When I last left you…

…the studio had just been painted a lovely shade of Valspar’s “Icy Mint.” The new color is perfect and exactly what I wanted, but I knew it was time to upgrade to new shelving above the desk. As you can see pictured above, the wall above my desk was in serious need of interest – adding a little storage wouldn’t hurt either – so in came a pair of Ikea Ekby shelves. I had seen these in the living room of one of my favy bloggers Yellow Brick Home, and thought they were the perfect fit (notice that they too have mint walls behind their Ekbys! Total coincidence actually…Although probably subconsciously).

I bought two shelves of the same length, but had my dad cut one down by a foot because I liked the idea of an asymmetrical look. Next up – the hardware. If you aren’t familiar with these particular shelves, they are attached to the wall with two T-shaped pieces of hardware. The “long part” of the “T” is hollowed out so that the wood can nest inside, while the “top” of the “T” gets screwed into the wall. Does that make sense? Maybe these photos will help…

To be sure that our shelves were as sturdy as can be, we predrilled holes and added drywall anchors for maximum strength. To get my measurements, I basically held the shelf + hardware up to the wall at the height I wanted with the level sitting on the shelf. After eyeballing to get it centered on the wall and checking the level to make sure we were straight as can be, John quickly drew little pencil marks through the holes for the screws onto the wall. A couple of drill spins later and tapping of anchors into the holes and we were ready to mount the hardware onto the wall.

One down! One more to go…Et voila:

Before styling up the shelves with my collection of books, trinkets and photos, I rehung the bulletin board (complete with new Deadlines chart) at eye level above my desk.

Then I got to styling…There wasn’t much rhyme to my reason and I’m positive that things will move around (possibly within the next couple of days), but for now I’m pleased with the stacks of books and little mementoes peeking around or sitting on top of the book covers.

I really love how the brushed nickel hardware is sleek enough to be cool to see, but not so ostentatious to take all of the attention away from the display items (yes, I just said “ostentatious,” but it totally fit in this situation).

Another helpful, quick update. I feel like we are really on a role around the house lately – And I’ve even put myself on a pretty strict budget too. I guess it just goes to show how much you can accomplish even with financial restraint.

Before I leave you for the day, I wanted to share one final quick update – Remember the little dry erase love note I set up? Well after suggestions from everyone, I DID go ahead and redo the typeface, this time choosing a more scripty, feminine font. I still think it could use some color, but I think it’s getting there.

It says “You tuck me in when I have nightmares” – I had a pretty terrible dream the other day about bombs and metal aliens ripping apart the house, so I tiptoed downstairs where John was eating his breakfast and wimpered out a little “Babe??” to which he replied “Yessss??” After telling him in broken 5a.m. morning speech about the dream, he walked me back upstairs, nestled one of the kitties at my side and tucked me back in. Slept like a baby until my alarm went off.

Now THERE’S a good man…

Have a good day!