The list of to-dos for my apartment is endless. There is always something that I’m wanting to tweak, re-style or add to a wall. The empty space above the sink was seriously screaming at me every time I walked by. It was haunting me in my dreams at night. Okay, it wasn’t that serious but it was getting on my nerves. We needed shelves of some sort. I started stalking my local Home Depot and Lowes in my free time, trying to find the perfect set of shelves to fill the space. There were too many unanswered questions in my head every time I looked. What color? Raw wood or painted? Length? Width? Two or three? How tall above the tile should I hang them? Each question made it harder and harder for me to pull the trigger on the shelves I had been eyeing. Finals were approaching last semester and I desperately needed a new project to momentarily escape from my school design projects. I got off work early one night and went straight to Lowes to look at their selection again and just couldn’t get myself to buy the shelves. And then I remembered Ikea. Wow, I’m not sure why it took me so long to think of Ikea for the perfect shelves to fill that void above our sink. I drove home and started a google search and discovered the most perfect (and affordable) floating shelves. (Here) The length and color was perfect. Done, sold. I rushed there after church the next day to buy and hang them. 

​My roommate wasn’t home and being the annoyingly impatient and stubbornly independent person that I am, I spent two hours trying to hang them myself. I ignored the cute drawn characters on the instructions and turned into the sad man standing next the pile of shelves on the floor (as shown above). I somehow thought I could sit in the sink and hold the level and the shelf at the same time. It was awful. I gave up and left for work. Luckily my roommate, Aremae,  was home when I got back and she was more than happy to help hang them on a Sunday night at midnight. Score. 

The late night installation

(After)

They’re perfect and make our very old kitchen, with the strangest color palette look young again. We live in a quaint Spanish style four-plex apartment building that was built in 1929 and the kitchen looks appropriate to the era. I’ve researched 1930’s kitchen designs and the tile and cabinets look similar to what I’ve found online. The fact that it’s all original makes my heart so happy. I love old buildings, mainly because the older it is, the more character it has. For our old apartment the character is found in the high ceilings, wood floors, plaster walls, unique kitchen tiles and our Spanish style fireplace. 

Styling the shelves was my favorite part. If you’re having any trouble styling shelves, here are some tips.
 

1. Try to keep the overall space full, but not too crowded. You want shelves to look balanced appropriately and not cluttered.
2. Mess around with stacking books horizontally and vertically.
3. Layer items to add interest and depth.
4. Keep vignettes in numbers of threes.
5. Add greenery that hangs.
6. Find jars to fill with items that go with the overall theme. Since these shelves are in the kitchen, I filled a jar with wine corks.

 
Overall, just have fun with it. There really is no right or wrong way to style shelves. It’s all about the edit and finding the right composition. Most of the items I used for our shelves were already found around our apartment and I’m sure you already have the perfect items you need for the shelves you want to style. 

Thanks so much for checking out my blog.  
xoxo 
Jill 

The kitchen in my apartment has been an after thought for as long as I've lived here. I love decorating and rearranging the living room, but I haven't spent much time doing anything to the kitchen. It's quite drab to be honest. Most people would agree that it's nothing special and usually really dark. BUT, I would like to add that it has an awesome brick wall behind our cute retro oven, which has so much character all on its own. I was talking with my roommate about the dilemma and we both agreed that it needs some love. That conversation sparked the idea of using this wonderful newspaper cover as an art piece. Once the idea was formed, I had all the materials in my apartment and it only took about 15 minutes to execute it! I took photos of the steps and of the final product. It's super simple and adds some life to my life-less and dark kitchen! I hope you enjoy this DIY and try your own spin on it. I have more plans for this little kitchen in our apartment so stay tuned to see what's next. 

MATERIALS: 
​​Newspaper cover
Foam core
Ruler
Glue or tape
xacto knife
Hanger

Step 1: The first thing I did was cut the cover of the Newspaper off, making sure to use an xacto knife and a ruler to make the cut straight and clean. 
Step 2: I traced the Newspaper cover onto the foam core to get the correct sizing.
Step 3: I then cut the foam core using my xacto knife and ruler again and decided to use glue to attach the Newspaper cover to the foam core. 
Once those three steps were done, I attached the hanger and drilled a hole in the wall and TA-DA I had a new art piece in my kitchen. So easy and so cute!

I hope you all try this fun and easy DIY! Keep your eye out for rad newspaper covers and make them into your own art pieces. Thanks for reading! 

xoxo,
​Jill