Styling the new bookcase

Hey heyyyy! Hope you had a GREAT weekend and Monday! I spent a bit of time styling a new bookshelf – which I find just plain fun. If I’ve got time and the resources (aka STUFF from the basement), I find it oddly relaxing.

I totally get in a ZONE.

It usually takes me some time though, so I go through a process. A lot of placing something, stepping back, moving something, stepping back, switching something, stepping back. Lots of hokey pokey. And turn yourself around.

You last saw our living room after our new floors were put down last fall:

Pretty much immediately I started making changes. :)

I installed wainscoting around the room a couple years ago and it’s always bugged me that you couldn’t see any of it the way the room was set up.

I did some rearranging, which I liked, and then a few weeks ago came across a PERFECT addition for the space between the windows. It was a tall bookcase from HomeGoods:

I LOVED the detail on the sides and that it was open on the back. (So you can see some of my hard work.)

I’m kind of obsessed with the colors that are in the drapery fabric in this room:

(You can see more about that fabric on my FAQ page.)

That deep peacock blue is my favorite. (And to think I never had an ounce of blue in this house only a couple years ago!) I’m trying to pull that and more of the green into the space.

I styled the shelves (or decorated them, but “styling” seems to be the word nowadays) over the weekend and wanted to share how I made it happen. The only challenge was that I wanted to use what I had – no shopping allowed. Although some of it I had gotten recently, it just happened to work perfectly. :)

One thing I do as I’m working on a space like this is to take pictures – it really gives me a different perspective to see it on the camera screen. I don’t know why, but it does.

The top shelf holds some of the more recent finds, and they were from a local antique shop. I just discovered it and I can’t believe it’s been under my nose all this time! I can’t wait to go back. :)

I found the most adorable brass owl, and had to add him to the shelves somewhere. The vintage books were just beautiful and worked with the colors in this space perfectly:

I had to add something to the back to cover the meeeellions of holes on that wall. I can patch them but don’t have the wall paint anymore, and it’s not made anymore either (and I know from experience it wouldn’t color match perfectly.) Soooo…I have holes. (I have an plan to rectify this though…it’s number 464 on my list.)

The little pot was from Goodwill, isn’t it cute?:

The faux plant is from IKEA – it is the most realistic fake plant I’ve ever seen!

The next shelf is pretty self explanatory:

Ack. Darn HOLES!

The wood dough bowl was a Wuslu.com find – I LOVE it. I just filled it with my rattan balls and dollar store mossy rocks that I had.

I was going to add something to the back, but it got too busy.

Moving on down, I tried to pull more of that beautiful blue, and the green from the drapes in with the next shelf:

The ceramic candle holder was a clearance find at Cost Plus a few months ago, and the green jar was a Goodwill find years ago. (It was covered in old rattan and I took it off.)

That photo is a good example of how I like to use accessories that make your eye move up and down. I use that little rule often and it always works.

The bottom shelf had one more Cost Plus item – a storage box I picked up a few weeks ago, a couple more books I already had in those lovely colors:

That pedestal was horribly tarnished when I found it, but this stuff always does the trick:

With a little elbow grease it made it shine!:

After much hokey pokeying, I finally came up with a display I liked:

I’m pretty happy with it, considering I was using stuff from my stash.

And ignore the missing drapery panel – those are getting a little redo too. ;)

I LOVE how the bookcase fills in the this space between the windows:

It fits perfectly, and it’s got tons of character too, so unique!

I love looking back to see how this space has transformed over the years – first the red and black days:

You can see how to knock off those Ballard Design shelves here.

Here it is last year with showing the difference new drapes and some color can make:

And here it is now, sans a couple drapes:

Before and afters are my very favorite things. :) Other than fried chicken. And reality TV.

Believe it or not, I don’t have a lot of spaces I can decorate with accessories in our house, so I love having a new spot!

I hope to change up a few more things in here in the next few months. Me saying that out loud means it will probably happen next year. Whatever. I can hope.

So, do you struggle with accessorizing? Styling? Whatever? ;) Do you have tricks that work for you? Anymore I head straight to Pinterest for ideas too, or even catalogs. They have some GREAT inspiration! (I even have a “vignette” board on Pinterest!)