88 A Little Credenza Styling Challenge

One of the 846 reasons why I love this blog is because it challenges me in new ways.  Today, I was challenged to participate in a styling challenge.  Yep.  Me.  Um... yikes.

I have always enjoyed experimenting with textures, colors and finishes around our home.  But one area I have always wanted to grow my skills in is styling.  And not for the blog or for pretty photos, but to ultimately enhance our personal spaces.  My problem is that my organizing brain looks at all of my accessories as if they are clutter.  I also have symmetrical disorder.  I typically just default to stacks of books and magazines and call it a day.

So when my beautiful friend, Michaela, asked me to join in on a little bookend styling challenge with Lulu & Georgia, I got giddy excited to step out of my comfort zone.  The bookends I selected to style with were these Mustang bookends.

Here was the space I was going to focus my attention on.

Back in February, we gave gave this little entry a simplified facelift, but it has been begging for more each day since then.  We walk by and glance at this area of our home about 50 times per day.  We use the cabinets to store our boy's school and winter gear, but the top is fair game for mom and dad.  It was the perfect spot for me to finally focus some efforts and use this styling challenge to finally make some decisions.

I am no expert so I can't offer up any styling "tips" today, but I can share what I did to figure this spot out for us:

• I cleared the top of the credenza and gave it a blank slate
• I created a small pile of items that we wanted to be sure to include.  Two things that were important to me were a decorative box to hold my keys and a dish to hold my favorite family Instagram prints.  Oh!  And the bookends of course!
• I gathered all of my favorite home accessories and made a giant pile to select from.  That included dishes, frames, trays, vases, plants, decorative objects and books.
• I looked at a few inspirational "styling" photos that I had pinned online for ideas.  And then I tried to create rules and analyze them and got frustrated and decided it really all relied on my gut for this one.

Here is where I eventually landed.

We had earlier stole the lamp from this spot, to spray paint and use in our bedroom.  I took the lamp back temporarily to see how it would work here now that it is a brilliantly bold blue.  I love the pop of color, so now I know that I need to find an awesome colorful lamp to invest in for this space.

Next to the lamp I placed a pretty bowl, which is filled with printed Instagram photos of our family memories.  I love stopping and sifting through them at random times in my day.

The bookends were a must for this "challenge", and knowing how visually heavy a stack of books is, I wanted them to rule the center of the credenza.  I could have just left the bookends alone, and placed them on either side of the books, but I wanted it to be a little more interesting.  Not to mention, there was already a lot of white going on, so I felt the need to break it up a bit.  The bases of the bookends received a little gold leaf, and I played with how the books were stacked and arranged.

For the final end of the cabinet, it was time to balance out the weight of the tall lamp on the other side.  I used a large planter filled with succulents, paired with a frame I spray painted and a small decorative box for my keys.

I didn't pay too much attention to colors and finishes, although, I do like they all play nicely together.  I did have to bring in my small touches of pink within the framed art {cut from my Silhouette} and within a few of the book spines. 

The white cabinets received some gold love with some of my favorite pulls {which I also used in my studio and our recent bathroom update}, and some corner brackets {which I also used in our other bathroom update}.

I also popped one of our little stools at the end for the little guys to sit on while they put on their shoes.

And one last look at the newly styled entry area.

I now really really love to walk through this happy spot of our home.  It feels so much more finished, and pretty.

Although in this post, you would think that this was whipped up in just minutes, and for a interior pro, it probably could be {or done even better}.  But nope.  It looks so simple and understated and I seriously worked on this on and off all day.  I would walk by, move the books.  Stand back, swap things out.  Take time away and revisit.  Use the planter, remove the planter, use the planter again.  Fill and layer frames, remove the frames.  And the hardware was a last minute after thought because no matter what, it didn't feel finished.  I followed no rules, just went with what my eyes and gut liked.  And in the end, I didn't just like it, I loved it.

OK, so I gotta know.  Do you have styling secrets?  Anything that works for you every time?  Or "go to" accessories that you adore?  Where do you find your styling ideas and inspiration?  

A special thank you so Lulu & Georgia for providing me with the beautiful bookends and inviting me to participate in this styling challenge along with other fabulous bloggers: Simplified Bee, The Inspired Room, A Piece of Toast and Mackenzie Horan. 

IHeart Organizing readers can receive FREE SHIPPING on Lulu & Georgia orders with code BOOKWORM through Thursday, November 8th.