The Perfect Shelves Do Exist

I found the most charming distressed metal shelves for my home and now I'm decorating with them everywhere.


A funny thing happened to me on the way to decorate my family room wall.

It all started with that delicious floral wallpaper.

I've absolute adored it from the moment I saw it.

However. It's also completely perplexed me from the moment it went up on the wall.

It's a bold pattern. Lots of colors, lots going on.

Decorating around it has been a challenge for someone that usually has solid painted walls and adds pattern and color elsewhere.

So I've hesitated to add accessories, especially on the walls, but when I saw these green rooster plates, I knew.

I mean, come on.

Aren't they darling?

I knew they'd be perfect.

With a design plan in place, I told my husband that all I needed him to do was pick up a few thin pieces of wood for shelves, add a scalloped edged moulding to the front, take his router and make a groove for the plates and I'd paint them all white.

Like when I (he) painted the wooden hallway shelf.

Being the most wonderful DIY guy in the world, he said sure honey.

And then I waited.

Months.

I must've moved that stack of green plates from one room to another, to keep them safe, about 10 different times.

Then finally I gave up and went shopping online. And look what I found. These decorative, iron metal shelves.


Aren't they darling?

They came in a pack of four. Graduated sizes, graduated depths. A bit distressed.

And totally my cottage style.

The plan was to stagger the longest two on the green, family room wall. I never really thought about where the other two would go.

But. While my husband was gathering his supplies, I walked around with them and suddenly everything changed.

The longest one, the main one I was going to use in the family room? It needed to go in the kitchen instead.

Here's how the rest of them look in the family room with the green roosters.

It was the exact same size as my plate rack and it filled an awkward space between it and the pine server below.

My husband was not convinced but he went along with my plan, hoping for the best.

First, he measured to make sure the placement would be centered. He used painter's tape rather than marking up the walls.

Then he grabbed a drill and put an anchor in the wall and added screws to hang the shelf.

The wall behind the plate rack is hollow, since there's a pocket door tucked into it. The anchors give the shelf strength, so I can load it up with pretties and not worry about it falling down.


If you can catch wood behind sheetrock you wouldn't need them.

Once the shelf was on the wall, he agreed that's where it belonged. He understood my vision.

Unfortunately, the only thing I saw was the bright silver screws and that was a big no for me.

No worries. I just grabbed my Testors enamel paint, like I did when I painted the center bracket on my curtain rod, and painted over those suckers.

In minutes, they disappeared.

No more screws screaming at me.


Just a lovely new view.

A charming update to a space that's looked the same for over twenty years.

It was a space I didn't even know needed a change until those shelves arrived.


It also gave me a place to finally display the antique Wedgewood demitasse cups my grandmother gifted my parents on their wedding day.

They've been hiding behind my fabric covered glass cabinets for decades.


Sweet, sentimental and classic.

Needless to say, this happy decorating diversion has caused a disruption in the family room.

Best laid plans and all...but I think it was worth it.

And it's ok, we worked it out.

But that my friends is a decorating tale for another day.

😉

Have you ever bought something for one place that ended up in another? Tell me I'm not alone. 

Happy Decorating!!