A Year And A Half To Make Up My Mind - Decorating An Empty TV Space

So it's officially taken me a year and a half to figure what to do with these middle shelves-- but I did it.

It's funny, for my entire life, I've always been the type to move somewhere and want and need to decorate/organize right away. My anxiety would take over otherwise. But with this house (other than the initial paint and clean up to move in) I've taken a much slower approach. I mean, a lot of it was out of necessity--- when you're moving from a 600 sq ft space to a three bedroom home-- it's going to take a lot of stuff to fill that home--- and I didn't need stuff nor have the money for it. So it's been a slow, but good process building this home.
And even for the stuff that I could have done right away, like these middle shelves for instance--- well, I didn't want to rush or force it. Yes there were things placed inside, but nothing nailed, painted or framed. It's been patiently waiting for the right thing to fill it.
Instathis offered us a print a month or two ago. We looked around our space and Alex and I decided, this could finally be the thing that fills our (invisible tv) space. I've wanted a large print of Marlowe for a while now, but I don't know, I've been weird about portraits lately--- but this one felt right. What made it better than other ideas we discussed was that it was actually printed on wood. I love the brighter patterns in my home (hello, of course!), but I loved how this print asked for attention with woodgrain details, without fighting the other colors in our space. And I know I'm biased (cause this is my favorite picture of all time), but I feel like the photo we chose is perfect. It's just the right amount of cool to not feel like we've gone obsessive parent overboard with a giant photo of our kid instead of a tv. I hope so anyway ;) haha.

I didn't think I could like this living room anymore than I already did, but we've been making little and big changes in this living room of ours--- and I do like it more each day. We've moved a few things around on the shelves too--- cleaned it up, detailed it, tightened it up, whatever. But even moving a few things around feels like it makes a big difference. And Actually, as I type, Alex is putting together a piece of furniture for this space (at midnight of course). It's nice to have a few decorative, maybe slightly ocd eyes on this space. I can't wait to share more of the changes as they happen, but for now, I wanted to share these shelves and our Marlowe print, cause I've been staring at them a bit too much lately with all this rain--- but they've been making me smile.
You can see more photos of our before-shelves in our living room tour.
Check out more from InstaThis too---they're seriously a great company, one of the nicest I've worked with. I'm a sucker for growing companies with great personalities. If you're not into the wood look they also offer aluminum prints and coasters too! Oh, and you can upload photos straight from instagram, which we all know is always a convenient plus ;)
Happy monday, friends!
ps. Thanks for all your nice comments and messages on friday's post. Some seriously made me tear up with emotion.