Floating Shelves in the Living Room

We have four fireplaces in the new house. Yes people, {FOUR} fireplaces. Here's a view standing in our living room peeking into the dining room...

No, they're not glamorous...none of them have mantles {yet}, but they are the original coal burning ones from 1910 when the house was built. So. Much. Character. So much to love. 

In the living room, the plan is much more about layering textures than the bold color look. I'm all about neutral walls, the roughness of the original brick and the tonal loveliness of the original pine floors. I'll most likely mix in a layered seagrass rug along with patinaed brass accents and seeded glass lamps, etc.

Instead of a heavy-looking total built-in around the fireplace, we've opted for the airiness of floating shelves...Something like this is the look I'm after...

I think we'll end up adding extra molding around the fronts for a thicker look and certainly run them all the way to the tip top of our 10' ceiling! I'm already dreaming about how to style them up!

Tell me- have you ever built floating shelves before? Any tried and true tutorials you've followed? 

#projecthouseonthehill