Some of you might remember the entryway in my previous home. I loved the functionality that locker system brought to an otherwise unusable space, but in our new home, it simply doesn’t work. You see, I essentially made the locker system fit in the typically unused 10 inches or so next to my front door. In our current space, the entry is angled and there isn’t a way to put a piece of this nature. This doesn’t leave a home for all of the shoes and coats we shed on our way in the door, which of course makes me absolutely crazy. A few weeks ago, I moved the tree shelf into the hallway temporarily while I was rearranging some things in Blake’s room and wouldn’t you know it accidentally found the perfect new home! I scored the most gorgeous vintage brass planter at a thrift store a while back and it works beautifully to help corral our shoes! I intended to use it for a certain special little plant, so of course now I’m back on the hunt for something fabulous I can use for that, but I couldn’t be happier about this accidental space plan!

I’m slowly but surely starting to finish a few small spaces throughout this house, like this one and this one . We have been here for nearly a year and in that time I have struggled with how to decorate my spaces. It’s funny how you can love your home and all of the amazing windows it has and at the same time despise it’s spaces and all of the windows they have. Ironic, to be sure. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to design a space around all of the crazy windows. I realize how ridiculous this may sound, “whoa is me and my millions of glorious windows and fabulous light everywhere”… but seriously, whoa is me. If virtually every wall has windows, where pray tell does the furniture go? And how about the art and accessories? Oh, you aren’t sure? Well me either. And this is precisely where things have been for the last 9 months. I love a good challenge, but the answer to this particular one is that most of my furniture doesn’t work and needs to be replaced. I simply don’t have the energy or the time to build all new pieces for every single space in this house, and yet, that is the most budget friendly option in many cases. Le sigh. I’m tired just thinking about it!

There are a few pieces that work as intended, and they work so beautifully I could cry. And honestly I just might cry at the thought of all those gorgeous pieces I don’t want to part with but truly don’t work in this house. Some are pieces my Grandma gave me and getting rid of them seems impossible now that she is gone. But where am I going to put 10 dining chairs that are too large for my current dining room and the more appropriately sized table that will suit it? I think I need a ‘group’ for this. It’s a bit like an awkward kid stage up in here, with all of the oversized furnishings and art crammed into spaces they are too big for. It’s a tad like that kid who had a growth spurt shortly after back-to-school shopping and his skinny jeans are a bit more like capri pants now. Eek!

So I updated the video that goes with this tree shelf project. It’s been a long time coming and while it’s no where near great, it’s much much better! Yahoo for that! If you would like to watch, it’s just below. I am hoping to beef up the video production for this site quite a bit so hopefully I will hone my shooting and editing skills enough that it doesn’t take me a week of non-stop crazy to do one single video edit! If any of you have any tips for me, I would love to hear them! And if you know of a videographer in my area or an editor (who will work for exposure), please beg them to come to my rescue!