the plan: open shelving diy

One of the things about this little apartment (other than the price, and the closeness to school) that I loved at first sight, was the "window" between the living room and the kitchen. It just opens the house up. If it wasn't there you'd be stuck with room after room after room after room with nothing but a door way between each one. Our house would be like a long hall wall with rooms off of it. Honestly, that's still what it is, but this window goes a long way. It makes it easy to finish getting dinner ready when you have guests over; the conversation doesn't turn into yelling through walls. When Matt's on his way home, I can watch the lemon crusted fish and the front door at the same time. Anyways, whoever had this idea was a smart cookie. 

Functional? Absolutely. 

Awkward to "decorate" around? Absolutely. 

Really the only thing I could come up with was stacking things at the bottom. A candle, and a couple of teeny cookbooks.... But it looked stupid. It looked cluttered. It didn't fill the space well, and at first I just let it go. I took everything off of the "window" sill and told myself it was better to be empty than cluttered. Yesterday, I changed my mind. 

I've decided it's better to be awesome than empty. No brainer, huh? We're going to add open shelving. I was thinking I would divide it into cubes {2x2 or 3x3}, but the window is an awkward 26x43 {see, the paper I taped in the bottom left corner so I would remember?}. 43 is a prime number {a.k.a. there will be no perfect cubes}. I haven't decided on the dimension yet. I don't want to make them so small that I make an unfunctional lattice, or so large that people wonder why I even bothered adding the shelves. This calls for more research. Maybe I don't want them to be perfect cubes. Maybe I want one large area and other small areas. Ok, so this isn't really a "plan" yet. It's just an idea. An idea that I just got the landlord to ok. 

This is an idea that will become a reality. Sometime in January. Whoa, 2012, just tapped me on the shoulder. Every year gets sneakier and sneakier. I probably won't blog again before Christmas, so I hope you enjoy your family time centered on the birth of our Savior, while I daydream about dark wood shelves filling up the space that is currently just an empty void. Yes, I really do daydream about things like shelves. Especially if they're dark wood. Especially if I get to watch my husband install them. 

Yes, this is one of the best ideas, ever.