Shelf Juggling

Last year I undertook a major project to replace my mishmash of shelves with matching Billy shelves from IKEA. It was a long and arduous process, but I was pleased with the result. I kept the old shelves, and Craig and I turned two of the spare bedrooms into libraries for ourselves. 

We are both retired teachers, me at the elementary level and he at the university, so needless to say, we have a lot of books - books which have been in boxes, some for as long as six years. But as you can see, my library is no longer just dedicated to books. Horses began creeping in almost immediately. I resolved that after the holidays were over, I would work to get things better organized in there.

I wanted to hang these paintings that had been hanging above my old shelves and were displaced by the Billy shelves.

Two teacher friends had recently gifted me with more paintings and I wanted to display them, too.

 My Grandma and Grandpa Honeywell's portraits were displayed along with their old Bibles on an antique writing desk that had belonged to Grandma Honeywell. I wanted to keep it in my library, and had an idea as to how to make that happen.

First, I moved in the lone Billy shelf that I had not used in my horse room. I planned to get my Hartlands out of boxes and display them again on it. That's the gorgeous cherry woodcut TWH, first on the shelf. (I measured and there is room for a second Billy shelf of the same size without blocking the light switch. I may order another one soon.)

Billy shelves are just a little short for longer models like the Pacer, so I moved those into the library to put on the older shelves.

I also brought in the Hartland boxes and unwrapped those and put them on the shelves.

 There is still lots of room on them should I find any more when I am out antiquing.

I didn't open Grandma Honeywell's desk (lift up that top and it expands into a larger desk with lots of cubbyholes to squirrel things away!) but I did place my childhood lamp (an antique kerosene lamp owned by my Great Grandma Honeywell, Marilla, that was converted to electricity when my mother was a baby) and put the two newest paintings on it.

I still need to hang the three large paintings, but I have called it quits for the day. I am almost done, though, and very happy with how things are looking.