A Little More Mess

Last weekend I took down the Christmas tree but I just wasn't ready to take down all the decor so I left some up in the name of "winter decor".  Snowflakes, garland and twinkle lights have all remained.  Some ornaments even stayed out because I didn't yet purchase more pine cones to replace them.  I don't really mind them though because they are gold, green and browns as opposed to traditional Christmas colors.

In the process of cleaning up I found myself frustrated with my decor in my living room.  My bookshelves seemed cluttered and my entertainment center felt haphazard so I went to work on restaging.  I saw on someone's Facebook page (I don't even remember who) this picture of them in front of their bookshelves which were adorable, books and little nick knack chotchkies everywhere and instead of looking like a mess it was very visually interesting. So I thought perhaps that my problem with my book shelves and entertainment center was not that it was too messy... it was that it wasn't messy enough.  LOL.  Crazy sounding I know.  But I went to work on them adding and repositioning things for a better visual interest and I feel very pleased with the results.

So the downside here is that I don't have before pictures but here are the after pictures.

I think my favorite thing now about this is that I got rid of the chotchkie pieces that I didn't like or that had little to no meaning to me and incorporated all the little things that have a story or great meaning to me (they were given my friends who were traveling or where made by friends or family).  So many pieces in these photos have a story and it makes me excited to see how the decor in our home will continue to develop over the years.