Jason and I had been talking for some time about a bigger shelving unit or built-in shelving in our living room to make better use of the large wall space. (Tons of ideas on his Shelving Units Pinterest board here.) After looking at a lot of pre-made and vintage options, as well as contacting a subcontractor, Jason ultimately decided to tackle this project himself. In one of my nesting moods, I started emptying everything off of the bookshelf (it’s from IKEA, many years ago, called ENETRI) and made room for it in the den/playroom. I was craving more storage for toys in the play area.
Before:
After:
I’m really happy with how it turned out. We still need to do some arranging on the living room shelves and we need a boat load of bookends so all our books aren’t stacked horizontally.
People often ask us how we keep our living room so clean. Here’s the answer: the toys all stay in the playroom and in the kids’ rooms. Organization is my jam. Every bin in the playroom has a specific purpose and I purge and rotate toys fairly often. We use the living room for sitting, resting, reading and occasionally watching TV. It’s mostly an adult room. I spend the most time here in the morning for an hour before the kids wake up for my quiet time and during their afternoon naps when I need to put my feet up for a few minutes.
Posted by mahlbrandt 
myMCMlife.com 