Visual Shelving

      So I saw this pin on Pinterest and thought it was a great idea. (below is a pic of the pin, click here to follow the pin to the site)

 

      I wanted some shelving in my living room area for some books for the kiddos. However, standard shelving, where all you see are the spines of the book, don't seem to entice the kiddos that much. Especially thin books that all you see is a color because the spine is too small to write the title on. Plus my kiddos are currently too young to read, so even spines with titles offer little to no excitement.

      They really need to see the front of the book to get a feel for if they want to read it. (we have a standard, "spine view" type shelf in the playroom, and they rarely look at those books.) I wanted shelving that would allow a front view of a variety of books to be seen all at once, so the kiddos could pick some at their leisure to look through themselves or bring to mommy to read to them. This shelving was it. I installed this shelving at their level, so it's always right in sight, and most importantly within reach and visually appealing to lure them in for a closer look. I change the books out regularly so that they don't get bored of the same ones all the time, and in turn end up not looking at books at all.  I did go through some trial and error when building and picking my shelving,which i will get to later.

      I also wanted this shelving to display photo albums and scrapbooks for both company, and the kiddos to be able to go through anytime they wanted to. We don't have a coffee table for albums to sit upon or under, and I hated that they were up in my room, or in a box, never being looked through. What was the point of making the albums/scrapbooks if they never got looked at? Now they are displayed, and easily gotten to.

(for the 'how to' and my trial and errors, click the 'read more' button below)