Styling bookshelves
You may have noticed that some bookshelves look elegant and pulled together, while others look like a jumbled hot mess. Why? It’s all about tone.
Layering books with decorative items on shelves is a terrific idea, but it has to be done thoughtfully and with a willingness to edit.
Take a look at these shelves. They work because there is harmony among the accessories. The old books blend beautifully with the antique truck, the old boxes, the old-world bookends, and, of course, the napping cat.
If you want to embrace a kind of eclectic variety in your shelves, you can do it–but be intentional about it. These shelves house very different pieces–some old, some new, some colorful, some not–but they work because that was the intention behind them. Notice how the items are placed. Old and new, colorful and subtle stagger across each of the shelves. If you don’t group all like items together, your eye travels more easily across the shelves.
Here’s a tip: before you begin styling your shelves, put out everything you plan to use. Group like items together. If anything stands out, don’t use it. You’re looking for harmony, so each item should sing at the same pitch.
And here are some don’ts:
Don’t feel like every shelf must be covered with stuff. There is real beauty in empty space that highlights one remarkable piece.
Don’t try to put all your old books together and all your paperbacks together. Instead, make small groupings of each that you disperse throughout the shelves.
Don’t think styling bookshelves is a one and done process. If you’re still moving things around a month after you first get started, then congratulations! You’re doing it right!
the $18 closet game changer
If your closet has shelves, chances are you know what it’s like trying to find the green t-shirt you know is in there somewhere, buried under the dozens of other t-shirts heaped together. You fish around, pushing clothes back and forth, creating an even bigger heap, until FINALLY! You found it!
This is how my husband gets dressed every day–and it does not bother him one bit. Me? Makes me crazy.
If you are like me and want a little more order and tidy in your closet life, then check out these shelf dividers.
They’re not expensive and do not require screws or hammers. You just slide them onto the shelf–as many as you’d like–and there you go.
Your tops and bottoms each have a section to live in. You can separate them by color. Or sleeve length. Or dressy vs casual. Whatever system works for you. But now, you can actually see what’s there.
Game changer.
Here’s the link: shelf dividers
Let me know if you try these and what you think!
Conquering the closet
Imagine opening your closet.
Reaching in and finding exactly what you’re looking for.
Putting new outfits together because you can actually see what you have.
Not buying yet another white blouse because you can see the four you already own.
All good things! But how to get there?
What you will need:
A very honest friend who will tell you the dress you thought made you look breezy actually makes you look frumpy. (It’s ok if you don’t have one of those friends. You can tell yourself the truth.)
Some hours to focus
Tissue paper or plastic bags
Either 3 large trash bags or 3 medium boxes
Two or three wicker baskets
shelf dividers if you have shelves
Matching hangers
A mirror
Happy music
A glass of wine or a mimosa–or something stronger if you have to use a shovel to do the clearing out
First steps:
Designate one box (or trash bag) as throw away, one as donation, and one as maybe
Remove all of your “I wear this all the time” items. These are the items you know you need to keep.
Put those items in a stack, somewhere in your bedroom.
Take everything else out of your closet and stack it all together. All. Of. It.
(yes. I know. Truly scary.)
Stand at your closet and take some time to think. What should go where? Do you want to hang your jeans or fold them on shelves? Where will dresses hang best? How much room do you need for purses and shoes?
Once you’ve done an outline of where each category should go,
put the items you first removed–those “I wear this all the time items”–back into the closet.
Hang the clothes by like items–pants go together, dresses, tops, etc.
Then, arrange each of those groups by color–all the blue tops together, the jeans together, etc.
If you have shelves, arrange your dividers. Fold and fill the shelves between the dividers. (Usually t-shirts, sweaters, and jeans do well on shelves.)
Use the tissue paper (or trash bags) to stuff the purses you’re keeping and line them up together
Style your shoes, facing forward . Stuff your boots so they stand up.
Label your wicker baskets and fill them with scarves, belts, tennis shoes, etc. Those can go on shelves if you have room or on the floor, under clothes.
Step back and admire what you’ve done!!!
Maybe pour another glass of wine.
Time to tackle the pile on your bed.
The sweater with frayed sleeves?
Trash.
The low-rise jeans you haven’t been able to button in two years?
Donation.
Ignore the voices in your head that say:
I might wear it one day.
