Photo Ledges and Never Ending Love for Martha

It was Michael's birthday this last weekend. He loves books more than just about anything (evidence), so we squeezed in a few stops to his favorite antique and used books stores as part of his b-day celebration.
I know. We're party animals, what can I say?
While he was browsing the smarty pants sections, I found some cool, new-to-me art and design books. (I'm excited to share some of them with you in a couple of Book Club posts!) One of my favorite finds was a set of three books from Martha Stewart. They were published in the 90s (almost 20 years ago!!), but they feel incredibly fresh to me. I had to scan in this page to share with you. Girlfriend was DIYing picture ledges while I was still in high school.

I've been wanting to make a similar photo ledge wall in our house. We've been here for a few years now, and I'm ready to switch some things up a little, including taking down the gallery wall. I love having a place to share my favorite art finds, but I'm craving something more personal in here. I would love to print out and frame more family photos - mostly just candid shots.

We did something like this in my mom's formal living room. We printed out old wedding portraits of our family members and baby pictures of the grandkids. And then we used two rows of two IKEA picture ledges and just caulked the seam in the middle.

I'd love to figure out a great low bookshelf or long wall-mounted credenza for underneath the ledges that I'm hoping to make for my living room. I moved the formerly red (also formerly white) and now pale mint credenza up to the studio, and I am missing having a big anchor piece in the room. I'll have to figure something out there. I also bought a new rug that arrives this week and I'm going to paint our coffee table and do a few other quick-fixes. I'm most excited about this picture ledge project though! These are a few of my inspiration images:

Can you even believe that Martha image though? There are so many goodies in that book series that I'd never seen before!