Finished Half Wall and Decorating with Books

Part One of our Half Wall Project. After the wall was finished we were left with a hollowed out space on one side that opened up into our family room. We could have closed off the entire wall but I wanted to add 2 long shelves that ran the whole length of the space. The shelves were built out out pine and plywood - using pine for the main part of the shelf and the plywood as supporting pieces. There was room for a third shelf but I didn’t think I would be left with much height on the shelves to add decor so we went with two. I used Minwax Stain in Jacobean and American Chestnut mixing the two shades together to stain the shelves. I love the rich contrast and the way the wood shelves look against the white wall. I'm really happy with how the shelves turned out - just like I envisioned in my head!

The actual build of the wall, shiplap, and shelves came out relatively easy, and it was the styling that was harder than planned. Because the shelves are so long it was a challenge to find enough pieces and then to make everything flow together and look cohesive. I did have to take quite a few trips to Home Goods, TJMaxx, and a few thrift stores, but that is the fun part! Books are one of my favorite things to use in home decor - they are fairly inexpensive and add height, texture, and color. Second hand stores like Goodwill or Deseret Industries are my go to places for books, and I usually pay $2-$3 per book. I typically only use hardcover books because they stack better and will stand up easier. When I look for books to decorate with I am looking to see what color the hard cloth is underneath the book jacket. I always remove the book jacket anyway because they usually have pictures and large lettering. While I am picking out books at thrift stores, I will pull back the book jacket to see what color the book is. Some colors are easier to find than others, with white being really hard to find so I will always grab all the white ones I can find! For my shelves I wanted to use a rainbow of colors grouping them in different shades. I ended up with blues, greens, reds, yellows, a few neutral colors. 

After a few shopping trips (or seven), I finally had enough books and decor and of course a few JaxnBlvd signs to fill up the shelves. I really enjoy this part of the process and love playing around with the different pieces. I have a pretty Eclectic style so mixing colors, patterns, and textures makes my heart happy. I also have a thing for globes, I really love globes but my husband thinks we have more than enough!

One of my favorite parts of the build was adding in the three sconce lights. I found the lights on Amazon and had an Electrician come out and install them. He was in and out in less than an hour and it's so great to have the extra lighting in this roo

From start to finish this was a little more than a quick weekend project, but all in all it was not a super hard one, just a little more time consuming because there were quite a few steps. Now onto the next project!

-Kim