bookshelves reveal

the bookshelves in my living room have been a long time coming.  when we first moved in a little bit over a year ago, they served as holders of junk we didn't know where else to put.  at least it could be out in the open there so we could see what we got, right?  rbb kept his many paint cans and brushes out of reach and i stashed my specialty - stacks of papers and mail that need to be sorted, filed or thrown away.  i always seem to have a few different ones going strong.

you can see them here at rush's 2nd birthday celebration; this was june 2011.  and can someone please hand me some bronzer?!  gah.

then last summer before rinne arrived, i tried to get them looking somewhat presentable, which was an idea that fell flat on its face.  i knew the shelves had spaces that were way too big, but didn't know what to do about it exactly, so i left them as-is.  it looked terrible.

i just couldn't get them looking good, whatever i tried.  i threw in the towel months before these images were captured, and you can see that rush had his way with the bottom shelves.  well, the row above that too it looks like.

thank GOD jen came to town in march.  i had sent her the pathetic above pictures, to which she replied, you need more shelves and i'm coming to help.  to which i said, bless you...and i'll get right on more shelves (which translates to: ask rbb what the heck i need to do).  he told me i needed to go to home depot with an existing shelf, get them to cut wood the same size (wait...you mean they don't have ready to go shelves...?), then find a paint match.  so off i went, not exactly sure of how to do these things but certain i could find someone to tell me.

i had no idea that this was involved.

but that sweet fellow cutting the wood - i think he guessed i had never stepped foot in the lumber department before, or really done much of anything home-wise.  he took me under his wing and steered my cart all over the place finding just the right brackets to hold the shelves, the correct paint color and even a pit stop in the garden store to grab some plants i needed.  man, i can do house projects all day long if i have my own personal concierge!

so i brought home my new shelves, feeling so proud of myself, and rbb got to work on priming and painting them.  meanwhile, jen came and got my shelves started...they looked better immediately.  she had that sh&$ turned around in a matter of minutes.  i wish i had a picture of her 5 month prego belly on a stepstool arranging things just so.  she is a total rock star!!  she left me with some explicit instructions, to which i carried out to the letter.

i must say, i am in love with the end result.  IN LOVE.

now, instead of thinking "hell.  those shelves look awful.  what am i going to do about that." when i look eastward in our living room, i now think "yay! color! organization! and best of all they're DONE!"   it's a good feeling.

sources and more coming tomorrow...
xoxo