Bookcase update

Bookcase update

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Remember that time I spent a lot of money and time designing and building the built-in bookcase? (See this post for that whole process.) Well, we’ve shot it now what feels like 19 times, although I think it’s just been four – Domino, the book, my living room tour, for the holidays, and again last week (for this post). I was never totally happy with it. Why? Because styling a huge open bookcase in the middle of your house is hard. You want it to be full of fun stuff, but not so busy that it just looks messy (because it makes the whole house feel messy if its messy).

But first, enter memory lane … Here is the wall where we decided to put the bookcase:

And here is a little video of the building of it:

I wish it were only that simple. So many wonky angles in the house that made their EXTREMELY precise measurements kinda a disaster. So there was a lot of troubleshooting, but Gabriel, our dude is seriously meticulous and did an amazing job. Click through to see how its styled now.

When we shot it for Domino, it was styled like this:

Which I really liked, for sure. And yes, we removed the white iron gate thing so we could get a clean shot. They also put my hallway runner up there instead of the colorful vintage one that I have. I like both options, actually, but we put the vintage one back because this one is actually WAY too long to be here.

Then for the holidays it looked like this:

Super fun, but you can’t keep up the holiday decor all year round unless you are those people. And we aren’t ready to be those people … YET.

It still kept bugging me – it was never quite right. So we finally shot it last week all styled how I really really want it to be:

At least for now …

Quiet and clean (ish) with lots of teals/blues. I tried to keep it pretty calm without a ton of crazy colors because lately (right now) I just can’t with the colors. I love color, obviously, but my life and brain feel too chaotic for more than 3-4 colors. So we are doing blues, grays, whites, and hits of others … but we even removed the really dark blue/navy pieces because they were just reading too dark. Now that I’m looking at this I’m of course wondering if I should get rid of that black book – but I also don’t want my insane need for a consistent color palette to effect what books I buy (even though we all know it does). And now its all I see (cut to me asking Brady to photoshop it to be teal or gray … don’t put it past me, I literally just emailed him and will update it asap).

UPDATE: HERE IT IS WITH THAT BLACK BOOK PHOTOSHOPPED TO BE GRAY:

Thoughts? As a photo I probably like it more, but it does somehow just feel rude. Poor book. And now, of course my eye is obsessing on the the other dark books … Just stop, brain. Just stop.

Here’s the gif of me styling it, wearing what appears to be a nightgown …

Of course yesterday we had to remove 1/2 the props to take to the studio to shoot a lot of new content for the blog, but I’m referencing this photo and we are putting it all back exactly where it is here because I finally love how it’s styled.

Now, because you know how much I love a good poll, let me know which you like best of the two styled out bookcases, and vote below.

Happy Friday, folks.

*The latest photos by the VERY lovely and talented Tessa Neustadt. Domino shot by Brittany Ambridge, holiday shot by Jayme Burrows.

Almost everything is vintage except for the handles from Schoolhouse Electric and that piece of art up at the top that is also from Schoolhouse Electric, although it seems to be no longer available.

Original article and pictures take stylebyemilyhenderson.com site