This is a really bad picture of my living room in the middle of us having the house turned upside down to do the new bathroom and built ins and having the basement flood multiple times in two weeks so when I show you the after you’re going to be really wowed! It’s kind of like how they make up gorgeous models to look ugly and then give them a “makeover” to reveal the “stunning transformation” in fashion magazines. Ok, my living room wasn’t actually that gorgeous to begin with, but it’s getting there. Ever since I laid eyes on our living room I’ve been dying to put built in bookcases flanking the fireplace (remember the facelift that just got too?). And six years later, it has finally happened!

Ta-da! While I had really always envisioned floor to ceiling bookcases, there were a few problems with that. The primary one being that I adore the arched doorways from our living room into the hallways. Taking the bookcases to the ceiling would block the view of the arches and just look wrong proportionately. So we decided to go about halfway, but we also had to take into consideration the mantle. I still wanted that to be the focal point so I wanted the bookcases to be lower than it. But I also had a light switch on the right side which prevented them from really falling where I wanted them to. Oh, and it’s an old house so of course nothing was level either vertically or horizontally. Luckily, my builder, Pete from Sachuest Construction, handled the hard thinking for me and came up with a way to make them still look straight and fall at a height that I’m happy with!

And while we’re looking at the hideous tile and hearth surrounding the fireplace, I just need to point out that that project is going to be tackled very soon as well.

Oh, and the off center television will be corrected too. We need to either move the wall mount (but it’s currently in a stud which is important) or switch it back to its stand.

Despite my husband’s request that I get as many books on the shelves as possible, I really like to mix the directions of the books. On the bottom shelf this actually allowed me to squeeze in a lot more books, but that isn’t always the case. As you can see I also need to finish touching up the paint!

I also like to mix in some objets which shockingly I realized yesterday I don’t have that many of. The added bonus of these new bookcases is also that I got to empty the basement of books and actually put them on display and in a place that is easily accessible. Finally, the toys that the kids still play with are moving to the basement, and my living room is looking like a grown up space again, and the entire house is feeling less cluttered!!!!

In addition to switching up the direction of the books, I like to organize them by color like I did in Amy’s house as well to prep for her HGTV shoot. I’m also excited to have the new top shelf for added display space, and it helps anchor the painting that my brother-in-law, artist Mark Fernandez, gave us as a wedding gift. Note the new and soon to be installed Dutch door peeking in on the right side too!

I also discovered that we could probably open our own library dedicated to sailing and possibly even just to the America’s Cup.

I, of course, am a little more partial to my design inspiration books (and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to give a little shout out to my sister’s book, Ready, Set, Green).

I think there’s still a bit of tweaking that needs to be done on the styling, but I’m totally thrilled with the way that the built ins came out. It’s amazing how much of a difference such a seemingly small change can make. I keep saying that I’m finally taking our house from JV to the varsity team this year. It’s the details like built ins that give a home the custom quality that truly adds depth to the space and makes it unique.

Stay tuned for the bathroom reveal coming tomorrow!