It just needs to be altered and it will be great.
When I lose weight, it will fit.
But I wore this to my daughter’s wedding.
It’s perfectly good.
I bought it on sale.
But it still has the tags!
Ask yourself if that item is worth adding to the beautiful order that is now your closet–because the more you put back, the less ordered it will be.
Try on the items you really are unsure about and get your friend’s opinion.
Is it absolutely worthy or just ok?
Just ok goes to donation!
What about those maybe’s?
Try putting that box away somewhere. Return to it in a few months to see if you’ve really missed anything in there.
Good luck, fellow decluttered closet seekers!
Let me know how it goes . . . .
Sponges and scrapers
Written by Cheryl
Once the floor was up, this was our next conversation.
Bruce: “I’m going to paint the bottom of the bus today with some Rustoleum. Then I can start getting the floor in.”
Cheryl: “Wait. What? We haven’t cleaned it all yet.”
Bruce: “We don’t need to clean it. We’re putting stuff on top of it.”
Cheryl: “No way am I putting new stuff on top of cruddy old stuff. We need to clean!”
We filled our buckets with Dawn, grabbed sponges and scrapers, and got to work. We wiped everything we could, being careful of the wires still in place, and used the scrapers on the window ledges. It still isn’t pristine, but it’s close enough.
Now, the bus has a good coat of Rustoleum on the bottom.
I think the plan is to lay a thin sheet of plywood, then the wood planks on top of that, but construction is not my department so I may be wrong.
I’m ready to start designing!
I wish I had known
Written by Bruce
Lesson learned. The hard way. The really hot, sweaty, gritty hard way. Don’t do it the way I did.
Keeping the flooring underneath the rubber floor? Forget about it. Let it go. Just get out your saw, cut through the floor and the plywood underneath and rip it all out. Done. Finished. A beautifully bare clean slate underneath it all.
I wish I had known this yesterday when I was trying so hard to peel up that super-glued rubber and getting knocked on my butt.
But my guess is that I will say “I wish I had known this yesterday” about a million times.
But now? Let me tell you how satisfying it is to open those bus doors and see no more rubber.
Next step. I’m going to paint the metal floor with Rustoleum. Then, I’ll lay sheets of thin plywood over it. Then, I’ll get the floor installed.
Easy, right?
Paint colors inspired by the sunset
Sometimes nature decides to show us her design skills!
A few months ago I looked outside and couldn’t believe how gorgeous the sunset was. Then, I thought about how wonderful it would be to have those incredibly vibrant colors in a home.
Take a look at these colors from Sherwin Williams.
SW Emotional
SW Sunbeam Yellow
SW Roycroft Copper Red
Each of these colors pairs beautifully with white. Try Sherwin Williams Pure White or Sherwin Williams Extra White.
Layer in some textures, clay pots, wicker baskets, fresh greenery or fall branches, wooden bowls or trays. Keep the decor to a minimum and let the color make a beautiful statement on its own.
skoolie: man meets glue
Demo Day 5
Written by Cheryl
Today, I brought Bruce water. And gave him a thumbs up. And a pat on the back. Then I got out of his way.
Written by Bruce
Have you ever had one of the days when you thought you were better than you actually are? The universe says, “Nope. You’re not really good at this at all.”
That was today.
I attacked the rubber floor. I lost.
It kicked my butt.
Four hours of hot, grueling hard labor. Half the floor is up.
Why is it so hard?
In 2006, they must have used really good glue. Like, you could hold the Golden Gate Bridge together with this stuff. Why couldn’t they have used school glue? The stuff in those cute little pots that I used to eat when I was a kid. But no. This glue managed to adhere so tightly that I was pulling up pieces of the underlying board. The result is a splintered mess.
I’m going to finish this. Mostly because I don’t have a choice now.
Then, I’m going to lay down a thin layer of plywood over the entire bottom of the bus.
At least it wasn’t over 100 degrees today.
Skoolie: Seat removal is not fun
Written by Bruce
Day 2 of seat removal was a bit (as in very very) harder than day one. 99 degrees outside and no telling how hot inside of the bus. Removing the seats began with getting all the seat cushions off, and they came out with ease after I bought the correct ⅜ attachment for the impact drill. No issues and I tossed them out the door, a little puffed up with my success.
