Decorating: It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like...

... someone actually lives in my house! You guys thought I was going to say Christmas, didn't you? Well, I have a Christmas post coming tomorrow, so sit tight.

It's been almost a month since we moved into our new house and we have been busy unpacking and trying to get things in place.

When we first looked at the house, one of the only things I didn't like about it was its so-called 'architectural feature.' The public side of the house is laid out with an open plan with a vaulted ceiling. Not too shabby. But, there are these pesky things like coat closets and laundry rooms that have to go somewhere, so they're in the center of the house with a regular ceiling, leaving this weird ledge below the vault. (I apologize if this is hard to follow. Just look at the pictures.)

Everyone else seemed to love the 'feature' but, being a bit of a snob (architects are known for this), I had yet to be convinced. Until...


One day the hubby suggested we use it as a bookshelf. Between all of our architecture books from school and my penchant for classic fiction, we have a lot of books.* I have to say it's nice to be able to display them in an out of the way place and not have to forfeit valuable floor or wall space to a massive bookshelf.

Also, I apologize for the crummy pictures. I wasn't trying to win any photo contests, I just wanted to prove a point. Empty ledge: terrible. Unique book storage: genius. Point for the hubby.

*For those of you on nerd watch, in the close-up photo you can see my massive 'American Short Stories' volume and my large collection of Shakespeare. Yes I took Intro to Shakespeare in college... as an elective... and I sat in the front row and answered every question. I was that kid.