It’s one of the oft-neglected spots in a home: the Bookshelf. I’ve been “neglecting” this one for ages and finally got fed up. Time to rearrange!
This Bookshelf is on the landing at the top of the stairs. It is passed many times a day on the way to the bedroom, my art studio, the music room and the bathroom. Jiva’s music students often sit in that chair waiting for their lesson. Everyone who visits the house sees it, and it is a bit embarrassing. So messy!

The first step was to remove everything (ok, except the little fountain, it’s a pain in the butt to move) and clean. It’s kind of astounding how much dirt and dust pile up behind books. Nasty.

I like the arrangement on top of the shelf so I left that as is, along with the fountain. It doesn’t fit on any other shelf, and honestly, we love it. It has authentic rainforest sounds and is rather relaxing. Sort of a nice white-noise thing.

Next I went through everything that was on the shelves, tossed what I could, and put a few superfluous items into storage. Then I cleaned up the books & tchotchkes, ordered them (well sort-of) and started arranging everything back on the shelves. All of the man’s music books are now in one place and easy to find, and it all looks neat, tidy and more interesting. I did bring in two items from other rooms, the amethyst geode piece and a candle.

Now I won’t be mortified when someone sits in the chair…FYI, the pretty leaves in the bud vase on the top shelf came from the backyard. All the wall art and the art on top of the shelf came from the thrift store, as did the disco ball (I’m obsessed with disco balls, I have three of them up in the house right now). At least half the books were thrift store finds and half the tchotchkeys as well. A few things were gifts. The chair was an alley find I did up all Mackenzie-childs style (see the rest here). The fun pear pillow is from a company that unfortunately went out of business years ago.

Next, I need to move that top picture lower on the wall, and that ugly Oxblood Red trim is getting painted gold. The man painted that years ago, and I’ll forgive him his questionable color choices 😉 Some part of this Victorian house has to be traditional…

What projects did you tackle this Holiday Weekend? I’d love to hear about them in the Leave a Reply/Comments section.