but I didn't want to just throw items up there. The art of shelf styling takes time, thought, a collection of objects from multiple time periods, and, honestly, taste. I study everything that Emily Henderson and Jenny Komenda do.  

 Here's a post that Jenny, of Little Green Notebook wrote on arranging books by both color and genre
Those of you who've taken the time to style your books know that this took her a LOT of time and thought. 
The results are really pleasing to my eye.

 I've searched all evening, but I can't find Emily's post where she describes her shelf styling secrets. 
(This image is from her portfolio.)

So, without further stalling, here's what I came up with.

 We're gonna call this "during" since we still need some artwork in the center.

It was fun to come up with all of the vignettes. I tried to be mindful of color, texture and height. There will definitely be some tweaking along the way (some has already happened since this picture), but I'm loving the look so far. Here are some close-ups.

  
Those hatboxes are from Rittenhouse Square in Philly! Pretty cool. 

 All of those little boxes were gifts my Dad brought back from his travels.




Pen and ink by my talented sis, Rebekah. (Check out her prints on Etsy!)

Couldn't resist the succulent under glass. It's terribly impractical, 
since I have to take it out to the kitchen every couple of days to get some sun, but so far I don't mind.

I'm loving this old toolbox for CDs. The other things on that shelf will have to go soon, though. 
Baby girl is getting curious.

Here's the before and after, one more time.

Ah, so much better. and it makes the living room look a lot bigger. Now I get to sit back, watch some Rachel Zoe, and figure out what to put on the wall above the TV. 




Featured on Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday and Decor and the Dog's link party.

12 comments:

  1. i love it! and I second that styling your bookshelves takes TIME. looking forward to seeing what you find for the middle.

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  2. I think your shelves are lovely. You have the perfect knick-knacks for them (I thought so before even reading this)

    I've been searching for the perfect pieces to go on our shelves in the new orange dining room. It's such a process!

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  3. Great job! I love redoing the bookshelves in my living room. The best way to combat dust is to restyle!

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  4. I can't believe how much larger the room looks with those shelves in there!
    Styling shelves is definitely hard work - it's a skill I'm seriously lacking. I'll have to read up on how to do it with those links you shared!

    Hopping over from the Decor & the Dog party! ♡

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  5. Finally! The pipes on display... Yee-hah! Looks good.

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  6. You did a great job rearranging the items on the shelf. It always takes me 3 hours to do it as I go back and forth with changing positions of things. Before you know it, things on the bottom two shelf's will be filled with items for the little of yours. She is a cutie pie.

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  8. This is looking so lovely. Great job done. Thanks for sharing. Hotel Furniture

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