Every day (or nearly), I sit in my home office across from my Expedit shelves. Truthfully, I’m kind of over them.
More truthfully though? They probably wouldn’t bother me so much if I could just keep the rest of my office neat. (It’s a mess in here right now.) Still, I do a lot of mental redecorating that revolves around those shelves. Here’s what I’d pick if I could wave a magic wand.
*Poof!* New shelves that didn’t cost anything or take any time to put together, that magically styled themselves, and fit perfectly in the room!
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Emerson Shelf
p.s. There’s more rustic industrial style in my post on Babble.
Also, I pretend that if I had any of those bookshelves, that my stuff would somehow be condensed and look like this. Because it’s super practical to arrange one’s books with the spines facing in.
I assume the baskets and bowls shown are there to store the necessary pixie dust to make this configuration practical.
56 comments
A Bit of Brooklyn
I love your Expedit arrangement there! It looks great! That being said, I understand that sometimes a girl just wants a change. I’m looking for a shelving system for our little place right now, and this post is such an inspiration, thank you!
Emily
I totally agree that those choices are more fabulous than the Expedit series but who has that kind of money!? I think your space looks fab! I’m in the same boat as you and needed mega storage for my workspace but no cash so I went with the same option as you. I’m super happy with my purchase but holy moly do those baskets smell weird! Did you have that musty straw/farm smell to deal with when you bought them? If yes please tell me it goes away. Keep up the awesome blog! You’re such an inspiration to me.
Danielle
I just found this!
http://fab.com/sale/12199/product/250674/#
Christine
I have the Room & Board Slim Etagere in green and love it. The space between the shelves is massive, and small books can look awkward on them. Here’s a link to a picture of the etagere… http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/christines-kitsch-conservatory-room-room-for-color-contest-178739
Chrissi Holt
I like your shelves to be honest with you .. :) But that’s OK everyone has clutter ! Mine is in the cupboard (for the time being) we are renovating so this is to be expected !
Love Chrissi xo
http://www.christianaholt.blogspot
Jessica @ Team Wiking
I love all of those shelves. I have the white Expedit 4×4 in my office with those same baskets. I wish mine were full of books though. I’ve got a printer, an external hard drive, and a sewing machine in the mix. Gag.
Amy Hackworth
Nicole, it was so nice to meet you last night, and I wish I’d seen this post before we spoke. The Room and Board etagere is on my wish list and I have also loved the shelf from World Market. We’re bookshelf soul sisters.
Hope you had a great stay!
Jennifer @DreamingofJune
I love the shelf with the wheels, but I have to say, with the quantity of books you have, the existing shelves look amazing. I personally love a wall of book shelves with glass doors.
julie ciriello
I wrote a blog post about dressing up your IKEA furniture and when I was doing the research, I recall a number of ways to dress up EXPEDIT bookcases on sites such as panyl. Here is my post
http://not-going-out-like-that.com/category/decorating/
Kati
Your choises have similarities with these String-shelves:
http://www.string.se/index.asp?LAN=2
My absolute favourite!
Kari
The Expedit ones have closed sides, though.. and that’s good. Open-sided and open-backed shelving units are horrid. Books falling over, cr*p falling behind.. lol
Andrea Howe
The last couple of lines remind me of something Jules would write. No wonder you guys are friends ;)
Making it Lovely
I think I must have been channeling my inner Jules a bit. ;)
Little Gray Pixel
Oh! But don’t you see, that shelf is on wheels! So you can have your pretty decor, and all you would have to do is wheel it around to see all the book titles. Win-win.
iris
Centsational Girl redoes some other Ikea shelves that look similar to the ones you’ve posted (an example, here: http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2012/07/ikea-shelving-modified/) buuuuuuut that would really be so, so much more work!
Elena
Hey Nicole. Just a random question. Are the books in your office of a totally different genre than those in your library? For instance, are your office books crafts, design, etc. while the ones in the library are novels, bios?
Megan F
I went home last night after seeing this post and turned the paper backs in my sun room around. It’s a rare occasion that we pull them off the shelf anyway and most of our reading is done electronically these days- or, we make the effort to buy the nice hard-bound version. You’re right, it’s not a practical way to display books but I like it for a little change of view. :-)
Audrey
I love the shelf you have! Maybe move the things on the shelf around? Arrange them by color? I think changing around what you already have in the meantime could feel refreshing and cathartic!
Kristín
love the Slim shelves..
and if you ever discover the pixie dust, please send some my way ;)
Wanda
Have you heard of Benita? I follow her blog on Chez Larson. She recently updated her shelving units and I found them to be lovely. Thought I’d pass along the link:
http://chezlarsson.com/myblog/2012/09/snow.html
BTW, I love your blog and am thrilled that you finally got to meet Ms. Stewart! :)
Amanda
I really enjoyed the humor in this post. And those shelves? Aaah, so lovely!
nicolette @ momnivore's dilemma
Nic-
I know some commenters have suggested to rid of some of your books. But, I know you’ve mentioned working at a bookstore…and I gather you adore them all…
I don’t think books are clutter. My three expedits are loaded, but totally organized. They tell a story of my years of reading…from my epic summer of DFW’s Infinite Jest after college to my massive children’s book collection from years teaching…
and I think many of those books probably written in, have photos/old letters in between the pages…Kindle’s got nothing on that…
Keep em’. Maybe just throw a painting over the bookshelves to change it up. I saw it in this month’s House Beautiful…
Krissy
I have a friend who turns books spine-in until he’s read them, so his shelves are part trophy and part masochism. I like yours better :)
Making it Lovely
I like your description of his system.
