southern fried gal

Do you find updating built-ins for fall challenging? I certainly do! However, the reward of snuggling up on the sofa with a mug of pumpkin spice latte and admiring the fruit of my labor makes it all worth while.

Here are a few tricks I use when refreshing the look of my built-ins:

1. Create Visual Flow. Make it a treat for the eyes to wonder from shelf to shelf, level to level and also to other focal points in the room. Here you can see the visual flow reading the shelves starting in the top left corner vs. starting the the lower left corner. In both ways the ending point brings the eye to the mantel.

 

2. Create a Color Story. In this look, I to used a piece of my Gail Pittman pottery to tie together the Razorback red, robin egg blue and greens. The repetition of browns throughout the vignettes allows the pops of color to both stand alone and blend together.

 

3. Add Seasonal Touches Without Compromising Personal Style. Does my color story scream fall? No! Now that my home has migrated more to the cool blues and greens, traditional fall colors provide more contrast than I prefer. So instead of the orange pumpkin and bright red and yellow leaves, I incorporated items from the brown color family such as leaves and acorns.

4. Make it personal. One of my favorite fall treasures is the Tree Artwork (1) BBC did at Mother’s Day Out a few years back. I love his unique interpretation of the project (even if the teacher did not). On the shelf below, an antique frame (2) from DH’s Pappy makes the perfect home for two leaves pressed on burlap. One of my favorite moments of BBC “reading a book” (3) was captured when he was only a few months old.

5. Give yourself a break. I usually have that one shelf that I don’t like (top right corner, shhhh). In the past it would bother me until I either drove myself crazy to get it right or I abandoned the project altogether. Both options robbed me of the joy of having a warm and inviting home – and snuggling up with that cup of pumpkin spice latte!

What are some of your tricks for getting those built-ins for fall  and  just right? Do you find yourself working too hard to make it perfect?

~Southern Fried Gal