Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Finally - new bookcases!

We've been in our little home for a year and a half now, and we have done loads of improvements. There's been the double glazing, which helps keep heat in AND stops us hearing our irritating neighbours so much as they party hard into the wee hours. There's been the venetian blinds put in, and hand rails put on the stairs. Privacy and safety!

But the one things I really really really wanted was custom shelving and cupboards. I hated the crummy old bookcases we had that were continually overflowing due to lack of storage space. I felt like screaming every time I looked at them, because no matter how hard I tried to keep them tidy they always looked like this:

Before Bookcase #1

Before Bookcase #2

Awful, isn't it? It's ok, you can say so! So messy! So slobby! So exposed! I loathed it. So the Galumph and I sat down and figured out our bookcase strategy. Many, many months and lotsa lotsa lots of fabric-cutting wages later, here they are!

After Bookcase #2

After Bookcase #3

After Bookcase #4

After Bookcase #1

I LOVE THEM! They are so neat, and bright, and white! I love that everything is now put nicely away, and not piled ramrod onto something else. As Mrs Beeton said, there's a place for everything and everything is in it's place. Where once there was chaos, there is now well organised order.

Silly fool me, though, thought it would only take a few hours on Saturday after the carpenters had left to put all the books and things away. Erm, not quite. Try 4pm on Sunday before we finally put our cleaning cloths down and said "Phew, job done!" There was so much stuff to sort, and to figure out if it were to be kept, chucked or op-shopped. And then we had to figure what would go there, plus clean all the saw dust that had gone seemingly everywhere in the house.

But it's all done, and everything looks great. Galumph keeps talking to me and then after waiting too long for a response will say "Oi! Pay attention to me, and stop gazing lovingly at the new bookshelves!" But I can't help it - I'm just so very happy with them! I've always wanted to live in a house with gorgeous bookshelves, and now my dream has finally come true. It really feels like my own little home, now.

16 comments:

  1. Perfect! The cases (and their books) look fantastic.

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  2. Wow! Looks fabulous. So light and tidy. I love the composition. I bet they make you feel all grown up.

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  3. But will the books stay colour coded?

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  4. Love it! It's such a nice warm fuzzy feeling to have adequate (and attractive!) storage. I'm sufferimg from serious storage envy here!

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  5. Anonymous4:31 pm

    Jorth - they're beautiful! Absolutely clever and aesthetically pleasing.

    More jealousy-inducing and joyous celebration-inducing is that MIGHTY FINE PIANO. I presume someone in your household plays?

    Envious to the nth degree currently.

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  6. Anonymous4:32 pm

    (Anonymous at 4.31pm is Katie - pardon my technical ineptitude!)

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  7. Oh so neat and tidy and bright! Can i come round to gaze longingly at your bookshelves with you? ;)

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  8. Ha! Gail, probably not. But they look nice at the moment.

    Katie, Grumbles and I are both having lessons. I wouldn't go so far as to say we 'play' yet, though!

    Nic, anytime!

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  9. those guys are some kind of beautiful. if your house were in a magazine, i'd rip those pages out and tape them to my wall of house-crushes. so much lovely.

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  10. Wow! This looks beautiful!
    J x

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  11. You've done an amazing job - I love the way you've made a special home for the piano and the space is perfectly balanced - LOVE IT!!!!

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  12. Glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed the colour coding of books :)

    I guess we all have our own systems!!

    It looks fabulous. We're about to undertake the same big project at our place... so many ideas!

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  13. Anonymous8:34 pm

    If you want music, I'm happy to send some across the web. (I also have old AMEB flute books which are easily done on piano). I have a hunch you'd love Michael Nyman's The Piano, and if not, I'll do my best to convert you :)

    Katie

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  14. Bewdiful.
    Can you recommend the carpenters? I neeeed shelves!

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  15. Wow your book shelves are beautiful!! well worth all that hard work!

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  16. Just had a geek girl moment and noticed the Harry Potter novels before pretty much anything else. Gorgeous! Makes me want to chuck in my DIY bookcase project in despair.

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