After months of tripping over the books on my bedroom floor, I realized that the one bookcase I own needed backup help. So I put shelves over my desk—good for paperbacks, which won’t send them crashing—and also bought a Target bookcase.

Then I did a little bookcase styling: I painted the outside a buttery hue, stacked pale books on top, and even made a yellow paper flower (er, perhaps I have too much time on my hands) to put in the Alvar Aalto vase my friend Dina Kantor picked up while photographing in Finland.

The paint, which makes me crave ice cream just to look at it, is Benjamin Moore’s lemon sorbet. And, no, I don’t know how to create paper flowers all on my own: My friend Beth C. gave me a cute bloom-making kit. For similar supplies, go here. I forced my mom, who was visiting, to make flowers with me (“I feel like I’m at an institution doing art therapy,” she grumbled, but she did whip up a sweet polka-dotted number). — Bunny W.