Shelfie

In a lot of ways, you dress a house like you dress yourself.  You accentuate the positive and downplay the negative. The most expensive dress on the rack can look like a bowl of steaming hot hell if it doesn't fit right, or the color makes you look like a dead carp. The same goes for  houses, and rooms, and in this case fireplaces.

By itself  this fireplace is OK. And believe it or not, the shelves weren't cheap. But when they got together instead of enhancing each others assets, they enhanced all of the many things that are not appealing to the eye about each other. Color, scale, texture, shape? Messy. All of it. 

The end result?

 Dead Carp. 

Not exactly what we were aiming for.  Also not what our clients had in mind, I'm sure.  Did we panic? Maybe just a little. Did we cuss? Yes. Yes we did. A lot. But then it was time to get busy making another plan. One quick trip to Habitat For Humanity later we we're back in business.

Kitchen cabinets. Upper kitchen cabinets. Think of them as high heels. Think of them as high heels you found at Nordstrom's Semi -Annual Sale at 75% off.  

Oh Happy Day!

It's a balancing act. By raising the shelf 

you raise the eye, accenting the ceiling height and balancing the visual weight of the fireplace.

Translation: That's more like it! 

A little trim 

and some love from my trusty assistant Chris and she is looking pretty legit.

Finally a painted finish to make it all look cohesive.  The shelves were laminate, so we decided to paint the lower cabinet and leave the shelves as is. 

The cabinets got new stained tops and the shelves were anchored to the wall, then it was time to accessorize.  

AKA: The fun part.

Here is the money shot. The Kim Kardashian moment..

 Our first shelfie.