LOL If I am stuck in the past it's the past where bookcases actually held only books! :D Now some people don't even have books but use them to hold decorative objects only. I do know tho, that change can be difficult so be easy on yourself as it may take awhile to think of this room as having a different purpose. If you could move your DD's belongings to her new room and use items from other rooms in your home on the bookshelves it might be easier. I strongly advise using a fair number of books as IMO otherwise it's difficult to have a good looking set of shelves unless one has a collection of, for example, McCoy pottery. If there are too many disparate items and few books it can IMO tend to look cluttered. Also too many small items lead to a cluttered look. You can group a few related smaller items for more impact. To answer your question about the distance between shelves - IMO that depends on the size of items in the bookcase. Arranging items nicely on shelves is all about balance and one needs to take into consideration not only size/mass but also color and shape. I would arrange books of like subject together for ease of finding a book. I'd place them on the shelves with the largest books on or near the bottom shelves, then smaller books further up. Some books can be stacked horizontally. This stack can be used as a riser to hold a decorative object. Fill in spaces between the books with decorative items. It's more personal if you have things that relate to your interests/hobbies. Pictures, either photos of people or framed/unframed art, can be placed on easels or leaned. Plants also give texture and life. Play around with it for awhile and even take pictures to really see. Somehow a picture will show more how something looks than merely looking at it. The term 'merchandising' bookshelves has become a valid decorating term whether we like it or not. :D Used all over the 'net especially on blogs.

You don't just want a 'reduced price' you want to buy it at the lowest price they can give you. You have to guess what it cost the store wholesale, which includes knowing if it's imported from China or not! LOL You have to research what you would pay elsewhere for the same thing or something similar. I'd hesitate to pay cash on a large purchase because you have no protection if it proves faulty -- or if they gouge your wall when they deliver it. Getting a price comp is much easier on branded products. Years ago I priced a Sony video recorder online from a NYC 'wholesaler'. Then I went to a nearby store (Abt) and asked for the same price. They came very close to the online price, and I bought from them. (These days Abt sells online!) I am interested in paying a fair price, and I want to see local retailers stay in business. I detest the whole concept of Direct Buy, which is to USE local retailers to display goods FOR D.B. 'members'. Some years ago a friend who sold cars said the whole focus at the dealership is to 'move the product'. He made the same few hundred on any car, regardless of price. The manager needed to make *something*. The dealership had to make enough to cover their cost of financing the car from the manufacturer. As in real estate...no sale, no commission and nobody makes a dime. So, when the car salesman tells you he has to talk to his manager, he is actually arguing for you to get the car! Some years ago we wanted to buy a specific model car in red. It was the previous year's model. Our local dealer refused to bargain on price and said he couldn't find the car in red. I went online and found three cars, one in a dealership in northern Michigan. They gave me a good price and offered a manufacturer's rebate the local dealer had failed to mention. I went back to the local dealer, offering to buy the car from them at a reduced price. They refused. We bought the car from Michigan and paid a driver to go fetch it. When we brought the car in for its first servicing the local dealer was livid. They refused to service it. I called the manufacturer, who reminded the dealer they HAD to service the product. (If they had not, there was another dealer not far away and we would have taken it there.) I don't think it's wrong to shop and bargain if you intend to buy where you are looking. I do think it's mean to use a local retailer -- to copy down a model number and fabric number knowing you'll buy elsewhere.

Dear Beverly, I did see that option at Home Depot but was not in love with them and was hoping to find an alternative. Thank you though for searching for an option for me, I appreciate it big time. I found a couple on amazon but it's from a company that has absolutely no reviews so I was bit nervous to buy from them. I'm just so surprised how difficult it is to find flexible pendants that can already plug into my pre-existing track!!

I would dosomething straight and linear, cylindrical and white, like the basic 1970s style track lighting. The plainer it is, the more likely you are to just screen it out. These houses often get track lighting because of the structure, and somehow it seems less invasive than recessed cans in these tiny antique houses. Personally I much prefer portable lamping, and there were no ceiling lights in any of the living areas or bathroom of my 1830s house. But I lived in an apartment with large rooms and there was room for tables and lamps and sconces. There's really not room for tables and lamps in houses like these and the other thing is that the floors are often so uneven that floor lamps will look all askew. As anyone who is familiar with these houses knows, unless you live a very minimalist lifestyle, the house is going to appear cluttered to many people. It's the nature of the beast. You are seeing the Entire Footprint here. This is It. There is very little room for any sort of closed storage. There is very little room for typical furniture arrangements at all. We've gotten used to the suburban model with swathes of open flooring around the beds and high ceilings. The ceiling here is probably 9, but the ceiling on the top floor is probably 7 at the most. I looked at a house that had a half pyramidal roof instead of a gable and the ceilings around the two outside corners of the room were 5'6" or so. It throws everything off if you are used to visually scaling things at 8'. Artwork looks like it's hung too high, furniture looks massive, but it's the scale of the house that is "off" not the things in it.