Shelves and Cupboards

A few of you have been asking if I'd show you more photos of my home. Well I don't suppose this was exactly what you were expecting?! You can see how my photos up until now have been veeeeeeeery carefully selective about precisely how much they show of my home. Truth is, I am slightly embarrassed to show you the above photograph of our dining room in it's current state, but I'm throwing caution to the wind here and hoping you won't think too badly of me.

In my mind you know I live in a light, spacious, warm, appealing family home. A pleasure wherever you look, calm and serene vistas of sunlight-filled lovliness. But the reality you see is a little different. The reality is that for one thing I am a grade A hoarder, a messy, unorganised individual and the rest of my family tends to follow in my footsteps. And for another thing, we are in the middle of trying to deal with a serious lack of storage around here, trying to find a way to deal with all the accumulated stuff of daily family life which simply has nowhere to go. We are living amongst dangerously teetering piles of books, magazines, catalogues, craft materials, colouring books, stationary, crochet, documents, files, directories, bills, letters, photographs, wrapping paper, writing paper, leaflets.
Some sort of method is needed in here to keep dangerous piles under control, in other words Shelves and Cupboards. One thing about houses with fireplaces, the alcoves either side of the chimney breast are taylor-made for built in storage solutions.

When in need of interior inspiration for just such intended storage solutions I turn to my collection of magazines (in a huge, teetering pile, naturally). I spend a whole weekend dragging them around, rifling through the pages in search of pictures of shelving. I snippety snip pictures out and study them intently, show them to my rather disinterested other half. And gradually over the course of a week or two, we come up with a design for our alcoves. Good size cupboards at the bottom, strong shelves to hold books and pretty things above. A bit of beading on the doors, pretty ceramic knobs, and maybe an arch over the top like that one there in the magazine. And painted white, yes lets paint it white and make it look all light and bright and wonderful.

I take the clippings to my father-in-law, the man who can do wonders with wood and scary tools. He has been champing at the bit for months, waiting for us to get our act together and ask for his assistance but not wanting to rush us or interfere (wonderful man that he is). He loves nothing better than a project on the go, some woodworking and DIY, yes, he's our man for the job. Straight talking Yorkshire man that he is, he tells me upfront that he doesn't like the arch idea, but says he can do it if it's what I really want, and I say yes pleeeease, its what i really want. We study the magazine clippings some more and make pencil sketches on bits of paper, do some measuring. Wood is brought in and a temporary workshop set up in the cellar.
Work eventually gets underway and I am drafted in for frequent quality control ("ooo you're a fussy-britches" he says when I tell him it's not quite level/smooth enough/high enough). I'm consulted on shelf spacing and the such like, and then I get on with my job which is priming and painting. I don't mind painting really, I got me some new paint brushes and used a water based satin paint which is nice to paint with and easy to clean up. I'm a messy painter and get a lot of paint on me. I also frequently lose track of time and end up almost forgetting to collect the Little People from nursery/school on numerous occasions, dashing across town in my painty clothes and arriving hot and sweaty and well, painty. Then of course I have to stand amongst a group of well-groomed Mummies knowing full well that I look a total mess. But it's oh-so-worth-it because I know I am making progress.

And finally last Wednesday, ta-dah!!!! The first alcove was finished and I am mighty pleased with how it turned out. Time to put stuff on the shelves :: Oh, I did enjoy this bit, yes I really, really did! My lovely books which were still in their packing boxes in the cellar have now got a beautiful place to live.
Books, books, don't you just love 'em? This alcove mainly has our non-fiction books in :: gardening, wildlife, travel, he-books (war/universe) and she-books (domestic/interiors).The alcove on the other side when we finish it is going to have all our cookery books (we have a LOT of those), a small stereo and the fiction books. We decided that my craft/art books and his computer/geek books are all going to live in the attic because that is where we respectively do crafty/geeky things.

I do love my little collection of domestic books very much and have read every one of them cover to cover. See how when the roses are gone there is a cleverly left decent sized space for oooh maybe eleven more books? Which is the current length of my Amazon Wish List. A girl can dream.

Comments

[Martin]

Thanks for sharing

[Anna]

Now I have come to know the way you got that arch :) So very well done by your father-in-law! Great job!:)

[Aditi]

The pictures of your magazine clippings makes me think of Pinterest.com. I just found it recently and I'm totally addicted. What a nice feeling to hoard all these images without actually having to deal with piles of magazines and paper clutter!

Congrats on the progress made in the diningroom, it looks great! Very inspiring!

[emily curnow]

i love your bookshelves so much that tomorrow im having some built in my lounge. ive been saving for a year so its reaaalllyyy exciting. not sure what to use to paint them though; what did you use did you say??

whoo hoo, now an excuse to go book shopping (again)

lots of love
emily

[Nas]

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[jewelry making]

I suggest you really need a cupboard for your things. Lol!

[Andrea]

.....can I borrow your father in law...? ;)

[Warehouse Storage Rack]

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[virtual laser keyboard]

i love your collection of domestic books!!!

[Rachana]

hi Lucy ,
how areyou doing.
i just love the cupboard makover ...
Excellent i can't think of anyways ,it could haev lookded better.
hats of your research behind the design and the skills og your FIL.
have a happy weekend
love from India
Rachana

[Mythology Dissertation]

Blogs are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up!!

[marcela]

Love your blog!!!!!

[custom cabinets]

Yes even I took a lot of help from magazines to get to the final designs for the furniture of my new home.Adding a bit in there gets a wonderfully new solution to the need.This one looks gorgeous.

[Anja]

Your collection of domestic books is pure joy. I remember the titles. I saw them is library when I was in Birmingham. Love them!!!

[Josie]

I am not alone!, the room looks like my house!, I'm glad you posted the pic, as you say you imagine blogland to be neat and tidy and the author perfectly groomed. The shelf looks great, well done to your father-in-law.
Josie

[Maddy]

You and I may be a world apart but we have very similar tastes. I don't have cut-outs from magazines though, I have a clip art folder on my computer filled with wall units I have googled, very similar to that which you have. I want the full wall thing, cupboards down the bottom, shelves above and some time trim to jaz it up.

I can't wait to see the two finished, this one looks wonderful.

[Gill]

I'm so enjoyng your blog, you're giving me lots of ideas and inspiration. The bookcase looks fabulous, lucky you having a Father-in-law at your service, he's worth his weight in gold tell him! He's done a brilliant job (and the painting looks pretty good too). I love books on show, houses without them are a bit empty...and I've got a few of your books on my bookshelf.

[Kena]

This look so nice, there are so many possibilities with this new unit!

[Louise]

Lovely units in your alcoves, I am insanely jealous of those, they look fabulous, and to have a father-in-law that does. My spare bedroom gets like your dining room, we have a serious lack of storage, and even though I thrive on being tidy, you have to put all the odds and ends somewhere? x

[Chris]

We have a similar house-living style.....lots of teeting piles of stuff, lots of books too. And our old home doesn't have much in the way of built in storage space either.
Your shelves turned out beautifully!

[vanessa]

Ha! I have the same books!!!!!! Lovely coincidence don't you think............ and very nice bookshelves......... tell your Father-in-Law he's a genius and there's lots of us out there wishing our Father-in-Laws were just like him! Lucky, lucky you.........