Ours will look more like this:
The same goes for our loft family room… We’re in the process of lining the entire room with shelving for books, toys and randoms stuff. I’ll leave the books exposed and then do baskets for the not-so-pretty stuff like toys and games. Here’s the loft before we moved in:
Right now, the loft is a MESS… It’s half-pinkish-beige from when we moved in and partly primed and exposed studs from where we tore out the paneling and desk you see in the pic. I have BIG plans for this room and will be sharing soon. BUT the biggest feature in the room will be its open shelving. I’m so excited to be able to be surrounded by our books (We’ve been living with them in the garage this whole time and I can’t even tell you how many times a week I want to grab a book to reference it or read it to the boys or whatever and I just can’t. I am so excited to be able to have any book we need at our fingertips.) Most of my books aren’t very pretty so I’ll be working on some creative ways of displaying them to make them look better. (wish me luck 😉 I love a mix of vertical and horizontal stacks like in this picture:
In our dining room, I follow the same line of thinking and have more open shelving for serving ware and our nature finds. I love the simple utilitarian stacks of dishes in this dining room below:
In my office, I display my fabrics, magazines and client binders on large open shelving. Don’t get me wrong, I love cabinetry and hidden storage too- but- I reserve the cabinets and drawers in our house for the ugly stuff, trying to minimize it as much as possible, and use open shelving for the useful pretties.
The concept of opening up and surrounding myself & my family in the things we use on a daily basis is one that fits the way we live. We’re very casual people, and in this new house, my main goal- besides making it something I love to look at & be in- is making is incredibly functional and easy to live in. Opening up our storage and seeing the stuff we have is so freeing. It forces us to ditch the stuff we don’t love or use all the time and keeps us disciplined. (And now I just need an empty room in my house to hide all the other stuff 😉
Anyway, I know it’s not for everyone… what are your thoughts on opening up and exposing your stuff?
To read more about my thoughts and readers’ comments & experiences on open shelving, go HERE.
To read the Chicago Tribune article, Full Exposure, by Elaine Markoutsas, go HERE.
