Guest Blogger: Margeaux of This Nifty Earth

Today we have a special treat for all of you faithful readers: a guest blogger! We are so excited to share our blog with a fellow blogger, DIYer, and friend. 

Our friend Margeaux is a solidly talented individual who brims with creativity. Margeaux got married to her husband, Jordan, eight months ago and it has been so fun to see (even from afar) their adventures together and how they are settling into their home. Based out of Hudsonville, MI, Margeaux works during the day at Grabber Inc. in sales and marketing and when she gets home she lets her creativity shine and works on projects for her Etsy store, so perfectly named, This Nifty Earth (she is also listed under our favorites tab if you want to look her up later)! 

Today Margeaux is going to share her bookshelves with you. They caught my eye in a recent post of hers (scroll almost to the bottom to see the full picture and start drooling!) and I had to ask if she would share them with all of you. SO, without further ado, Margeaux Cotton of This Nifty Earth!

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When Jordan and I got engaged, one of the gifts that my mother gave me was a pair of two massive wooden bookshelves. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself! Unfortunately though, when we got everything settled after the honeymoon, I realized I didn't like the way I had haphazardly thrown everything onto the shelves. There was no rhyme or reason and I knew that if I just left them the way they were, they were just going to look terrible. Since these shelves lived in the middle of our living room (the main area of our house) I really wanted them to add to the room, not take away. 

I set out on a quest to find a way to make them more like art and less like a basic piece of furniture. During my searching I found this article by Jenny of Little Green Notebook. To say I fell in love wouldn't be accurate, in fact, I had the immediate urge to do my own styling following her simple steps: Separate by genre and then break it down even further by color. 

I ended up with six categories:

• Comic Books
• Classics
• Youth Fiction
• Religion
• Adult Fiction
• Collections

We have several other genres such as education, art and non-fiction, but those are always by our coffee table or being looked at, so their home is on the lower shelves hidden by the sofa. 

Once I had all of my books organized into genres and colors (which took me about four days doing it for an hour or two after work), I had to decide what "fillers" I wanted to add. These items were slowly "found" and placed over time. The arrangement we currently have is my favorite so far and has been around for several months. It is a mixture of wedding gifts, goodwill finds, and items that hold major memories for us. 

I love owls. When I decided to start adding things to the shelves, I knew a couple of these cute feathery friends would definitely make their home there. The little brown owl was a gift from Jordan after a fishing trip from 2013, the white owl was a chipped silver mess that I cleaned up with a fresh coat of paint and the green one is a piggy bank that I snatched up at Goodwill! 

A few of the things on our shelves made their way there for lack of anywhere else to go. I love all three of these things, but wasn't sure where I could put them that would make them stand out and feel as special as they are! The bookshelves were the perfect spot. The lightbulb is actually a bottle and was given to me by a dear friend. The ceramic bird is from Goodwill and I felt that it would fit perfectly in our living room. The beer bottle is local (something that Jordan and I love) and let's face it, it's just plain cute! 

All three of these items were wedding gifts. The frame is from a family friend on my side and I cried when I received it. The hand-carved bowl is from a dear friend of Jordan's and holds our playing cards. The personalized bowl is a gift from our grandparents and every time I look at it, I smile. 

These knick-knacks, once they made their way to the bookshelves, are what finally made everything look perfect to me. 

I have also added some other things that I love to the top of the shelves: a wooden church birdhouse that is full of Christmas lights (from my mum), a globe (from my mum), a jug from a favorite beer that I thought looked cool and our growlers from locals breweries. Occasionally some flowers or plants also find their way up there too! 

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Talk about using what you have and what you LOVE to make a statement! Her use of knick-knacks brings the whole shelving unit together while adding some major interest. If you can see, she also has arranged her books, not only vertically but horizontally as well. This delineation of books adds "risers" to a bookshelf and can make those knick-knacks stand out (look at that white owl on top of the purple books)! 

A BIG thank you to Margeaux for giving us a glimpse into her home and sharing her tricks on organizing and designing an awesome bookshelf! 

If you have any questions for Margeaux, please comment and we will get them to her so she can answer!!  

Do any of you have bookshelves that make you very proud? Did this post inspire you to change things up a bit at your house? Please send us pictures at rebhanrenovation@gmail.com and we will feature YOUR bookshelves/wall shelves in a follow up post! 

making progress in the living room

The dining room has probably undergone the most changes so far in the house. First we ripped down one of its walls to combine it with the dining room and secondly it has been decorated and redecorated more than once. 

