Beneath the cover

 

The shelf includes my attempt at Kintsugi repair and photos of family.

This shelf was built by my father-in-law for my husband when he was a boy. Due to its short height and oversized fixed shelves, it rests in this everchanging corner of our library. It holds our family photos, philately and numismatic albums, and a strange mix of horror magazines and outsider comics. The overall appearance of these albums on the shelves is unsightly due to the content's mismatched sizes and colors. 

After installing the new shelves for the living room, I find their minimizing visual effect inspiring. To now have so many books behind solid doors below and glass fronted doors above, has made me seek to minimize some of the visual clutter in our very maximalist home. 

This overburdened library shelf unit adds to that visual clutter and I opted to rummage through my fabric supply until I found these two patterns. The Suzani print is one I found for $3 and has provided a seat cushion and a framed image to date. The burgundy red is left over from kitchen curtains I replaced several years ago. It wasn't wide enough so I used two pieces to cap the Suzani print which nearly drapes to the floor and wraps around the sides. Given that we access this shelf once a year at most, lifting the fabric won't prove a nuisance.  

My new Claude le Lorrain etching has found a place on this wall. It is to the right of a print I put in an inexpensive gilded frame.