Spring Into Action: Week 3

This is the final week of the Spring Into Action challenge, where a group of bloggers committed to finishing a project that we've been dragging our feet on.

I chose to build shelves in my TV nook in my living room.  Here's how this area has evolved over the past year:

Bland and Boring

My first and last attempt at abstract art.

Leftover Christmas decor.

This is what it looked like three weeks ago when the challenge began.

Stencil Madness.



I scavenged my house to find things to fill the shelves.  Here's what it looks like now:

Next, I decided to try adding a gallery wall behind the TV using some art that I found at an estate sale.

This was starting to look a little too busy for me:

Styling is definitely NOT my strong point.  Where's Emily Henderson when I need her???  By the way, did you see that she just redid her office in navy.  It looks amazing.

I took some things out:

Added them back in and moved some things around:

Just as a reminder, here's how it started:


What do you think?  Do you prefer the really full look or the more spare look?  I'm definitely not a stylist, so I truly appreciate all of your comments, suggestions and feedback. 

Thanks to Linda of My Crafty Home Life for putting this challenge together and giving us a kick to finish our projects!

Check out the other challengers completed projects here:
Tiffany – Living Savvy

Kerry – Design du Monde

Laurie – Traditional & Modern

Cathy – Room Rx

Carrie – Hazardous Design

Lisa – A Room with A View

Sam – The Junk House

Becca – from Gardners 2 Bergers

Jean – Flower Hill Design

Nancy – Powell & Brower Home

Linda – My Crafty Home Life

Challenge: Spring Into Action!

I might be crazy, but I'm participating in another challenge.  I love these challenges because they give me motivation to finish projects that I have lingering around the house.

As you might remember, I have a project from March that didn't go quite as planned.

I tried to stencil this area and build a shelf.  This is as far as I got.

For my Spring Into Action project, I intend to repaint this niche, finish building the shelves, and maybe even do a few DIY projects to style the shelves.

Back in March, I contacted a friend who is a handyman to see how much he would charge to build the shelving.  He quoted us $400, but as soon as he said "You can totally do this yourself," I politely ushered him out the door and pulled out my measuring tape. 

I found this tutorial from Vintage Revivals that doesn't look too tricky and that I actually started on in the photo above.

courtesy of Vintage Revivals

Best of all, the shelving pictured only cost $30 to build!

I like the look of bookshelves with a colored back, similar to these:

Source: emilyaclark.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Hmmm, that navy might fit in nicely with the Color My World Challenge (the other challenge I'm participating in right now)!

Source: simpledwellings.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

This series will run for the next two Thursdays.  Next week we will be sharing progress on our projects.  The week after that will be the big reveal of the (hopefully) completed project.

This little challenge was dreamed up by the creative Linda of My Crafty Home Life.  There are lots of other great bloggers participating in the challenge.  I'm looking forward to checking out their blogs to see what projects they are tackling over the next few weeks. 

Here are the participants:

Tiffany – Living Savvy

Kerry – Design du Monde

Laurie – Traditional & Modern

Cathy – Room Rx

Carrie – Hazardous Design

Lisa – A Room with A View

Sam – The Junk House

Becca – from Gardners 2 Bergers

Jean – Flower Hill Design

Nancy – Powell & Brower Home

Linda – My Crafty Home Life