Lateral File Tool Storage

Living in an apartment again, with no garage or basement, has reminded me how important it is to have a place for everything. I have a bad habit of small scale organizing - where I organize things sort of wherever they happen to be, rather than designing an organization plan.

We have two areas in our loft mostly dedicated to storage - the pantry and Evie's room. Right after we moved in, I painted out an old bookcase and stuck it in the pantry/laundry room and sort of filled it with whatever had been put in the room during the move.

Somehow all of our tools got put in Evie's room, which is super annoying because I usually need the tools when Evie is napping! I don't know how I lasted this long, but I'm finally get our house really, really organized. I made a game plan last week:

Evie's Room:
Sewing machine and supplies
Crafts
Linens
Bedding
Musical instruments
Suitcases

Pantry:
Tools
Paint
Laundry supplies
Stroller
Cleaning supplies
Accessory kitchen appliances

I want the pantry to sort of act like our garage. I considered getting a big tool box to organize everything, but space is pretty tight. I found a 36" wide lateral file cabinet on Craigslist that I think will work perfectly for tool storage with very easy access. And I like that I can lock the drawers to keep the girls out of the sharp stuff.

Buying a tall file cabinet reminded me of this project from Mary McDonald's office featured in Domino years ago. She photocopied a sample of her favorite wallpaper and had kinkos blow up the image to fit the drawer fronts.

A version of this project could be fun for my cabinet, but I'd maybe go a little more subtle with the pattern.

Laundry Room

Today, I'm taking some time out to reorganize my Grand Central Station - the utility room. It's our laundry room/garage/pantry/gym/storage/broom closet and more. And it's in bad shape.

The goal is to not spend any money (or very little) and get the space prettier and way more functional. I loved this laundry room featured in Canadian House and Home.

My favorite part is the Manuel Canovas Misia fabric on the sink skirt.

Here's another image of the same room from a different shoot (via Design*Sponge). Looks so cheerful with the striped rug here. And I love getting to see the vintage map on the wall. It's a great color - and why not have something fun to look at while you're doing chores?

Fancy Laundry Room

In my wildest dreams, I would be wealthy enough to be able to afford Gracie wallpaper in my laundry room. Though, I think I might stress about some rogue Tide flinging on to the paper!

Wouldn't you be happy to sort and fold in this room? Under that gorgeous Neirmann Weeks lantern...

Room designed by Draza Stamenich for the 2009 DC Design House, spotted on the fabulous blog Chinoiserie Chic.

A takeaway from this room that's more in my budget? Put dryer sheets and powdered laundry soap with a little scoop in some chic glass containers.

A couple of these gorgeous T-handle jars from CS Post (found via The Estate of Things) would fit the bill nicely.