Acrylic Shelves

Celerie Kemble used pieces of acrylic as shelving in her Kips Bay Show House room and I loved how modern it made the built-ins feel.

It reminded me of this photo from Domino, where they used acrylic shelving in the kitchen. It's a great way to add storage without all the visual bulk.

PS I bet my friends at Plexi-Craft could help you if you'd like to do something similar in your home...

Gold Hangers

Our closets are getting reorganized this month too. Is it strange that I want all new hangers? The interior of my closet is getting painted a bold color, so I really want hangers in a brass or gold tone, but they need to be slim.

image

I almost bought these gold hangers from Gracious Home (here's another source). They are heavy gauge aluminum wire - not cheesy dry cleaners hangers. While I'm sure I'd love these forever, they are pricey at about $2 each. Do you know of any good subs?

My friend here in the city swears by the huggable hangers line and says her blouses never slip and she has much more room in her tiny closet now. I like that these ones are in a brass finish.

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.

Kitchen Drawer Inspiration

This slide show is inspiring me to get going on my spring cleaning and organizing - even though it doesn't quite feel like spring yet around here. Isn't it fun to get a peek into someone's cabinets and drawers?

Martha sure loves her P Touch. It's hilarious to me that she labeled the label maker (with a sort of passive aggressive message?)

If you like to cook, you understand how essential it is to have good, sharp knives. I have a set of Wusthof Classics that work great (this knife is my favorite), but I'm really jealous of all of Martha's Japanese knives.

There's no such thing as too many vintage linen napkins!

I'm always drawn to Bakelite (pronounced bake-a-light), which you can find at flea markets and all over ebay and etsy. I love the vintage and warm feel of the resin.

What a pretty collection of rolling pins, and I especially love these salad servers.

I've used little dishes and bowls to organize small jewelry, but I think these jadeite dishes are so cute for organizing first aid supplies (as long as the drawer was out of reach of little hands. My kids like using bandaids a little too much).

Off to organize my kitchen drawers!

The Coat Closet/Armoire That Almost Was

Strangely, our house here in Delaware has zero closets on the first floor. No coat closet. Nothing.

I contemplated buying this armoire/hutch from Craigslist to use as a make-shift coat closet. I ended up passing on it because the bottom two decorative moulding panels were smaller than the top ones and the proportions were driving me crazy. Plus, the price was a little steep for me.

I had planned on painting it and replacing the glass with mirror, for some extra sparkle and so you wouldn't be able to see the coats/stored items.

Windsor Smith

Even though we're moving in a few months, I'm still contemplating the idea of an armoire turned into a coat closet. (I'm sure I'd have plenty of other things to store in the actual coat closet, if we have one. Paint and tools come to mind) It would be easy to find an inexpensive armoire on craigslist and just add two wooden cups and a closet rod dowel cut to size, if there wasn't a rod already.

I would take any of these...

Windsor Smith

Carrier and Co.

Elle Decor

Domino

Cottage Living

Family Command Center

Hi friends,

Happy Monday! I hope you had as much fun as I did this weekend. I'm home with my family in Arizona. We had a mini family reunion here and it was so wonderful to see almost all my siblings and their families (though we missed you, Heather!).

As a side note, I'm shockingly behind on emails. I won't be back in Delaware until March 3, and won't really be working at full speed until then. If you need an answer faster than that, please email me a second time. Thanks!

One of the fun parts about coming to see family is they always let me experiment with their home decorating projects. I usually get to do four or five projects or rooms each trip.



My sister moved to a new house this year and I think we're going to try this project from Southern Living in her kitchen. She has an end cabinet that looks just like this one in the picture.



Right now it's painted with chalkboard paint, which we'll keep, but I think some of these suggested additions will do just the trick, like a piece of cork, a magnet board and some trim to finish off the look.


Thanks to a tip from an LGN reader, we will order some over-sized nail heads from this site.



And for the ribbon border we'll be making a stop to one of my favorite little shops in Mesa - Ribbons and Lace.


We're planning to pick up a roll of cork at Michaels and we'll get some metal sheeting cut at Home Depot for the magnet board.

images via Southern Living

Kids' Rooms Organization

Lindsay was hoping to get some quick advice from me about organizing kids' rooms. I'm sure she would love to get your input, too. Here's her email:

Hi Jenny,

I am new to your website and I have to say love it! I too am a mom (of 3) and married to a law student. With a limited budget its always fun to get creative, and inexpensive decor ideas (like the paper alphabet in the nursery! That is my project today).

