Greetings all, thanks for the sweet words on the office upgrades from yesterday!  As promised, here’s more information on the library bookcase unit we put together with IKEA pieces – we added trim, hardware, and lights to customize it for my office.

I know the pink isn’t for everyone, but I was feeling the love this month but I may get a wild hair and paint the back something completely different soon – it happens, it’s just paint!  My point is the unit would look great with the back painted any color you love – or a stencil or wallpaper or fabric, the sky’s the limit!

We all know how expensive bookcases are from most retailers, and wall units like this add up quick to $1,000 or more but I didn’t want to pay that much for shelving.  We considered something more like the Billys to built ins project from 2011 but I wanted something that looked more like a freestanding three piece unit.

So I started hunting around on the IKEA website and I realized that some of the Besta pieces could be used and then I realized that three of their pieces added up to the same exact height as a 15” Billy bookcase, and an idea was born to combine them!

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I was feeling sentimental about an old piece of furniture I’ve had for many years and couldn’t get rid of it.  I remember purchasing it when we were first married at Bombay Company and back then I was really into traditional dark wood furniture.  (Actually, I still am!)  Anyway, this old console table sat in our entryway for years and then I got tired of it and stored it in our garage but I couldn’t bring myself to part with it since I still kinda liked it, if only for old time’s sake.

I was looking around our living room last week and I was thinking “that one wall sure could use a skinny console table” and then I remembered, oh yeah, I have one.  But I wasn’t fond of the dark wood anymore, I wanted a medium shade of gray (predictable, right?) so that’s what it got.  A new coat of paint in ‘French Linen’.

It was nice in dark wood, but I didn’t love it in dark wood and that’s the key really if you don’t love it, paint it.  So I did.  And now it totally works and it’s looking fab in sophisticated gray with gold detail.  This month it’s looking all cute holding some seasonal decor where it sits on the wall catty corner to the fireplace.

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I found some large colorful jingle bells on sale at Joann’s Fabrics last week and all I could think about was doing something crafty with them.   I thought about making something cheery so I came up with a DIY version of sleigh bells – here they are!

To recreate this simple craft, here’s what you need!

1 ½” D Ring hook from hardware store, leather or vinyl (I used white vinyl); large jingle bells, stapler, ribbon, scissors, embellishment for top, hole punch (optional).

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Hello everyone and happy Monday!  Hope you all had a great weekend!  I ventured out into the stores on Saturday and it was complete madness so I quickly retreated back home to pull out some Christmas decor and also continue working on my daughter’s room which is a slow makeover in progress.

In this space, we’re taking it one wall at a time.  This past weekend I stitched up some simple ring top window panels for her and also reupholstered the windows seat bench.

The geometric fabrics on the window panels and on the reupholstered bench I designed.  I colorized them with her chosen shade of lavender and printed them at Spoonflower.  The cool brushstrokes pattern in lavender and green is a Waverly print I used to make into an accent pillow.

The scene is more colorful in person – the afternoon light doesn’t show the colors like in the image above, but they all play so well together.

Sewing ring top panels is pretty simple.  If you can sew a straight line you can make these!

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