Office Shelves Shelfie How-To

Though moving is a stressful process because it completely discombobulates your entire life for a time, the opportunity it affords to purge is one of the most freeing feelings. It’s like being given a second chance to start over again. Every time I’ve moved, it’s helped me to take an honest evaluation of my inventory, detox and rid myself of things that no longer enrich our home. As in the case of these bookshelves. Even though our previous mahogany ones served us well for over seven years and even received a slight makeover to brighten them up, they eventually didn’t thrill us anymore in our home office because of their cavernous color. But when we decided to move from our Beverly Hills apartment back to NY, it afforded us the opportunity to purge ourselves of them (we sold them to someone who appreciated them just as much as we did when we first bought them).

Fortunately, that was a good choice, because when we looked at the home office space in our new place – the brightness of the room reminded us of California so we decided to keep everything light, airy and all in a crisp white. This would allow the accessory details to pop off the shelves/room, such as the gold and white striped wrapping paper with the subtle silver lining I applied to the back of these basic white Ikea bookshelves using a spray adhesive. Such a simple touch elevates the look of them and makes everything in the foreground on the shelves pop out. I especially love the hint of glimmer it gives off during the day depending on how the sunlight hits it and at night it looks even more glamorous.

But just because you may not be moving, it doesn’t mean that your bookshelves can’t be shelfie worthy. You can start by emptying out all the shelves, apply a favorite wallpaper (like this sophisticated one), or fabric to the backs – then organize and style your books by either subject or color. As can be seen in this post, stand some books upright, and then stack some horizontally to break the utilitarian monotony. Finish your shelves by adding in favorite pieces of mementos, pottery, family photos, or collectibles to energize the shelves, creating an aesthetically pleasing visual movement.