Another Pinterest Project

Hi, my name is Katie and I am addicted to Pinterest.

Ever since my obsession with Pinterest first began, I’ve had my eye on these particular bookshelves for Bean’s room. They are really thin and close to the wall, and the idea is that you display the books facing out so that the kids can see them better. I saw them and immediately thought they would be perfect in Bean’s room because of how much he (and Gracie, too) love books. Plus, I hoped it would be a way to take up some space on his giant, empty walls. All of his furniture is really short, so that leaves these big walls to fill. I could throw up art work or prints or something, but I really love the idea of a kid’s room being as user-friendly as possible for little people. Why put up art when you could turn the wall into something they could actually use? The shelves did all of that and more!

For these shelves, we ran into one tiny problem with the bottom shelf on the left. After we got all the other shelves hung, we realized there was a cable jack right in the middle of where we needed to hang the last shelf. Shoot! So, we’re going to put the two bottom shelves together, making them to appear as one, and then center them under the other shelves. We haven’t had a chance to do that yet, though. So, for now, we’ve got his giant blocks stored there to balance out the wall. I’m big on symmetry and balance, so that is going to drive me nuts until we move that bottom row!

But the kids can’t tell. They think the shelves are awesome. Bean loves taking his books down and putting them back up in different spots. He can reach the bottom shelf and uses a stool to reach the second row. The third row is holding keepsake books that we don’t want messed up (like pop-up books that both my kids love to tear apart for some reason, and gifted books from family and friends that hold special meaning for us). On the fourth row we have a few keepsakes and knickknacks. On the very bottom shelf, we put board books that are “Gracie friendly.” She’s a page ripper, so we had to make sure that she didn’t get into anything she could really destroy. We explained to Bean that he had to keep his “special books” on a higher shelf so that Gracie would leave them alone. She’s like a very small paper shredder. With pigtails.

What I love most about these bookshelves are that Chris made them himself after seeing one tiny picture I showed him on Pinterest. I showed it to him and said, “Do you think you could make these?” And the next thing I knew, he disappeared out to the garage for a couple nights, tore apart a few old pieces of scrap wood that the previous homeowner left in a pile, and came out with these shelves. I love being married to someone who can just create stuff. Especially when he creates stuff that I ask him to create!

Overall, I think they make Bean’s room look really fantastic. After months of not really knowing what to do with his room (it is abnormally large – almost the size of the master. Not quite sure how that’s going to go over with Gracie when they get a little older…), it finally feels pulled together and finished. We’re moving on to Gracie’s room next, and I’m on a Pintrest hunt for ideas in there. I’ll keep you posted!

For now, I think I finally found a Pinterest project that even Bean approves of, and that’s saying something. He’s a very skeptical observer.