Staging Virginia's Bookshelves

Happy Friday, y'all.  Can't believe the summer is zooming by at warp speed.

Last time, we looked at the staging of Virginia's Family Room.  Her Family Room has wonderful bookshelves.  Virginia had some great accessories that were fun mix and match with a few things I had.  I kept the mid-section of encyclopedias. The books are beautifully bound, add elegance and ground the other sides.

Virginia comes from an old Southern family and has tons of beautiful silver pieces.  I raided her silver closet (yes, really--she has a closet for her silver) and picked out some to-die-for-pieces.  The silver was tarnished. I decided to let the patina stand alone.  The older ladies in our neighborhood turned their nose up at my audacity to display silver without polishing it.

Take a look.

Since the bookshelves are darker wood, the silver trays, bowl, candlestick and small cup really pop.

Sorry about the poor quality of the before picture.  It will give you an idea of how we started.

Virginia reports that she loves gazing at the shelves while she watches TV.  She says she never payed  attention to the bookshelves until after they were staged. Since the built-in shelves are part of the architecture of the house, it is important to draw attention to them as a selling feature.

If you look closely, you will see that the second shelf has two silver trays, a smaller tray mounted in front of a larger tray.  Displaying one-in-front-of-the-other gives dimension.  The top shelf holds a small silver bowl with two stone balls and a small pronged piece of driftwood. I stole a picture from the hallway for this shelf. Four small square mirrors were used to the back of a few shelves.  The reflection of the mirrors adds light to this fairly dark corner of the room.

I used a small galvanized bucket next to an ornate silver tray.  The juxtaposition of the silver with the tin works--industrial with elegant.

So my friends, must silver be polished before it is put on display?

Yea? or Nay?