5718: The Bookcase Part 2

If you missed the first post, cleverly titled: The Bookcase Part 1 you might want to read that first before reading this post. :)

So, we had some red objects and a few silver ones in the bookcase with blue backs. I liked it, but I showed my mom and she thought we needed a little more variation in color. Yellow seemed like the obvious go-to, because it was the accent color being used in the kitchen with the blue walls.

I wasn't really sure what the yellow was going to be until I stumbled across a craigslist posting that caught my eye. I'm not even really sure what section I was looking in, or how I saw it, but I found a man on craigslist selling over 300 National Geographic Magazines for $60 (plus a nice bookcase to go with). The oldest magazine was from 1956, and include almost every issue from 1960-2003. I did a quick google/ebay search and found that half as many National Geographics from the same period were selling for $300+ on ebay. Plus, I love history very much, and I love looking through National Geographics very much, so if it ended up not working out in the bookcase, I figured they would not go to waste.

I was a little nervous, because it was my first craigslist purchase and the man asked to meet in the parking lot of a grocery store in Lawrence by a flag pole and to look for his van...oh, and he said he didn't own a cell phone. So, naturally I call my mom and ask if she will go with me, and she was awesome and said yes. So, we both show up at the flag pole and find our van. Turns out, it was an incredibly nice man who had separated out the magazines into smaller boxes so they would be easier to carry. He even gave me a whole box of Smithsonian magazines for free. All in all, it was a great experience, but I'm still glad I had my mom there with me :)

I took them back to Tony's house and started going through them, and was in love. I couldn't stop looking at all of the old advertisements and articles. It was all so fascinating.

Eventually I found the issue form March 1987 (the month/year I was born) and lots of other neat issues like right after we landed on the moon.

Love that they had the floral border in the 60's and 70's

Landing on the Moon

Hologram Edition from 1989 I believe

The famous piercing eyes issue.

Issue from the month I was born.

My oldest issue, February 1956

So, then it was just a matter of putting them in the bookcase in a way that wasn't too contrived, and that added something to the room. Which was much more difficult than it sounds. Eventually, I came up with this:

This set up is definitely not permanent. It seems a little contrived, and the primary colors thing is a little bit in your face. I like it, I think I love it, but I'm just not sure. Tony likes it, which is the most important thing. The only thing that bugs me is when people assume we went red blue and yellow because they are KU colors. That honestly wasn't the intention at all. And this blue is definitely not PMS293 KU blue (at least not in person). Working with that color all day, I'm not sure I could look at it all night too :) However, I guess I understand where people get that idea (even the Crate and Barrel movers immediately said, Oh I get it, KU color scheme)...so I should just let it go and move on. It's not like it's a bad thing.

The set up isn't permanent, who knows, I'm sure it will all move around before too long and once Tony starts getting actual objects in the house, it will hopefully feel less placed and more personal. I didn't purchase any object that didn't have a personal connection or meaning to one of us, but it's always nice to have actual personal objects as well. Here are a few details from the bookcase:

p.s. ignore all of the empty picture frames with random models in them. Those will be filled at some point...hopefully.