Livingroom Revamp

We have been having some serious storage issues. Our garage is packed full... the 'can't find anything' kind of packed. This is odd for me. I don't normally do that... oh yes, there will be a big basket or bag around here and there stuffed with stuff I wasn't sure what to do with 10 minutes before friends arrived or somesuch, but not like this. This isn't stuff I should get rid of. It isn't stuff that isn't great. It is stuff that we literally had NO room to store. Homeschool stuff, supplies for art, stuffed animals that the kids love but wont fit in their room. Things like that. It may have something to do with there being 5 of us in a 900sq ft house.

I will consider this the "before" shot. Even though it was easily two years ago. But my living room has pretty much looked like this for the last two years. More cluttered at times, but like this.

This is what our homeschool stuff had come to. Two little shelves, stuffed in next to the coat rack, jam packed full with 'stuff'.

These shelves came to me in a moment of fate. I had walked in to the furniture consignment shop one hour after these were dropped off and cleaned up. I bought both, and within the next day (how long it took to pick them up) there were three people interested, and one even asked to be on a 'wait list' just in case I bailed on the deal. They are mine. lol...

It makes the whole room look smaller, which isn't great in our tiny house, but it also makes it look warm and cozy. And I hope a bit more organized day to day.

The other area of our living room that really needed work was the area that the homeschool stuff had been in. It has always looked kinda cluttery and not very nice. So I decided while I was taking on new shelves, to take that on as well. I put paper up of all of the picture frames I had to see if I could get them set up in a nice mosaic pattern.

This is what I ended up with:

Honestly, I LOVE this. It looks great. I didn't think I would when I put them up, and it took forever to get the mix right... but I love it now. I am waiting on some 5X5 pictures to be printed and then I will have the whole set all together.

Our homeschool stuff fits perfectly on one of the shelves, and this sweet little green shelf brings some warm color to this side of the livingroom, tying it in to the other side with the purple coatrack.

I am really enjoying the livingroom at the moment. :)