Then I went after the seat frames.
I sat on the floor and fit the impact drill to the bolt on the back frame. Nothing. The bolt just spun in place. I tried the next one. Same thing. And the next. And the next.
Clearly, I needed a new approach. I grabbed a wrench and shimmied under the bus on my back. The plan was for me to hold the bolt in place while Cheryl used the impact drill. We actually cheered when bolts lifted, and we could toss another seat frame out the back.
But even with our pretty brilliant wrench/impact drill system and my best, fiercest, muscle popping strength, I couldn’t budge some of the bolts. Now what?
Time for an Incredible Hulk moment. I stood at the end of the seat, put my back into it, and lifted as hard as I could while Cheryl attacked the bolt with the drill. Believe it or not, it worked! Except for a few that broke at the legs and another few that still just wouldn’t move. It was stupidly hard and exhausting–and we were both a sweaty mess–but we had all but a few of the seats out in a heap on the driveway. When there’s a will, there’s a way, right?
For those last impossible ones, I went Last Resort. I cut them out. Three cutting disks. More brute force. More sweat.
But the seats were out!!
I just keep thinking about those long open roads ahead. . . . . .
Skoolie: it begins
Written by Cheryl
Time lapse videos are evil things. A cute young couple expertly wields tools as they quickly and effortlessly remove seats and walls. In a fifteen minute reel, they manage to gut their bus, look good doing it, and smile lovingly at each other.
Not my experience today. At all.
My first job was trash removal. Gross. I filled bags with all the stuff you might imagine kids leaving on a bus–hoards of empty water bottles, one hundred pencils, dirty clothes, keychains, clips of all kinds, a mountain of candy wrappers and chip bags, and a gold star. Somebody did well on a spelling test. Oh, and 35 cents.
Beneath the layers of trash is filth of epic proportions. This sixteen-year-old bus has never been cleaned. Or swept. Or mopped. The dirt is so thick in places I think I will need a chisel to remove it. But, the trash is out.
Because the dash is the worst part of the deal–as in completely disgustingly stained with god knows what–I thought I would pull off a bit of the cover just to see the improvement. I went to work removing rusty screws and lifted one section of the panel.
Then put it right back on.
Wires and tubes and engine things everywhere. What to do with all that? I have no idea.
We did get all the stickers and decals off. A heat gun is your friend for that. No more “Emergency door” or “Bus #3.”
Bruce spent the better part of today trying to figure out how to get the seats out. Somehow, I think it’s going to take longer than those magical fifteen minutes.
Written by Bruce
I got a seat out!
Skoolie: Day One
It begins
Written by Cheryl
My kids and I occasionally ask, “What is the craziest sentence you’ve said lately?”
My son to his kids: “Quit riding your bicycle in the garage with your eyes closed.”
My daughter to her two year old son: “Quit licking your sister’s cast.”
Me: “We bought a school bus.”
My idea of a getaway is a hotel suite. With room service. In Paris.
So promises like, “You can sleep on a real mattress,” or “you can make coffee anytime you want” don’t exactly give me goosebumps.
My husband, on the other hand, lived in a tent for three months in the dead of winter. He grew up sleeping on the ground, hunting with his bow and arrow, eating fish just pulled from the stream.
He loves being out there. And because he loves me, he is going to fix up this school bus so I will love being out there with him. And because he is the best man I know and I love him, I am going to embrace this bus. I’m going to hug it. Kiss it on the lips. Learn to love it.
Maybe I actually will.
Written by Bruce
An old canvas tent with 2x4’s propped together, holding it up. Mom sewing up the holes to stop the rain from coming in.
Searching around the campground for rope because we forgot it at home and now the tent won't stay up, then using the old rusty bailing wire we found.
That was my childhood camping life. Even though it wasn’t glamorous, I loved it. Still do!
I knew a motorhome could give us that outdoor life–adventure, with some comfort– but we didn’t have much to spend.
What about the 30’ school bus that my school was selling? Cheap. Good shape. Mercedes engine. Possibilities are endless. In my world, a life of camping luxury awaits.
Client: It’s been a good life
He’s 93.
He doesn’t hear very well, he can’t walk alone after his fall last month, and his hands are swollen and blotched with purple. When I met him, he had just been moved from rehab into assisted living, and was sitting up in a rented hospital bed reading John Grisham.
