Friday, August 8, 2014

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?

13 comments:

  1. How cool! Looks great! Never would have thought about not polishing the silver, but it works!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My mother would polish silver until her hands were raw. She would not approve of tarnished silver being put on display!

      Delete
  2. It's so much more interesting now! And using the silver is such a wonderful way to show off Virginia's treasures. (I never polish my silver either - lol)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good to know you don't polish your silver. I've seen designer's use silver that is so black it doesn't look like silver.

      Delete
  3. I do love my living room, BUT my bookshelves are my favorite. They just make me happy, I'm gazing at them now and smiling. Most shocking is that most of it is actually mine, and you brought it out and put it all together and made it look beautiful. THANK YOU!! You have an amazing talent. Who knew my turkey platter could be decorative!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, my dear friend. The bookshelves were so much fun to stage. You had lots of goodies that I could use. LOVE you silver stuff! Let me know when you tire of it :)

      Delete
  4. Great work! Staging bookshelves is not an easy endeavor! I love all the silver!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kristen! Actually, staging bookshelves is one of my favorites. I don't have any built-ins in my house and get so excited when I can play with someone's shelves.

      Delete
  5. They look so pretty! And I love the patina of tarnished silver- plus I hate polishing it so I say it's fine to display without cleaning first! :)

    ReplyDelete