In our apartment we had space for two full size couches because of the open layout and the length of the space but in this house we simply don't. Now, part of the redecorating and rearranging included a layout in which we tried to include both couches but it was too frustrating and tight. As you can see in the layout below [generated by floorplanner], having two couches in the living room was way to smooshed. Even though the room is fairly large, the walkways and front door pose a problem when trying to fit furniture - there aren't a lot of layout options.

I just went crazy one day; so frustrated trying to move around the coffee table and between the overbearing furniture I started to move things around. I ended up with one couch in the middle of the house with no home, ha! We like to say it's all part of the "process" so we don't feel like crazy people! The lighter couch that ended up with no home, is now housed in basement. We decided to keep the maroon leather couch upstairs due to the shape, size, and color! We don't even have any real pictures of the first layout because it never felt right... we knew it wasn't going to last.

 

This is the only photo I could find with the light couch upstairs. If you can use your imagination, the front door is directly to the right of the couch in this picture, the coffee table is just below the frame of this shot, and the TV is where Rob is looking. All in all, not a good situation.

After we removed the couch, we had a lot of empty space. Not enough for another couch or even a loveseat but we knew we wanted more seating. I found a oversized chair at Tootie and Tallulah's that fit the bill! It matched our color scheme and just fit perfectly in the space - plus, it is so so comfortable (as Taylor, Oswin and Harlee are so graciously modeling for us!).

After a couple adjustments and side table switches we came out with a good layout with lots of walking space as well as floor space for our two crazy creatures. My mom was a huge help during this, helping pick out curtains that fit the room and moving everything to its perfect spot!

The walls in the living room have seen many pieces of art and different corner displays, the lighting has changed, frames have been switched, curtains have been swapped and the odds and ends have been added and removed. All in all we are very happy with this current arrangement! 

 

Standing behind the couch, with the front door to your right, this is the view of the living room. The wall above the TV still needs some love and the lighting needs to - yet again - be changed.  All in good time!

 

Standing in the dog's bed (pictured above) this is the view from living room to dining room. The collage corner to the right was originally in the boring white corner from the picture above. We like its new home much more! **please look away from the clutter on the dining room table!

 

Again, standing behind the couch, you can see the over-sized chair and the leather ottoman that we added for seating as well as the art we chose to hang in the living room! 

The thing we are liking most is the flux of everything. Nothing stays in one place and it doesn't have to. The two large pieces of art (which we had framed locally at Greene's Art Supply in Birmingham) were originally meant for the dining room. After one look at the new arrangement, Mom and I decided that the "it is well" art would fit better in the dining room while the architecture pieces fit perfectly in the living room!

We are still going to paint this room and we may or may not already be underway with that project! Results to come later, we are still deciding if we like the color!! 

Thanks for reading, until next time, 

Lindsey

house flow and rugs

It's very fun to look around the house and start to see a cohesive flow from room to room. Each room has a piece of it's own that makes a pop but all in all the rooms work together (thank goodness!). We are beginning to feel settled here and most of our rooms are completely livable!

We haven't painted and the white walls are starting to bother me, but we have talked about it and we want to be very sure what color we want before we take the time to paint properly. Since it's such a task to really do a great job, we will probably wait for another month to paint the main areas. Bedrooms/sparerooms/basement might come earlier.

I just wanted to show you some of my favorite views in the house - from room to room so you can start to feel the flow like we do!

Photo 1: The first is from the living room to the dining room. The full view (more than just the floors) is much nicer but we aren't done decorating and I don't want to give anything away before we are finished. I love the way the two rugs look with the hardwood floors. Please don't mind the pukey green chair cushions, those are on our list.
Photo 2: The second photo is from the hallway entrance to the living room looking down the hall into the spare room. The hallway is shaping up with a couple of photos and art pieces and the spare room (sneak peak) is almost done! We will have a post about that room after all the spare boxes, etc. are moved out.


I also wanted to show you the rugs I have found for the house. I was never a big fan of area rugs but as soon as you buy a house with all wood floors you become a #1 fan almost immediately!! So far I have only paid full price for one of the rugs that we have in our home - honestly, a good price makes a lovely rug even lovelier still!

Row 1: Left - Dining Room Rug, Home Goods
             Right - Hallway Rug, Target
Row 2: Left - Kitchen Rug, Home Goods/Marshalls
             Right - Living Room Rug, Target (50% off!)
Row 3: Spare Room Rug - hand-me-down (FREE!)



For now, that's all we have to share but there is plenty more to come!

until then, Lindsey