un-clustering your bookshelf

I wish I had time to blog more often, but here we go again! 

Firstly, I want to talk about books, I love books, I love reading them but I don't like how clustered and unorganized they can get in the shelves.
Make your own book covers, maybe just some splashes of color that can bring a book case together and un-cluster it.

Or if you're not to much of a color-person, get some old maps or newspapers to have them the same color, and hand write the book titles on them so they'll be easier to find.

And it also matters if you don't have time or the patience for that you can cluster them beautifully, yes, that's possible.

Things like this I don't find pleasing to the eye at all, I don't want to check out the books, it's very un-welcoming to me. Everything is lined up and not one book is really put in a special place, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of thought being put into it to an outsider, even though the owner knows exactly where each book is.

It's cluster like this that makes me happy, there are a little bit of a color organization, but the books don't have to stack the same way in all the shelves, and put some character in there, some vases, statues, flowers or pictures, it looks like someone really loves their books and wants to make them as pleasing to the eye as they are to the mind.

This is probably hard to do, firstly there aren't a lot of books that come in so many varieties of color, at least not here in Iceland, you can make this yourself like with the rainbow books in the first picture, but it's going to be hard.

Having the books make a big picture is a great fun way to make the bookcase pop, like taking a picture of the family and gluing them on the ends of the books, it could make a really fun DIY !  

PVC pipes and books DIY

These ideas are some that I feel that will personalize a bit more the small details in your home, so maybe we'll call it decoration tips part II !
Firstly the PVC pipes;

PVC pipes, there are some awesome things I found out you could do with those, like this candlestick, you could paint them to fit your room or make it stand out, either cold (when everything else is colorful) or vise versa.

Or as flower vases since it's summer, and the "Pretty Vase Collection by Francois Xavier Ballery" is in fact really pretty and a great DIY project !

I know this is a holiday craft, but I see so many possibilities !
Firstly, just as a work of art, in different colors and make some funky shapes out of it, constructions under a shelf or a table. storage for spices in the kitchen, for toothpastes and toothbrushes in the bathroom or to hold the shampoo, and I could go on and on.

Keep your laptop from overheating, and it just looks so cute !

And now to the books;

Personalized Iphone dock, it's so easy to make and it's a wonderful way to personalize your nightstand. Your favorite books or just some pretty covers, it's extremely easy to make like you can see here on Curbly.

This idea is made from a hardcover book, a 5$ lamp from IKEA and a rubber band, so extremely affordable, and with the right book, this can look super cool, if you have many books on a table, like in the picture, and have the "book lamp" in the middle, it can look really good.
See more here

Book planters, how cute is this !
See it here on homedit.

decoration tips

Decorations are important, small, tiny changes in a room can mean a lot, even just one candlestick.
So if your unhappy with a room start by looking at the details, what can you add and what can you take out.
It can make a whole new room for you, without spending almost any money.
And here are some easy, affordable ideas.

 Need new bookends ?
This is such an easy DIY task, and it doesn't cost that much.
you can use all kinds of plastic animals & toys, just find what you like the most.
See the whole tutorial here

Now, this is an easy decorating tip, you can take any picture and print it out, nail by the outlines on a plank of wood, and you could also just nail one nail in the middle, if you don't want a heart, have the nails any color, the wood any color and the string any color! this screams creative ideas for me, how about you ?

I like this idea a lot, you can't always find a flowerpot that works for you or they are too expensive, but this way, you don't need to buy, or make, a flowerpot at all, you just need a little bit of heavy clay mud, or bonsai soil, potting soil, moss and twine, and of course a small plant.
See the how to here

This is a wonderful way to display books in your house, and it's perfect in little kids room, they have a harder time hurting themselves on this then on pointy corners on a shelf.

Like Marisa did on her blog

the full tutorial is here

This idea from apartment therapy is wonderful. It's easy, affordable and looks amazing.
See the tutorial here

And like you may have noticed already, wood done right is one of my favorite DIY.

DIY bookshelves and wall decals.

Bookshelves

I love the bridge bookshelf, and now I've found the DIY for it !
This is so simple but also it breaks up the normality of a bookshelf.
See how to make one here

Skateboards are often a beautiful substitute for shelves, skateboards often have beautiful graffiti on them and the sandpaper on top of them can keep books from slipping if you tilt the shelves like this, but here the wheels have been used to support the books in some places.

This one may be a bit pricey, you probably don't have many tables lying around that you have no use for, but if you got 2-3 it might work because you saw the tables in half and paint them the same color or different colors to add a bit of artistic flair to it.

Wall decals.

This one is from the same website, I love this idea because it gives you complete control on what you want to do, it's just contact paper cut down and glued on, you can read more here.
And it can a simple form like bricks or if you're handy and patient, something like this;

And you can always find pictures online and with a little photoshop skill, make an outlines of that image that you can print out and draw on the contact paper.

And if you have no such talent, then I recommend you check out Etsy.com, and search for wall decals(you have already did that if you press the link above), there are thousands of different wall stickers in all sizes and price ranges, you can definitely find something you like there.
Here are some of my favorites;

The cutest thing ever for a newborn.
buy it here

Here's another one, and if want this click here, and you can customize the name!

This beautiful Buddah only costs 20$.
Click here

This romantic sticker for a headboard is 21.99$ here

The wall decals go from around 20$ up to 80$, that's usually huge pieces.
Please let me know if you have any requests and thank you for coming.