Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Bookcase Dilemma

A couple of years ago, my very handy hubby built us some amazing bookcases in our great room.  I love them.  I do.  We always get tons of compliments on them.  Originally we filled this huge wall in our great room with 2 buffets that flanked a TV armoire.  I liked that, too, but thought having bookcases along the whole wall would fill the wall and give us lots of storage for magazines, books, and toys.  My hubby doesn't plan much on paper.  It's all in his head.  So, when he was building these beasts in our garage I didn't quite know what his vision was.  I thought we were going to have some bookcases that maybe went half-way up the wall to put the flat screen on and some pretty accessories across the top, have some baskets for storage on the other shelves, you get the drift.  Then I saw the magnitude of the shelves he was building.  They were going to take up the whole wall.  Floor to ceiling.  My first thought was, what am I going to put on all of those shelves??  Luckily we did a little shopping, I pulled things in my house from here and there, and was able to somewhat fill the shelves.  So now, for quite a while, the shelves have looked like this:
  

These brown fabric containers on the bottom hold lots of magazines and some books.  Magically 3 of them fit across perfectly.  The lighter baskets under the TV hold some of our DVDs and CDs.  Here lies the dilemma.  The paint color behind the bookcases.  For a while I was very into the red accent wall (anyone else?).  When hubby put the bookcases up, I didn't even think about, "what if someday I want to change the color behind the bookcases?"  The bookcases are not attached to the wall.  They are wedged in.  Tight.  Another wacky thing about them is that under the bookcases there is old carpet.  Yep.  When we changed our laminate wood floors we decided to not try to move the bookcases and just take the new floor up to them.  I know, lazy decision that we are now paying for.  In order for me to get a different color behind the bookcases, we need to move them.  Just painting the backs of each section is not an option since the bookcases are not attached.  I desperately want a lighter color behind there due to the cave-like appearance of our great room.  Most times of the day it is very dark and you need lights on even on a sunny day.  We also have some large, dark furniture in there and that is also making it seem dark.  (You may wonder why I have no throw pillows on the furniture or anything wonderful on the coffee table?  Trust me.  Would love to. However our sweet dog would have anything I put out in our backyard as a chew toy.  It totally stinks.)  The hubby and I have talked about this numerous times.  He is willing to take the bookcases down, but probably will not put them back up.  We could paint the big wall a creamy color and change the floors so that they are all consistent (we don't like the laminate we put down anyway, so this is a good thing).  However, I don't know if I want to lose these bookcases.  They really are pretty.  They do hold my 500 magazines.  What's a girl to do?  Please weigh in on the matter.  

(I apologize for the centering of my text...it thought my typing was one big caption under the picture and I couldn't figure out how to fix it)


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7 comments:

  1. I think if you painted the background wall a light gray and the book cases white, it will pop even more. Your hubs did an amazing job by the way, I am swoon by the built in look. Amazing! So much storage and space to play with. Do Not get rid of them!!!
    Xoxo
    Claudia

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  2. Hi Nicky ~ One possibility might be some sort of wallpaper if there is a slight space between the shelves and the wall so you could slip the paper behind the shelves. Another option could be to paint the entire unit and wall the same color - if you used a small brush, I bet you could cover the wall area enough that you wouldn't be able to see any of the red that may still be back there. Hope this helps. Good luck!

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  3. How patient are you? What if you put a box of white inside a frame of the red behind each shelf. You could put a tape width of painter tape to frame inside each shelf and then paint the inside white without having to move the shelf!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your input! That is a creative solution.

      Delete
  4. I like Claudia's (ACHanson) reply - Paint them! So many people long for built-in bookcases and you already have them. You could also have Hubby build 'doors' for some of them and break up the all-open-shelves look.

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  5. Are you going to tell us what you're going to do with the bookshelves? Curious to see the finished product!

    ReplyDelete

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