Alissa
Best post ever! I am so glad to know that I am not the only one to do imaginary decorating… And who longs for the wave of a wand, click of some heels, or a sprinkle of pixie dust to magically make my possessions condense down into something that is almost spartan in it’s stylishness.
Joy | Frock Files
We just purchased some reclaimed wood wall shelves for our books and I’m in love with them — but we still have so many more books! I love the airy nature of these shelves, and the fact that they’re art in themselves.
longgoneblonde
Agree! I am over the Expidit too. It is just a bit too deep and those cubby like shelves get easily layered (read crammed) with stuff.
the domestic fringe
LOL. The other day I took all the books down from our bookshelves in the living room. Then I set out to make the shelves pretty. Then I decided we had too many books to make pretty happen, but really, aren’t books what bookshelves are for anyway?
Sometimes, I just have to put things away and simply be glad they are away, whether they are pretty or not.
~FringeGirl
Christine Drumgoole
Wait? You have those days too? I also have mental decorating projects going on in my head. If only everyone could see them in there.
Danielle
I am so over my expedit as well. I was thinking about getting rid of 3/4 of my books just because they really are clutter. I spent a couple of hours searching the web on how to repurpose the unit but the best ideas I could come up with these on ikea hackers:
http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/01/fwd-ikea-expedit-hack.html
http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/04/expedit-kitchen-storage-and-counter.html
OR a very popular idea on pinterest, wallpaper the back:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/inspiration-ikea-expedit-stora-49822
Catherine
I love your shelves because you can tell a reader lives there!
Christina W.
I think I could make a strong case for having #s 2 or 3 in my house. Seriously getting bookshelf envy over here.
Rita
;) you make me smile. The truth is, sometimes the pretty shelves on pinterest and such are just that, pretty…Living life needs to be mroe than that most of the time :)
Jenny
Thank you for admitting that shelves in actual houses will never look as good as the ones in catalogs since we actually have to USE the ones in our house. I wish I had me some pixie dust!
Misse
Honestly, I think you need a good purge. The shelves look a tad crowded. I could see a whole series of posts on organization!
Alison Burtt
I can so so so relate to this! As both book and design lovers, we are cursed. Cursed! It seems impossible to have both space for one’s books and other stuff and also have it look good. If you ever find the source of the pixie dust, we expect you to share.
Misse
Alison, I was the same way until I started swapping my books online at swap.com. Once I realized that I really didn’t need to keep every book, life became easier.
I also donate books to this awesome nonprofit in Chicago called Open Books. They sell the books and raise money to promote literacy!
http://www.open-books.org/
Making it Lovely
Misse, thank you for sharing that link! I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of Open Books before.
Candice
Oooh, I just noticed those white boxes on the Lap system are boxes and trays. That speaks to me. I wish they were more drawer-like; but, they are on to something.
Making it Lovely
Aren’t they interesting? I really like the idea.
Yelle
Love the one on wheels – super shelving envy at the moment!
Kathryn
No, no your office is full of ephemera. That’s fancy for mess.
Making it Lovely
Sure, if Zappos boxes full of kids’ shoes waiting to be returned count as ephemera…
Candice
I too am a victim of organization-by-cubing. I’m over cubes. I put the ones I used to wall mount in my office in my bathroom and utility closet. They work well in there. I want something modular, movable–that adapts to what I’m putting on or in the shelves. I have a jonesing for IKEA, I think.
Heather B
The Lap system is very lovely. I used to have my books arranged by color but my husband always had to hunt for whatever book he wanted. I seems that not everyone remembers what color a particular book is, go figure. It was another time when design-y and practical were not playing nice ;-)
Amy Purple
I recently bought some Besta units so i could hide all the clutter/stuff behind doors.
Candice
I fear that my space will feel blocky with all the doors. How are you liking your purchase so far? Is your unit all doors or a combo of open space and doors?
Amy Purple
I love it, best decision ever! It’s all doors. We even did the height extension!
Jules
Win. Very funny, Nicole.
Veronica
Try purging some of your stuff – I think you are craving a little open space :-)
Camille
This post showed up on FB as I’m sitting here with 10,341 tabs open, trying to find the perfect shelving unit for my home school room. I feel I should thank you, except now my new favorite shelve is not in my budget!
Making it Lovely
You’re welcome? ;)
Martha
Emily Henderson talks a lot about how expensive and difficult it is to style bookshelves on her blog, that is something I never really thought about. Your expedits look lovely but I love the Lap Shelving system you posted!
Cara
Thank you for acknowledging that shelves that are actually being used don’t look like that. I personally love your Expedit because it’s stuffed with books!
Ashley @GirlyObsessions
I love all of these shevles!!! I need new shelves in my office but I’m having commitment issues!
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