A Tale of Three Shelves

After a week in Ohio visiting my mom and sisters, introducing them to my boyfriend, and stuffing down turkey, I'm back! My mother, a.k.a. Designer Extrodinaire, gave me all sorts of ideas and motivation...now I'm ready to go design crazy!

First off, I finished the last of my pillows and curtains. I'd post a pic but there's no real difference from the pictures below. I've decided to get dark wood blinds to pick up on the wood in the furniture and block out the glare on the TV. Once I see how those look, I'll be able to make a final decision on the curtains and how they'll look.

I've been sewing so much lately that it took me no time at all to do the pillows. To fill all of my "extra" time, I went ahead and hung the shelves I've been meaning to hang.

The first shelf was actually put up right before we went to Ohio Tuesday. It's at the end of the hall and serves as sort of an entryway table. Above it are four mirrors to help bring in some light and underneath is a wall-mounted shoe rack for Jerome to throw his shoes. The shelf is scrap wood I had left over from making the DVD holder and the other two items are from Ikea. Altogether, this little area cost me under $15.



The second shelf went up Saturday above the stove in the kitchen. I painted it during my pillow sewing break and had it hung up that afternoon. The wall above the stove is extremely bare and needs a lot of work. The shelf helps a little bit but I still need to bring in some brighter elements in yellow and white to break up the dark black. I also think I want to paint the yellow brackets either red or black...the yellow isn't working for me. In case your wondering, the circle on the wall is from where the landlord moved the gas line to the other side of the room. She used some kind of cover to block the hole. That walls a little beat up now but I'll try to use it in some cool way!



The last shelf went up ealier today above the computer console in the dining room. The room between the hanging pictures and the desk was screaming for something to be put there. A white shelf would have been to plain and a black shelf would have been to heavy so I went with silver. Instead of using silver spray paint, I went for a more sleek look which was accomplished with silver contact paper. I had originally used this paper for the kitchen backsplash but the humidity of the dryer made it wrinkle. So far, it's working well on the pine shelf.



Since the shelf is being used to hold my speakers, I spaced the brackets farther back on the wood so that there's space between the wall and the shelf. That allowed me room to feed the speaker wires up. Now I just have to get a nice wire cover and I'll be all set!