Bookshelves

Not just a place for books, but a home for one's personality

A few months back I promised to keep you updated on the progress of my studio renovation and this week was new shelf week.

It doesn’t sound all that exciting, does it? But I was surprisingly thrilled about the arrival of some new shelves destined to go in my new studio. I moved my desk up here over six weeks ago after the carpet was fitted and bought myself a new (well, refurbished) Herman Miller chair to please my nearly 40-year old back. I moved my work-related stuff up here but other than the desk, which is actually an old table, there was no furniture. That meant that none of the stuff could really be organised.

The problem with being an interior designer is that I am hyper aware of all the beautiful, often expensive furniture that is out there. Unfortunately, being an interior designer also means I can’t really afford most of this stuff and so I regularly find myself scouring second hand shops, sales, eBay etc. until I find what I want. This is all fine, except it can take a really long time to find these things and in the interim, my stuff is on the floor piled up. Comme ça:

And so I decided enough was enough and I was finally going to order some shelves so that some of the stuff, at least, could be organised. I’d been looking all over the place for the perfect bookshelves to no avail. When I say perfect, I mean not made of flimsy particleboard or laminate but also under £500 and ideally quite a bit under. I’d looked in my usual second-hand haunts but hadn’t found anything the right size.

Early one morning last week, I was drinking my tea and eating marmite on toast when I noticed an advert in a magazine by the Futon company with a photo of some ladder shelves.

When I looked them up, they turned out to be on sale at just £179 and were made from (mostly) solid oak. I ordered them.

Assembling them took quite a bit longer than the suggested 25 minutes, but I got there in the end without having to call in my husband to help, and they haven’t collapsed. Yet.

When I finally got to the good part, I realised that filling shelves isn’t just filling shelves, it’s a curation of your belongings.

The main reason for getting the shelves was to store some of my books: a mix of interior design books that I refer to regularly, non-fiction that I’ve read but want to have close by (think Playing Big by Tara Mohr, The Success Myth by Emma Gannon) and fiction some read, some TBR. I had some baskets to go on them at the bottom so that I could store smaller items neatly such as notebooks, stationery and other bits and bobs. Then at the top I wanted to add some decorative and more personal items.

I’m not into colour coding my books. They do look fun organised like that, but I want to be able to find what I need easily so I prefer to group them by type and then possibly alphabetically if they are numerous. So far I have a shelf for interior design books and a shelf for fiction and non-fiction¹. I’ve purposely left space so that I can add to both collections.

You might remember a year or so ago when I wrote about a plate decorating workshop at a ceramics studio that turned out to be so much more than that - Embrace experience. It’s what makes you interesting. We were encouraged to decorate our plates in a Bauhaus style. I’d been planning to put mine up in my studio and actually the top of this new ladder shelf is the perfect spot for it. Now I can see the plate from my desk and remember that evening and how I learned to be proud of everything I’ve done in my life thus far. It’s not just a painted plate to me.

Whilst I was sorting through the piles and boxes of stuff up here, I came across a few items that had come from my late Grandma. Amongst the things was a small wooden carved elephant with broken tusks. I don’t remember much about it other than I must have taken it from my Grandma’s house when it was being cleared out. When I pulled it out of the bag the other day, I was mesmerised by it; the carvings are so intricate and the broken tusks give away its age. The tusk stubs look like they may have once been ivory before they mostly snapped off - a sobering thought for those poor elephants. I’m seeing my mum in the next few days and I think she may know more about the elephant and its origins. It will stay on my shelf and remind me of my Grandma.

The other half of this room is still a dumping ground because the next item on the furniture shopping list is a sideboard which will house all of my samples as well as my sewing machine and other larger items I don’t want on display on the shelves.

It’s taking a while to pull this room together, mainly because I just don’t have the cash to go out and buy everything in one go these days, but that’s ok. Honestly, I find that I appreciate everything I have much more this way.

What is most important to me is having a space to create in. I spend a lot of my time up here working and it is such a lovely room. The light is wonderful and now that I have a blind I can make it feel nice and cosy when it’s dark.

Eventually, I’d like to get a snuggly arm chair to go in the corner by the radiator. Something I can curl up in and read a book, ideally.

Until I’ve saved enough pennies for that, I will enjoy what I do have and be grateful that I am able to do what I do.

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Other news from this week…

I bought home my first finished piece of pottery from my class. It’s somewhat wonky but I love it and can’t believe I made it with my own hands. Three more bowls are going into the kiln this week so there should be some more ceramic creations to share soon.

On Wednesday I went to the dentist for a hygienist appointment. The first in a few years² and I was immediately reminded as to why I hadn’t been for a few years. The hygienist didn’t seem to have a good word to say about anything and my teeth took a serious battering from her (physically and emotionally). I came away with an awful headache and was £75 poorer. The telling off did inspire me to buy a new electric toothbrush, but I didn’t book the follow up appointment she scoldingly insisted I needed in the next month. Oh well.

In case you missed it, I recorded the workshop I ran last weekend on adding audio to Substack posts and shared it here. Thanks to all who attended, I really enjoyed hosting this. I wasn’t going to record a voiceover for this piece, but in the end I did. Let me know in the comments if you listen rather than read!

Create Ensemble is back on Monday 21st October, 7-8pm (UK time). More info and the Zoom link coming soon.

How has your week been? Let’s chat in the comments.

1. This is not the extent of my book collection; there are many more shelves in other parts of the house, but these are the ones I want close to me when I’m working up here.

2. First hygienist appointment in a few years. I do go to the dentist every six months!