Book Storage

Let’s face it – it’s almost impossible to keep your house clean when you have a little one.  Lucy almost immediately goes to her toy box and throws everything out of it after I just had put it away.  I want to think I’m a clean person but unfortunately, I’m not.  I would say I’m more organized than clean! 😉  I get kind of giddy when it comes to organizing an area or creating some type of storage.

Lucy (my almost 2-year-old) loves books!  I love that she loves books too!  She has about a million of them and they are always scattered around the house.  I wanted to find something where I could store books in our living room where we tend to play a lot.

A month or so ago I was home and basically went around my mom’s house with her and picked out things I wanted that she didn’t have a need for any more.  She had an old magazine holder and I thought this would be perfect for book storage in our living room.

I started with cleaning it out as it had been sitting in my parent’s garage for quite some time.  I didn’t bother with sanding as it already had a “rough” surface to it.  I used Valspar Spray Paint (Primer & Paint in one) in Indigo Streamer.  Might be my favorite blue ever!  I also used it on some of the Wooden Laser Cut Frames in Lucy’s Playroom.

I gave it 2 solid coats of spray paint and after it was dry I began the process of stenciling the word BOOKS onto the front of the holder.  , unfortunately,y used too large of a sponge brush and it got outside of the stencil.  I touched up the areas with some sample paint I had of the color and it worked great to fix my mistakes.

It is very important when stenciling to get most of the paint off of the brush before painting it onto your object because it can leak very easily.  Once it was all dry it was then ready to be filled with some of Lucy’s favorite books.  It’s a great way to stay organized in our living room.  I really like making toys and such more beautiful and not so “kid” looking.  We have to live here too, right!?

This isn’t the only place in our home where we store books.  Lucy also has some really great bookshelves in her bedroom that I made from spice racks from IKEA.  What are some ways that you have created storage for books or toys in your home?