Living Room Decluttering Project

As I've mentioned many times before I like to collect stuff: small objects, books, design mags, vases, etc. This is all well and good but I have a minuscule living space so from time to time I have to reassess and make things look a little bit neater. This time, I had to take a look at my open bookshelf that is full of DVDs do something about it. I also have a huge chest full of fabrics in my front hall that is getting quite full so I decided to make a "door" for my open shelf.

I'd been dying to use this gorgeous Matthew Patrick Smyth fabric from Schumacher for something and thought it too neutral for throw pillows but for this purpose, it's perfect because it's subtle. The green is faded enough to coordinate with the green of my bookcase.

I love to iron! I had to iron it, then fold in the edges and make sure they were crisp and perfect before I sewed it into a rectangle to cover the bookcase.

Woo! Late night sewing!

I had to get these little hooks and screw them into the frame of my bookcase in order to hang my fabric panel up.

Next I had to put these little grommets into my fabric. Before you do this on your fabric, take a scrap and practice. You need to make a tiny hole about the size of an eraser tip in the fabric, then put the bottom half of the grommet down, put the fabric hole through it, then put the top of the grommet on that, take a hammer and whale on it. Funny moment: I did all that except I wasn't hitting the hammer hard enough so I had to go back to the hardware store to see what I was doing wrong. I wasn't hitting it hard enough so the burly hardware store guy just told me to "put some muscle into it."

How perfect does that little grommet look? I know. So.......

Here it is! (Don't judge my TV. Clearly I have other priorities.) I may still have stacks of magazines around but at least they're organized (Martha Stewart in one pile, Domino, Blueprint, and House and Garden in another etc). And whats that on the floor?

It's the little Charlie Brown Christmas tree!

I know this doesn't change the fact that I need to edit a wee bit in my living room/my life, but I think it simplifies that area of the room and and pretty fabric so what more do I need right now? Now I'm off to collect glass tiles for my project because I finished the floor plan last night! Modern is still not my preferred style but it sure is fun to see what other materials are out there--I'm learning a lot.


Alicia B.