The post with the built-in bookshelf.

As an English teacher, you might think that I insist on filling all of my available bookshelves with literature, literature, and more literature. While I do love to read, this is not the case for me, since I choose to save money by simply borrowing nearly 100% of my books from the public library. Instead, I have turned our bookshelves into decorative destinations for cohesive collections (wow, alliteration--I'm such an English nerd) that reflect the mood, style, and colors in the rest of the room.

Our living room sports this fabulous built-in bookshelf (gotta love cool old houses!), but I didn't care for its original display of DVDs, dorm-y picture frames, and other mismatched items that were deposited there upon moving in. Of course, since I am always on a budget, I had to be creative with how I alternatively filled these spaces. Here are some ideas for meaningful yet wallet-friendly items you can use to transform your bookshelf from a blah dumping grounds for knick knacks and media to an inspiring and customized nook!

1. Baskets. These add great texture to the shelf as well as an organized place to deposit things that you really don't want on display. Such unmentionables for us include my coupon folder, our video camera, computer cables, batteries, cat toys, boxes of greeting cards, and Rick's underwear. No, just kidding. Although it would free up a lot of space in the dresser...which would mean more room for me...which would mean I could go shopping...I must consider this.

2. Books. Duh. But I didn't just want any old run-of-the-mill paperbacks: I wanted books that were A) cohesive with our color schemes and B) in some way meaningful to us. You'll notice that our living room collection represents my English teaching with Weird and Wonderful Words, congratulates Rick's pharmacy degree with the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Medicine, honors my parents' lifelong careers with The Music Teacher, and reminisces on a cherished childhood series with the Little House book. Since I was not just arbitrarily grabbing books that looked nice (good thing, since there was a really great green book called ---) but, rather, looking for titles that represented pieces of who we are, hunting through our house and the $.99 shelves at Goodwill was really quite a fun treasure hunt.

A book formerly known as Thomas' 10th Edition of Calculus...

You can also cover old, unattractive and unwanted books (such as Rick's -----) with scrapbook paper for a brand new, inexpensive look. I like scrapbook papers that appear a bit worn to give the illusion of being a real book spine. I tried some other papers with patterns and just didn't like the result as much.

3. Glass bottles. As I mentioned in this earlier post about color, bottles are one of the cheapest (you can't beat free) things you can use to add some recycled flavor to your shelves. I will semi-frequently peruse the recycling bins around the block to find unique and interesting bottles that could pass as decor. While I'm lucky to have a living room that features colors frequently used in glass bottles (brown and green) I have also spray-painted bottles in a matte finish for a brand new and easy-to-change color.

4. Plants. Now, I really wish I could use real ones. And I still might pursue it. However, for a variety of reasons (including cats, toxicity, and light levels) that I will tackle in another post after I experiment with some ways to solve our dilemma, we currently use mostly artificial. I have been successful at finding some that look pretty convincing at local craft stores so that I can bring the outdoors in, albeit the fake outdoors.

5. Mugs. As most people do, we have a shelf in our kitchen devoted to coffee mugs. However, we aren't even coffee drinkers, so our collection goes mainly unused and they just peer down at us with their sad little mugs (hardy har har; I couldn't resist) 99.9% of the time. So, I took one of the plain ones off of the shelf and transformed it into something that could be displayed by simply adhering scrapbook rub-ons that I dug from out of my crafting drawers.

Desperately trying to find a mug that doesn't have anything on it? No problem! Just take a can of spray paint (since you won't ever be drinking out of it, there's no problem with this) to your least favorite mug and voila, you have the color of your choice. In some cases, you may want to use a coat of spray primer first, if "BEST GOLF DAD IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD" or something like that is printed on it in extra-large, extra-bold letters. No, we don't have one of these. Mainly because Rick is neither a golfer nor a dad. Maybe someday...


So there you have it. A little run-down of some of the everyday objects that grace our living room bookshelf with surprising elegance and style. What do you have on your bookshelves that makes them unique?