Every few months or so, I get something called the “rearranging urge”, where I need to rearrange furniture and reorganize things in our home and this past week it was the bookshelves in our family room… again. Why? Because, well, the picture above says it all.
Never mind the state of the dollhouse bookcase itself – Matt and Whitney built this years ago at her request, when she was into Barbies and other dolls and even started her own YouTube channel – which I will eventually tackle and revamp. It’s already undergone quite a few makeovers from our girls so needs some extra TLC. For now, I was focused on getting the most storage out of the actual shelves.
Since I was going to be moving all of the kids books into this bookcase, most of the unsightly parts of it would be covered up anyways.
When we moved into our home, the family room was already decked out with these built-in bookshelves on either side of the fireplace. And while that helped, because we did not bring any shelves besides the dollhouse bookcase with us, the sizes of some of the cubbies made for awkward fits. The shelves themselves were not that deep; some were too tall and some too low.
Over the course of the year and a half that we’ve been in our home, the dollhouse bookcase eventually made its way to the family room. Blythe had it in her bedroom for most of that time until I convinced her to let the kittens use it as a climbing aide and resting spot in the family room.
You can just see it here, next to the Stall bars that Matt built, with a rug draped over top to provide gripping for when the kitties jumped. Previously, I had most of the family board games and puzzles stored in the bookcase.
But those were gradually moved into the shelves on the other side of the fireplace. The dollhouse bookcase was moved back to the other side of the family room and the kittens’ cat tree became a better solution for them getting to the top of and down from the Stall bars.
This side still needs some rejigging and re-styling but the storage here works pretty well for games and puzzles.
Before, Matt had rein over these built-in shelves.
Now, he will take over the shelves on the right side of the fireplace.
I will need his input on how best to store his stuff though as the walls here are not very well insulated, making the shelves cold to the touch. He has computer and film gear for his other business that would not do well in colder temperatures. Once we figure out a solution for this little problem, I’ll show you what we come up with.
Here’s the dollhouse bookcase filled with all the kids’ books. We’ve pared down their collection over the years but they still have a healthy amount to choose from.
TOP SHELF: These are mostly hardcover picture books and the few board books we still have, organized in rainbow order. All of our kids loved Sandra Boynton growing up, so we’ve held on to those.
SECOND SHELF, LEFT SIDE: How to books, Crafting books, Jokes & Riddles books, Puzzle & Activity books, Workbooks
SECOND SHELF, RIGHT SIDE: Comics and Graphic Novels, Magazines
THIRD SHELF, LEFT SIDE: Chapter books, Notebooks
THIRD SHELF, RIGHT SIDE: Reference books, more advanced chapter books and novels
BOTTOM SHELF, LEFT SIDE: An oldie but a goodie from my childhood, the Fisher-Price Little People Family House.
BOTTOM SHELF, RIGHT SIDE: Softcover picture books and electronic Chinese music books.
Brighton and Blythe both have a quite a few books in their room as well; Brighton keeps most of the Archie digests in his, while Blythe has various drawing books and graphic novels.
To encourage our kiddos to read more than just graphic novels, I picked up some books from Value Village several weeks ago. One of those books was “How to Train Your Dragon” by Cressida Cowell. While I hoped that Brighton would read it on his own, I ended up reading to him mostly at bedtime, something we haven’t done in a while. We got so into the book – and rewatched the movie trilogy too – that he asked me to get him all the rest of the twelve book series, which I nearly did this past week. However, I remembered in the nick of time that one of the taboos of Chinese New Year is to avoid buying or gifting books in the first few weeks, or even month after a new year starts. The reason is because the Chinese word for “book” is pronounced the same as the word for “lose”, which would bring bad luck to your year.
I thought I could borrow it from the library, but that too is frowned upon. So, we will just have to wait a little longer. I’m very curious about how the other books develop because the first book was so different than the movie version.
A few more things are needed to make this part of the family room a bit cozier. Perhaps an accent wall or at least a new paint colour?
This wall will likely be where this alphabet poster by Rifle Paper Co. will end up. I bought this years ago when they were just starting out, so it’s no longer available on their site. There also happened to be a shipping delay, so I ended up getting two posters because the first took ages to arrive. I gave that one to my sister as a belated Christmas gift.
And speaking of shipping art, my Spicy Nacho ACEO found a home with a dear and talented artist friend from college, whom I have not seen since before Brighton and her son were born. She posted about it in her Instagram stories, which has spurred me on to start posting on my own account… soon. Whitney has offered to help me with that as I’m not all that familiar with the in’s and out’s of Instagram.
I’ll be back on Friday with this month’s First Friday Favourites!
