Bookshelf Beautification: The "After" Party

Well, today's the day...the last Friday in February (Yes, really!)

Time for the big "After" reveal!

My bookshelves began this journey in this chaotic state of disarray:

And here they are now:

I think the biggest change is the background color.  I debated between purple and blue

and finally settled on "Honolulu Blue."  I love the drama of purple, but it felt too dark in this space.  Our family room has large windows but still manages to seem dark, except in the late afternoon when the sun shines directly in.  This renders anyone in the room temporarily blind and makes it necessary to close the shades, thus making the room dark again.  This particular shade of blue has a lot of light and brightness to it - think blue sky on a clear summer day.  It is happy and cheerful...exactly how I want my family room to feel.

This color also coordinates nicely with our favorite rug that we've dragged around through four moves and have not, up until this point, painted a room to coordinate with it.

I've organized the books (mostly by color rather than topic...my apologies to the Dewey Decimal System!)

And added some family pictures

and some old(er) pictures

Some fun trinkets...

And a bit of sentimental stuff...
Zack hand made this ceramic mug in school and adorned it with the letters "MOM" *sigh*

My parents gave us this sweet duck family back when we were a family of only four.

The bottom shelves are entirely kid friendly (A & Z can reach them!).  But, I think they still look really cool. For how long?  I don't know.   Perhaps they're pulling them apart as I type this.

And then there's this lady...

I love her.  My husband is on the fence...he thinks she's a wee bit creepy. 

I did get a chance to change the fabric on the cornice (which now clashes horribly with the cornice on the other side of the room - but that one will soon be switched out for panels made out of this same gorgeous fabric.)  I've never covered a cornice before, and was surprised by how simple it was, and how nicely it turned out.  Kind of like wrapping a present, but with a staple gun,  fun!

Overall, I am very pleased with how the shelves look now.  I can't wait to finish the rest of this room (and the rest of this house...)!

A huge thanks to Lisa at  Shine Your Light  for pushing me into action on this project.

Be sure to visit the After Party to see all of February's before and after projects.  And think about joining the party in March...sometimes all you need is a deadline to get your project moving!