Living Room Shelves

The first time we saw the house I said there needed to be chunky floating shelves framing the fireplace. The first major project we took on was the living room since we spend the most time there and I hated the way the previous owners had it arranged.

Before by the previous owners:

We began engineering our living room from a blank slate. I couldn't just make things easy and go pick out a sofa, the engineer in me needed a game plan with sizes and whatnot. So we busted out the tape and started marking out the minimum and maximum sizes for everything to accomplish the flow and look we wanted. 

Once we had measurements for the rug, sofas, and coffee table it was time to search the Internet for sales! For a while all we had was the rug and TV from the first and hopefully last Black Friday adventure of my life.

Finally our furniture came in! I was super nervous picking out things I had never seen but once it all arrived it was better than expected!

The only down side was the chunky floating shelves of my dreams was next on my list for the Mr... So we got to work making a cheap but strong alternative. 

First, we used 2x4s to frame the shelves. 

Then we wrapped each shelf with plywood. 

Finally, we got busy staining and sealing the wood.

We ran the TV wires through the wall and mounted the cable box and DVD player under the lowest shelf. After gathering up all the books, pictures, candles, and goodies from various moving boxes we started decorating! We loved the way the living room came together. The shelves really completed the room and look like they were built with the house.

The new problem is that the fireplace and mantel looks a bit lost... piddling with that replaced the floating shelves on our todo list. 

What do you think? How did we do with the floating shelves?

XOXO

A & J