In my home office, I have a large white cubed bookshelf (the popular Ikea Expedit) that I love for storing books, magazines, craft supplies, and also decorative items like photos and other objects. Like Jen mentioned in her "Too Much of A Good Thing" post recently, a bookshelf can easily become an eyesore or too visually overwhelming if you don't have an overall theme going on or too many things displayed randomly. How you display the objects creates a "look" that can be great or messy/cluttered looking. Originally, my office had a lot of aqua in in, so the aqua boxes you see in the picture below were perfect for storage. But, there wasn't much cohesion in the color scheme and things looked a little random, so I reworked the bookshelves a bit. It's always a work in progress, but here is the "before" shot from November 2013.
I'm working on a new blog design that incorporates pink, blush, gold, white, and black so I thought it was fitting to bring those colors into my office. I started with an inspiration board in the corner of the room.
Not wanting to spend a lot of money on new decor for the shelf, I bought two pink, white and gold polka dot cardboard boxes at Target, then made a few of my own decorative boxes with old shoeboxes and gift wrap.
I used old boxes I had saved for this very purpose and found the wrapping paper at Target.
I wrapped the box and lid separately to add more visual interest, and just wrapped like I would a gift, taping where needed.
Obviously, the choices are endless when it comes to the wrapping paper you could use. Target, The Container Store, and Home Goods have great selections.
The box below I wrapped with large decorative paper I bought at Paper Source. It's expensive- about $5 for a large sheet, so I use it for projects like this. They have paper with colors and patterns that are gorgeous and unique. Along with wrapping the boxes, you can see in the pictures below that I wrapped the magazine holders with gift wrap from Sugar Paper. A few of the books are wrapped with fabric too. (p.s. I play a mean game of SATC Trivia)
This hexagon box was found at Amazon - loved the shape - and wrapped with paper from Paper Source. That was a difficult box to wrap! I still don't know how I did it, just kept wrapping, cutting and taping until it was all covered and looked decent.
I think I found the gold glittery wrapping paper and black and gold zebra paper at Home Goods. The glittery paper was really messy though.
There is still a "lot going on" but it's more cohesive now with the colors I had in mind. I'd like to add more books and that bottom row can probably be expanded all the way- it holds my old Oprah magazines (I've been a subscribers since the first issue) and I have more to put in there. I kept a few of the aqua boxes to keep the bookshelf from becoming too "sugary", but since this space is mine, it can be pretty girly. I love that it's so easy to create the look you want (and add storage) with old shoeboxes and wrapping paper! Inside my boxes are things like craft punches, paint chip samples, chip board pieces, and foam paper. If you have any questions, I'll be back responding to comments.
Thanks for having me Jen, I appreciate you and your readers!
"My name is Megan and I am a lawyer by day, design and decor lover by night, and Mama to the sweetest 2-year old boy you've ever seen. I'm passionate about fitness (and chocolate!) and could not live without my relationships, girl talk, and my morning coffee. I've been blogging for two years over at Honey We're Home, sharing my love of keeping things organized and beautiful at our house. My efforts to live in the moment and cook more are an adventure in progress."
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