Bookshelf redo

Getting organized and decorating with what you got has me looking all over the house for small upgrades I can make. Like this bookcase in my office. It's from Pier One. I think I probably bought it 8 or so years ago. I'm honestly not ever sure what I thought was so great about it, unless I had a gift card to burn. I'm really hoping that was it because it's small, has red detailing, and a bit too open for my taste. But this is about working with what you have. So looking over the jumbled state of it, I decided some changes needed to happen. 

First, all those French books and flash cards needed to come off. Although I aspire to practice my French daily, I don't, and I need to be realistic about the space those books were hogging up. Au revoir! Down to the basement they went {to hang with all the other books we have no place for}. Next up, removing Vincent's books from the bottom shelves and putting them on his own new bookcases. Then to freshen up those horrible looking Bankers Box magazine boxes, I perused my selection of scrapbook paper. It doesn't go fantastically well or what I would have selected if I were actually shopping, but it works better than the faux wood print any day, hands down. Next I added some storage boxes I had on hand but were hiding downstairs. I have a couple more too that I'm going to use elsewhere. No sense in storing them downstairs when storage that looks like that is supposed to be seen! After pairing down and organizing my magazine collection, it doesn't look half bad. These aren't really shelves meant to be decorative. Being in the magazine industry and a magazine lover, I definitely need to use these shelves for functionally and not decoratively. It's way more streamlined now. Mmm. Just looking at it makes me happy!