Swing and a Miss

Hey folks- thanks for being patient while I take a much needed break from home improvement to spend more time snuggling with my boys.  In truth it hasn't been all snuggles though, and I have spent a bunch of nap times catching up on projects that have been taking the back burner for awhile.  The problem is, they are not very interesting projects: fixing 3 way light switches, cleaning out the cat door storage closet, organizing and trashing our paint, and prepping the yard for winter.  There was one recent project though that might sizzle your bacon.

I absolutely LOVE how Boden's nursery turned out.   I mean, if I liked it before he was born, I'm absolutely giddy about it now.  That's because I've been spending a lot of time in there lately, and the calming peace of the room literally transforms my mood whenever I'm in there. At 3AM, instead of being a grumpy zombie, I'm actually cuddled up with him on the daybed, taking a few deep breaths and appreciating everything we have, and all the hard work we've done to get here. 

While this side of the Nursery looks finished though, the other side is a bit bare...

 I have been looking for the perfect growth chart to fit in between the closet and entry door, but still no dice. Bo has, however, recently received lots of beautiful new books from our incredibly generous and thoughtful friends, so I thought this might be a great place to display them.  I mean, why not? I still have these leftover book ledges that my dad made.

 They were leftover from the ones I hung in the Playroom, remember?

 

First things first,  I need to fix my old mistake.  Back in the Bungalow, I had used one of these ledges in Ryder's baby room, and to refinish it white from the original stain golden oak, instead of doing it right and sanding, priming and painting, I just slapped on a coat of white paint.  DIY is a learn as you go process my friends, and I learned that over time, without primer, your pretty white paint gets stained from the poly below, creating a yellow mess.  Exhibit A:

My non-primed shelf is the one on the bottom.  You knew that though, didn't you?

 I also had to cut these two different sized shelves down just a bit to fit the space. Instead of two, I cut them down to three, and painted the cut edges.  Here's another look at that yellow mistake.  See?  We're not all perfect people.

Since I cut down these ledges, I needed to add a few more hanging holes to the back of them so the could hang  evenly.  For that I needed this beast:

 

That big guy is my Dad's router.  Admittedly, for someone that builds furniture I'm not nearly as comfortable with a router as I should be.  Probably because I don't have one of my own (Christmas gift hint Hubs), and I haven't had a lot of time to practice with one.  Lucky for me drilling in this keyhole was pretty easy.

I hate, HATE hanging things with the hidden keyholes though.  If you are off by just an 1/8" inch any way, your whole piece is off.  So to hang them I cut paper bags to the shape of my shelves, and marked where the keyholes were in each one. Once the templates were up on the wall centered, level and the appropriate distance apart, I could easily drill my holes for the mounting right through the template.

And here's the final result:

So why the swing and a miss title of this post?  Because to be honest, I hate it.  I mean, on its own it's fine, but in the context of the full room,  the random and colorful books look busy and don't fit the vibe of the room at all.  Here's the view from my usual spot on the daybed:

It's just not working for me, but I'll leave it for now until I find a better solution. Perhaps I'll keep looking for the perfect growth chart...  What do you guys think?  Would you keep it or bag it?  I don't think it's a total loss, I can always use these ledges again down the road, I'm just not sure they are right for the room right now.  Tell me what you think, don't worry about hurting my feelings, I can take it!