Spring Cleaning the loft

This area is my 11 year old daughter's play room and a basic catch all for office-y type things. I used to have a desk up here for the computer until we sold it (I had before pics but can't seem to find them now). But here's what it's looked like pretty much since I sold the desk:

It's just a hot mess.A bunch of "stuff" thrown up there that needs to be organized. And I've been telling myself that I need to get more bookcases. I wanted a more library-esque feel with bookshelves all over the walls. Here are some examples of the whole bookshelf thing (I can't have built-ins but I can dream):

 

 I was holding off on buying bookcases because of one reason or another (okay, truth is -I'm cheap-don't tell anyone). But my one itsy-bitsy bookshelf has needed help. Here's what it looked like:

My books were overflowing into other areas and I needed more room for them. Plus, there was only a tiny bookshelf for my daughter's books which was too small for her stuff as well. 

Luckily, God loves me (Okay, okay, He loves you too but lets pretend he plays favorites and I was it the other day). I was in the right place, at the right time, to snag 2 free bookcases when my workplace got rid of a bunch of stuff. YEA ME!

So, I loaded them up and brought them home. And since I had to rearrange, organize and clean pretty much everything in the room I figured, "Hey, why not paint this room while you're at it?" So, I did (with the help of my daughter. Child labor = free!).

But first I had a lot of organizing to do so I tried as best I could to purge the loft and clean. Here's what it looked like in the middle of it all:

It's gotta get worse before it gets better. See all those books hanging out? They needed a place to live.

So, after organizing, painting, and lugging 2 bookcases upstairs, we ended up with this:

Okay, it's still got a long way to go. But the walls are painted and the bookshelves are there shelving their books like good little guys and that ugly curtain is down and everything is more organized. Here are the two (free!) bookshelves I got:

Look at how much space I have now! And I still have the other bookshelf too so I can use that as well. None of them match but I was thinking about scrapbook papering the backs to give them a more unified feel and to add a little more pretty to them (rather than the glaringly obvious fake cardboard backing). 

There is still more I think I could do to tweak the room (add curtains, accessorize a little better) but for now I'm just pleased to see so many bare surfaces after living with this:

It's nice to see this:

Here's a better look at the color:

Okay, that's a crappy look at the color. What can I say? My camera sucks. But the color is Dappled Gray (Walmart) which I had color matched in Behr's paint/primer in one. I know, it looks white. But it isn't. It's a very sublte blue/gray. 

It's been a long journey and I am very happy with the results. Before:

After:

But I will continue to decorate. And I'm more than thrilled at my freebies!