House Tour: A New Bookshelf for our Urban Cottage Living Room
Our Living Room has changed so many times I can’t even keep track in the 15 months we’ve lived in our house. Part of the reason for that is that we were working with what we had from our old house, not wanting to buy anything new until we had an idea of how we used the room. Shortly after Peter was born, I moved the room around to accommodate a bookshelf next to the sofa, and I really liked having storage and height in the room. But, the bookshelf that we bought for our old office didn’t really fit our current style. I have always called our style “urban cottage”, and at least for us, that translates to slipcovered, easy-care upholstered furniture, a mix of wood, painted wood and metal and an airy vibe with the occasional pop of color. I think if I lived by the ocean, I’d embrace coastal with my whole heart, but since I’m in land-locked Colorado, a little urban cottagey-farmhouse works best.
Since moving the bookshelf into the living room, I’ve been on the hunt for a piece that would fit our style better, but still give us the storage and eye-catching height that the room needed. And I found it in the form of this awesome, library-style bookshelf from Sauder. As soon as I saw Sauder’s Barrister Lane collection, I knew it was exactly what I had in mind. And after debating between the tall bookcase and the shorter, wider bookcase, both in the salt oak finish, I finally decided on the shorter one.
I placed my order, and literally within an hour received a notice that it had shipped. B couldn’t wait to put it together, and I kind of dragged my feet on it assuming it would be a process. But it was not bad at all – probably took us about an hour, and that was with these two little “helpers” around on a Saturday morning:
They were so excited to help daddy “build”. Thomas ran to the basement and fetched two toy hammers from his toy workbench. Should you want to watch my children “building”, I included a video for you. They are good in the entertainment department, that’s for sure:
As soon as we opened the box, I said to B, “Oh, I love this color. This is the color I wish our floors were.” That was the first B had heard of me wanting to change our floor color. Don’t worry babe, I’ve got the bookshelf now. That should buy us a few years on the floor refinishing. B did the majority of the assembly, and he was really impressed with the directions and ease of putting everything together. B likes to give me a hard time for always buying furniture that needs assembly, and he gave this bookcase – which had a lot of parts – a thumbs up in terms of ease of use compared to other things we’ve put together.
This piece is big, but it’s very much our style. And everyone who’s been over in the few weeks we’ve had it in it’s new spot in our living room has commented on how much they love it – from the details in the moulding to the library style brackets, it’s a statement piece and we’ve had many friends ask where we got it, and when we tell them that this solid piece of furniture cost under $200, they’re shocked. It’s definitely a piece we’ll use in our home for many years to come, and one that I can use in many different parts of our house – because you all know I like to change things around!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sauder. The opinions and text are all mine.
