A Nook for the Books

Here's the deal....I live in a small house.  A really little house that I love and adore with all my heart.  I love every little corner of it, and well, I fill every little corner of it too.  BUT, I really like cleanliness and order in all things, so i try to be as organized and clever with storage as possible.

My kids room has seen many variations of storage for toys, anything from baskets, boxes to buckets.  Thankfully Maggie has a day bed with no trundle, so under her bed is a GREAT storage place for toys.  In fact, it's Max's big truck garage.  Their closet is fabulously outfitted with many wonderful shelves that I fill with diapers, wipes, clothes, toys, shoes, my old journals, tax records, whatever.

Their books used to fill up a large basket at the foot of the crib and another canvas container.  It was ok, but the kids made a mess of them and we could never see all they had.  So, when Jere brought home this other bookshelf of ours, I decided to put it to use.

In theory, it was a great idea.  A bookshelf to put alllll their books on.  In practice, it didn't work out so great.  It NEVER looked like that.  The top shelf was a little broken, so if you breathed wrong the whole thing tilted and all the books were at the peril of falling out/off at any moment. Then, you had the Max monster who liked to just sort of clear the shelves in one fell swoop.  It seems like I was constantly picking them back up and just stacking them back on.  So, it never looked neat, it just looked like a giant mess.  I really SHOULD have taken a picture of that, as opposed to a nice and neatly stacked bookshelf.

After my amazing ottoman find of '11, and giving the toys a new place to live, I decided it was time to do something better with the books.

Enter my sister and her uber cool school.  She teaches at a school that is extremely reading based.  This means that every classroom has a set of couches and walls covered in books.  Their clever way of displaying said books is with plastic rain gutters.  It's really great.  So, my sis in law decided to put a couple up in her kids play room and her daughters room.  I saw it there and loved it.  This looked like a project for me.

The other night I finally got a wild enough hair to just cruise on over to the ol' Home Depot and pick up a $5.00 rain gutter.  I had a nice man named Oscar cut it down into three 3 ft. sections.  Then I got some little slidey on-EEE brackets that are sold below said gutters and some screws and I was on my way.  We got home and set them next to the piano, where they stayed.  I wasn't entirely sure how I was gonna hang them, and didn't have time to think about it.

Well, this morning....the bee in my bonnet was working overtime and I HAD to hang the shelves NOW!  And you know what? EASY SQUEEZY!!!!!  I did it ALL by my lonesome, no drill, just me, a screwdriver and about 30 minutes of my time.

Honestly, I could not be MORE thrilled with the outcome.  It looks clean, orderly and adorable.  And most importantly, the kids can really see what books there are to choose from.  And, it's now a fun little reading corner.

Maggie was so excited, she squeezed me hard and said "Thank you Mommy, you're the BEST."  "Look, now I can just sit here and read."

Are you ready?  Dying to see it yet?

So, for right around 30 bucks (including ottoman) I have a fabulous book nook.

So happy to have a place for that 4th ottoman, as it was throwing off my chi in the family room.  It is also storing another large set of pillow books.

Close front view.

So clean and crisp looking.

Note the slidey on-eee bracket thingy.

A full view of Max's side of the room.

Maggies side of the room.

Her bed skirt hiding all KINDS of boxes, baskets and toys.

Looking in from the door.

I really love my kids room.

And just for kicks.  A shot of Maggies little kitchen she got for Christmas and the ridiculously perfect, tiny space of wall that was left open.  And the kitchen fits perfectly on it.  Happy me.

So, in review...crappy corner, made fresh and new for around 30 bucks.

From this          to               THIS!

 

Handy in Mesatown,

Allyson