New Year, New Bookshelves

I realize you don't really know me yet, (unless you're a friend of mine who I've sent to this blog), and I'm just jumping right in the middle here, but that's okay. Every year, my husband and I throw a New Year's Eve party (a New Year's party?). It's our thing. So much so, that two years ago, we moved into our new house (after having worked on remodeling it for 2.5 months while living with my mom) on New Year's Eve day, just so we could have a party here that night. Pretty much every item in the kitchen was chosen for its availability to be installed before New Year's (more on that later).

So this year, because we love living stress-free lives (that's internet sarcasm), we decided that the New Year's party would be much better if we could rearrange the living room. (Brian wants me to say that I decided, and he just didn't say "no".) Of course, this involved building a new set of built-in bookshelves, and then I couldn't not repaint the existing ones (like I've been planning to for months), which involved removing all the books...etc etc etc.  You know how it goes, you just want to move the couch and end up disarranging your whole living room.

So here are a few before and in-progress pictures (we're not quite to the after, yet).  I've got some finishing work yet to do, but I'm still pretty excited!!

Before:

After/In Progress:

 

 

Our original living room layout worked, but it was slightly cramped. I know it seems odd that our loveseat is now in front of one of the sets of bookshelves, but trust me, the living room is so much bigger now!

 

I will get some better pictures when I have the shelves more properly filled/arranged.  We do plan on taking the bookshelves behind the loveseat all the way to the ceiling and putting proper sides, etc on them.  My designer friend, Valerie, from Vj Interiors has lots of plans for things I need to do to this room, too!  I also hope to post about the construction and painting, as well as where I plan to move my gallery wall (whose pictures are now in a pile in the spare room).

 

But for now I am so happy! New bookshelves, new paint, and new layout make for one satisfied gal!