My Living Room Update- adding built-in bookshelves

Well our bookshelves are finished and I couldn't be happier with this project.

Thank you Dad!!

This is still very much a room in progress

--it's now become apparent that our RH couch is way too big for this room--but I did rearrange the furniture to give you a better view at the bookshelves. 

If this picture reminds you of a certain India Hicks photo it's not an accident. When I ran low on books I remembered her collection of beach hats on her upper shelves. So copy I did,---which-is the ultimate compliment because I love her casual, eclectic style.

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When I have time I still plan on styling the books a bit, but you can see how much potential  the bookshelves add to our living room.

Let's take a look at this room before these new built-ins. 

 I still remember walking into this house with the realtor and feeling 'cramped' by the size of this entrance into the living room. Truthfully, I think I was just used to our previous home--with its open floor plan and cathedral ceilings-- and it's been an adjustment living with standard sized ceilings.

It also doesn't help that this house doesn't get as much natural light as I would wish.

In a perfect world I'd love to remove this entire wall

(Chip and Joanna can you please come to my house?) 

but knowing that's not going to happen, I decided to make this wall fit our needs.

 And because we still had boxes of books packed away in the garage I decided this wall could be the perfect place for storage. So when Mom and Dad came on their last visit... guess what project we worked on?

On the foyer side (dare I call it that?) we added simple wood trim to give the living room entrance a more substantial presence (more on this later).

And on the living room side my Dad and I designed these built-in bookshelves.

 

Ok, ready for some Befores and Afters?

Before

After

Previous owners

Now

If you look closely you can see the wires running down the corner of this bookcase from the surround sound system that we installed into this ceiling. We still need to enclose these wires.

Now to give you a better sense of this room I snapped a few quickie shots this morning with my phone. Here's the fireplace wall that you see right when you enter.

Today

I actually plan on doing a post and showing you how we transformed this wall with reclaimed wood shelves and these farmhouse doors that can hide the TV--this wall is almost done it just needs a mantel.

Here it is before our transformation.

And now ta-daaaaa...

on the opposite side of the room we have our new bookshelves

 which-I-might add- now perfectly frame the staircase that needs to be done. Ah well,..nothing like living in a fixer upper to cultivate patience.

If you're thinking of adding bookshelves around a doorway or window there's lots of visual inspiration out there, here's a few photos that motivated me.

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On a side note, I think pray that my computer issues are finally behind me and I can get back to posting again. Thank you so much for following along and being so supportive whenever I share here--it really means so much.

xo

Leslie

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