It's All In The Editing

Before I even printed out directions (lousy Garmin died after just 6 months and they won't replace it) for my staging consultation appointment this morning, I had to check my favorite blog to see what The Nester's day 6 suggestion was in her 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest.


I was thrilled to see that (feeling very puffed up and important right now), I had already nailed this one last weekend.  Today's idea was to decorate your bookshelves and although my bookshelves have always been carefully decorated, I had only just this past weekend edited my living and dining room built-ins to a two color scheme (one of The Nester's suggestions today was to "focus on a neutral and one color") and loved the results (details below).

Here's the before total view of six shelves before....

Close up of the top two shelves that I did not change at all. 

I didn't change the third shelf either...

but here are the bottom three shelves that I tweaked last weekend.  I love that sweet little tea set from Pier One (purchased many years ago) that had all the colors represented in my living room and adds a bright spot to the bookshelf.  But, I recently removed all of the rust color touches in the living room, so the tea set and the red books didn't really fit any more.

And here's the after.  No, it's not super dramatic or anything, but I do love the black and white color scheme.  I replaced the brightly colored Pier One tea set with this creamy porcelain  Beleek tea set that my Mom bought me on our trip to Ireland.  All I did on the fifth shelf was swap out the red books with some black ones from my dining room and moved the sea life (from a family trip to Hilton Head) around a little.

So that's my tiny weekend bookshelf update.  What have you done lately to freshen up your space?  Remember to try shopping your own house before you head out to the stores.  I always get more excited about a mini redo when I manage to do it without spending a dime.