Truth be told I intentionally missed two weeks of the One Room Challenge because we just didn't work on the project during those two weeks.
Sometimes big house projects just need to sit, unfinished and ugly, for a bit in the house while the humans of the space host family, go on trips, and work on other tasks.
But we're back and just a couple weeks out from completion. Lee and I were just talking about how odd it was that we almost can't remember starting this project. It's slowly becoming so that these bookcases will fill up our memory so much so that we won't remember a time without them.
Today's post is all about the design choices because we're almost at that fun part where it all comes together.
But first an ode to the intricate design details and thought my husband has put into this project.
Electrical and switches pre-wired to accommodate for a future record player spinning cheery tunes, a cozy light up Christmas tree or a beautifully scented diffuser making the house smell like sandalwood and ginger.
Extra reinforcements for the shelves were integrated seamlessly into the design so we can plop the heaviest coffee table book on a shelf and it won't bow in the slightest. We joke that the rest of the house will fall down but these bookcases will remain standing.
Most of our design choices came naturally – brass library lighting, a black electric fireplace, charcoal stone, and a walnut mantle. The color was a harder choice – more on that in a moment.
And while I did link the linkable things at the top of the post I will also share them at the end again if you're looking to source some items for your space too.
Our fireplace was a tricky decision at first because it was one of the first things we purchased. We needed to get all the electrical done and dusted before starting on the structure of the bookcases which meant we ordered this from Amazon like 3 months ago.
So it was tricky in the sense that we didn't know what size to get. This particular electric fireplace came recommended by This Old House so as far as specifications and operations went, it was a no brainer.
We decided to purchase 50" fireplace instead of the 42" and we're glad we went with the larger size.
Picking a paint color is also a hard decision. We were wavering between dark green and dark blue for a good long while. I went with the Benjamin Moore brand because Farrow and Ball was just a bit out of our price range and Clare Paint (our go-to) didn't have the right color.
After puzzling over 4-5 different paint samples we went with BM Fatigue Green. I think it'll look good, but we haven't painted it on the shelves yet, so it's anyones guess at this point.
Source List
- Fireplace
- Tile
- Lights
- Paint
- Wood (Lowes/ Home Depot Red Oak Plywood)
- Primer ( generic from Home Depot)
- Tools – too many to list – but one "can't live without" tool purchase Lee made was a centipede stand