Bookcase Dilemma: To showcase or.....what, exactly?

Hello y'all. Yesterday was "mission organize the family room". Our family room is over the garage, on its own level so it's fair to say it gets a bit neglected. If someone drops by, it's no big deal if it just so happens that it looks like a bomb when off in that room. What? You don't have rooms like that? Well, that's how we live. There, I said it. We are trying to do better though. I finally feel like I have some room to breathe and just a bit of time to organize and even more importantly, decorate. Yay! We even have some resemblance of a cleaning routine going on, and I've started to make it a habit not to go to bed before all those darn toys are put away every night. Things are looking up! The family room has a really great set of built ins that are 6 ft wide and I think about 8 ft tall. Great storage, right? Well, one would think, but man I have a hard time knowing what to do with open shelving. I'm not a collector. I do not like clutter. I don't have any knick-knacks.

So the dilemma lied in what to do with all of that space. It was becoming a frustration to me, to say the least. So I finally decided to embrace the fact that we have small children in the house. We are going to for quite a while. So rather than try and hide or camoflauge their toys, I cleared the shelves and started sorting. I picked out my favorites of their toys. But before I filled the shelves back up, I lined several of the shelves with a gray and white chevron shelf liner. That alone changed the whole feel of the room. I love it!

I moved their table and chairs from the other side of room and it works so much better. They can see their cartoons while they are having a snack, which I don't let them do that often but when we do, it's nice.

I found the Chevron shelf liner at TJ Maxx for $5 for 2 rolls. Definitely a cheap makeover.

I displayed the Golden Books (most of them from when I was young) between 2 antique irons from my Mom's house. I let the kids pick which 3 they display in the frames and told them they could change them everyday. That's the first thing my oldest did this morning, change them around :)

I always pick up wooden toys at yard sales when I see them. They definitely add a whimsical touch to the room.

Baskets are one of my best friends. Children dump out. Proceed to make a mess. Mom picks up at night and dumps everything back in. Go to sleep. Repeat.

A few more of the wooden toys displayed.

 

Yes, it is possible to have a multi-purpose room and have it look somewhat decorated and pulled together. So now we'll see how long we can keep it this way :)

 

I've added some Chevron in other parts of the room, and I'll try and get pics up of that soon. Have a happy Wednesday, friends.