Winter Vignettes: Foyer Bookcase

Sorry, the "winter" part of this is very misleading (nothing that you are about to see is seasonal at all). But the nerd in me likes the repetition of the title, kinda like a mini series:) It would probably be more aptly named "Mixed Metals, Green and Black".

This post-holiday styling of the bookcase started with the green vases and bottles and books that I already had up there for Christmas.  I love green so why not keep them here?

Then it was just a matter of filling in the couple of shelves that had actual holiday stuff on them. I started with the top of the bookcase, with this framed house portrait of the home I was born in and the two mercury glass hurricanes my Mom gave me last year for Christmas (from Ballard Designs). (PS. I cheated and repeated these elements from last year's winter bookcase.)

I was kinda digging the mixture of metal tones here, the brass from the frame and the silver from the vases. I also have silver in the picture frames and in the tray where Paul drops his keys/keeps his wallet. So I wanted to add a little more of the gold tones to help balance things out. I'm going to admit, I do not own a lot of brass...but then I remembered these really cool old duck bookends that I stole from my parent's house (I plan to use them in Maura's "big girl room", but for now they were just sitting around). I grabbed some of our big hard backs with black and gray and white covers to tie in with the black mat above and voila.

And even though these have that dull, aged finish to them, I think it still works with the shiny new brass. Sometimes things just come together, even when you started with no plan whatsoever:)