My kids ages are 4 yrs., 1.5 yrs., and 4 mo. With the youngest two's ages, I still have a ways to go before they are out of that destruction mode. I'd like some ideas on how I can decorate my house with child friendly accessories, but still have the feel of an adult space with class. Another thing is we currently live in a small apt. and, as much as I'd like my girls to have a playroom, we can't. Therefore all the toys are in their room, and it is always a mess. I feel like it is a full-time job just cleaning and reorganizing their toys. I am tempted to buy tubs and put the toys in there, put them out of reach and only pull one or two tubs out at a time. That way I can limit the amount of mess, and they can learn to pick up their toys themselves. What do you think of this idea?

Is there a better way to have a stylish childrens' room that can be clean, organized, and free of destruction?

Lindsay


Well, Lindsay, there are a lot of toy organization systems available, but not all of them are functional and stylish.

Just like you, we don't have room in our townhouse for a playroom. Some of our toys are in the girls room, stored in painted baskets under the crib and under the play table, but many of the toys are downstairs in the living room. I found a solid wood toy chest at Ross two years ago that had a sailboat painted on it (not cute). But the shape was classic, the hardware was nice and the price was $20. I painted glossy black and added some gold accents. It looks great in the living room and is super functional, though some days I hate having toys in that space. The toy box looks sort of like this one (but ours is painted):


Here's a pretty toy box for sale on your city's Craig's List for $20.


Or here for $30.


Or here.


I'm pretty sure one of my first purchases post-graduation will be a few of these Land of Nod bins ($150 each). They look well-made and sturdy, and I think the functionality is obvious. Toy organization and clean-up would be a breeze, even for the kiddies. (Seleta loves these, too)


IKEA's Expedit system ($159) is a really good option for storing a lot of toys without making a huge footprint in the room. I would fill some of the shelves with soft canvas baskets from HomeGoods, Target or IKEA. Virtually any store with home furnishings will sell these bins.

You could also use galvanized buckets from Home Depot in some of the shelves. These look great in their original finish, but can be painted any color you want to match your nursery. They are perfect for blocks, Barbie clothes, flashcards, really any smallish toys that need corralling.

And the Expidit shelves are obviously good for book storage too.

You could paint or paper the insides of the shelves to make things more interesting.

via flickr

This Ohdeedoh reader painted her Expedit shelves with chalkboard paint.

via Ohdeedoh

Here are a few Expedit shelves from your city's Craig's List:

here, $50 (comes with the two baskets, which you could paint)


here, $40

and here, make your best offer.

Another option that's worth looking into is Target's version of the Expedit system, called the itso system.

If you're looking to go another route, I like the idea of refurbishing the inside of an armoire.

The great benefit being that you can shut the doors and not see any toys in the room.


This is a great armoire from your local Craig's List. I like that it's lower and wider, so the kids can easily reach their toys.

You could put this antique wooden case on top for extra storage.


And/or these mail slots. These look straight out of Anthropologie.


These wooden shelves are really narrow and would take up very little floor space. They could look really great with a few coats of paint and some pretty paper on the backs and sides of the shelves.


I know it's not exactly an armoire, but this antique cabinet could be gorgeous with a little TLC (including a new base made from MDF). Only $20.


This armoire is another good option.


Storage ottomans are also great for hiding away toys. These below are new from Target and cost $130 each. One of my clients is considering buying a pair of the brown trellis printed ones for under her small entry console. There are lots of other great color and print options to check out, as well.

As an alternative to the above, you could buy this leather ottoman and reupholster it in a fun, youthful outdoor print for the nursery or in something more sophisticated for the living area.


A whole different direction would be this canvas and chrome rolling laundry basket. Toys could be tossed inside and pushed into the closet when not in use.This Ohdeedoh reader shared her idea for hanging galvenized buckets on the wall for small toy storage. Love it.


Library-style book display shelves can be really pricey, but I think so worth the cost and space. I coveted the Pottery Barn Kids Schoolhouse book shelf ($$$) for a long time before they discontinued it. This $22 bookshelf could really do the trick. {Isn't it just screaming for a paint job?} And, to save space, you could mount the shelves on your wall.

Here is one of my favorite ideas that I can't wait to try. We all have seen (or used) these cheap plastic crates that are available at most home stores, like Target and Walmart. I have never used them because they're pretty ugly and small items always fall out through the holes. Frustrating.
This genius woman is sharing her easy tutorial for making cute and functional crate liners. These now-adorable crates would be perfect inside an Expedit shelf or just stacked, like below. She used Amy Butler and Heather Bailey prints here.


Do any of you space-savvy mothers have some additional tips for Lindsay? What is the best trick you have for keeping toys off the floors when not in use?