Bookcase Display

As I was going through blog posts the other day, I came across a Better After post about sprucing up cheap laminate bookcases.  The part that inspired me though, was the staging of one of the finished bookcases.  The shape of the bookcase is like the ones we have in our dining room.  I have the hardest time staging them without a cluttered feel.

Here is the inspiration:

I like the clean stacked look, and I have my parents’ wedding china that I have always struggled finding a way to display in a way that it can still be used.  The amount here is not overwhelming and the flow from item to item is in a nice stair-step, layered pattern.

Before, I had my old yearbooks laid horizontally in two stacks with a couple of things on top, a tall blue vase, my salt rock lamp, and my parents’ wedding china tea set.  Not terribly dining room themed.

I moved out the blue vase, year books, and salt lamp.  For an airy, stacked look, I placed some of the china on a large crystal cake stand that I scored at Goodwill recently.  I added the teacup saucers so that I could stack them neatly on the bottom shelf with one of our wedding pictures.  On the top shelf, I included a hurricane filled with wine corks, my West Elm squirrel, and my crystal punch bowl to balance the shelf visually and to bounce light around.  The large mirror and frame stayed in the back of the bookcase to lighten the dark color of the cabinet.

I realized I haven’t posted about it, but I moved the bookcases from the window wall to the wall opposite the foyer a while back.  I thought it gave a better flow around the table and doesn’t press in on the drapes anymore. 

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