We had never met, but when I walked in, he greeted me with a smile. I explained that I was there to get his room set up for him and to make his new space feel homey and cozy. He thanked me and repeated my name a few times to make sure he wouldn’t forget.
I learned his wife died earlier in the year. That he spent his career working for Exxon. That he had moved around some. That he has read every one of Grisham’s books. That a few weeks ago, he tripped and fell, and that one moment put an end to his independent living.
I had a hard time understanding some of what he talked about, but this moment I heard with crystal clarity.
“It’s been a good life.”
I’m going to guess that his life was not without suffering. Without hard. Without confusion and indecision, conflict, and disappointment. But looking back along that long road of years, he sees beautiful.
That’s everything, isn’t it?
Client: sequins and fringe, part 2
“I’m hiring you right now to do the rest! I want it all to be beautiful!”
The rest meant the tiny kitchen, the living room, and her bathroom.
She had brought furniture with her when she moved, but none of it made sense in the space. It’s a problem lots of people have when downsizing. They gather up either too much or too little and hope it will work.
“How involved do you want to be in the design?” I asked her.
“I don’t. Just make it look nice. And can I have a recliner?”
Working on her closet had given me a good idea of her style, so I knew the design needed to include bold colors. And something leopard.
She decided to donate the stuff that shouldn’t have been moved in the first place and just needed to go. Then, we brought in things she needed to feel at home–some color on the daybed, lamps, a bistro set for the kitchen. A recliner. Blue velvet. Curtains. Purple. A leopard ottoman. Fuzzy throw pillows. Yes! The room was starting to look like her.
I chose a dark green cover for the daybed because I could imagine her sitting there, with her much-younger boyfriend (yes. True story) radiant with her magenta hair against that jewel-toned backdrop. Killer.
I hung the art she hadn’t known what to do with, put shelves in the bathroom for her towels and toiletries, and organized the kitchen cabinets.
It was so joyful, so satisfying, to see her apartment become her home.
Just a few weeks later, she ended up having to quarantine after a close exposure to Covid. “Thank you!” she said. “I couldn’t leave my apartment, but that was ok because I love it so much.”
I mean really. Does it get better than that?
Client: Sequins and Fringe
THE PROBLEM
She answered my knock in silver sequined shorts and magenta hair. On anyone else that color would look like Mardi Gras. On her, it’s stunning.
She called me to help with her closet after moving into a one-bedroom apartment in an independent living facility for seniors.
“I’ve been so depressed since I moved in,” she told me. “I used to have a big walk-in closet. I love clothes. Fashion is my thing. But look at this.”
She gestured for me to follow her into the bedroom.
“I can’t find anything. I hate getting dressed because I don’t know where my things are.”
She opened the door to the one and only closet.
No wonder she felt depressed.
“I’m going to go home and come up with a design.” I told her. “If you like it, I can have you organized by the end of the week.”
THE SOLUTION
There was no way to fit everything into that tiny closet. I had to figure out how to use her bedroom as part closet, while still making it a beautiful, serene space.
I eliminated the tall dresser and that awful hanging rack thing, and built in two floor to ceiling shelving units on either side of the remaining dresser. With those as support, we installed four hanging rods, two higher and two lower, and organized those clothes by color. Above the dresser, we mounted two long wall shelves. In the units and on the wall shelves, we used labeled baskets–long-sleeve shirts, black leggings, printed leggings, short-sleeve shirts, bras, socks, etc. For the necklaces–we hung a rod under the shelves and added S-hooks. It gives off a total boutique vibe.
Functional? Check.
But it still needed to be beautiful. The sheets on her bed were bright purple, so I took my cue from that and hung long purple ombre curtains to disguise the clothes behind them.
The tiny closet became a shoe closet with cubbies to organize her shoes by color.
On the empty wall in the now shoe closet, we strung lengths of chain, floor to ceiling, to hang her earrings.
THE NOW
She tells me she loves getting dressed again and has gone down for dinner every single night, feeling like a million bucks. In a minute she can find the leopard leggings, the gold beaded top, the fringed sandals, and black feather earrings.
“I’m not dressing like an old woman,” she says with just a little mischief in her voice. “I cause a stir. I love life! Tonight I might try a white top with a black bra–you know, like on Sex and the City!”