Before and after: The dining/living room

This is one area of the house that's sustained a lot of abuse and clutter.  It's also one of the most travelled-through parts of the house, which was made even more difficult when it resembled a storage locker.  We've had office furniture moved into it, tile storage, moulding and sawhorses...not once have we been able to use it to live or dine in, until now!*

*And believe me, it's still in shock.

A dining room?  For real?  *blink blink*

No more squeezing our way through construction clutter, I can do twirls in here now!

Watch out now, here come the before photos (they scare me):

Oh, sad days -- burgundy days.

Balloon window treatments, in burgundy, naturally.  Why look, there's a whack of moulding too!

And all of the office furniture/clutter awaiting a new home...somewhere.

Spectrum bookshelves

I present evidence (more as proof for Trevor, who still complains about ours, above) that arranging bookshelves by colour is cool.  Not overly functional, but really, really, cool.

Via here, here and here.

Fun with letterforms

Now that I have my 'Y' and 'P' I'm thinking ahead on how I can grow my letterform collection and how I can make it work until I have the whole alphabet.  (The above photo is exactly what I have in mind!)

{Click here and here to see more ideas!}

Kitchen shelves

Like most people with limited kitchen space, I like to take advantage of wall storage for items that I use on a regular basis when cooking or baking. Of course, this storage needs to look good -- who wants to look at something ugly in one of their most-used rooms? My shelves were decent, but in need of a little spruce-up. Here's some tips that I like to follow:

- Display things that you use regularly, but aren't crucial to have within an arm's reach (like pots and pans, utensils, spices, etc.)

- Take dust wraps off of books that you display -- they're usually much prettier looking without them (I have some really ugly ones that didn't make the cut)

- Include some quirky items that add some personality

- Find jars and containers that look pretty, and use opaque or ceramic jars to hide not so pretty items

- If you're installing shelves in your kitchen, be sure they can hold the weight of heavy items (mine are installed according to Trevor's 'so strong you can hang off them' mantra -- which means making sure you hit some studs or use proper wall anchors!)

Cookbook display

I *heart* cookbooks, especially when they're pretty on the outside.  I also love displaying cookbooks in the kitchen.  On our trip to Seattle we had brunch at the Steelhead Diner, where cookbooks were displayed near the kitchen/prep area.  Whether it was just for show, I have no idea, but it looked good!