I know many people keep their discs in binders or just go completely digital, but CD sleeves work best for us. Yes, we’ve imported a lot of our music into iTunes, but there is something to be said for being able to grab an obscure CD and pop it into the stereo rather than having to update a playlist and resync the iPod.

Organizing our collection this way allows for easy expansion while still keeping it all alphabetical. We also like that we can keep a handful of discs by the stereo safe in their sleeves, rather than having them sit out unprotected as they would be had we grabbed them from a binder. We ordered from JewelSleeve after Ana mentioned them when I asked for CD storage advice. Brandon and I love that the sleeves can hold the booklet and the tray card, leaving the spine with the artist and album title visible for easy browsing. If you’re looking for CD sleeves, I highly recommend them!

We’re storing all of our CDs, DVDs, and video games (we have a lot of media) in three hopen drawer units in Brandon’s office.

They look great and they’re working well for us, but I do have one complaint; the drawers don’t open fully and it’s hard to see what’s at the back. To counteract this, we placed blocks at the back to push the CDs forward. The blocks are made of 5″ wide boards of thick foam-core (available in craft stores), stacked up to make 3″ tall blocks. Then I cut single strips of thin foam-core to separate each row of CDs, keeping our rows nice and neat.

The random stacks of CDs that we didn’t have room for are gone now. All of our discs (1500 or so) fit nicely into four drawers, and it feels so good to have solved one of our biggest storage dilemmas.

© 2010, published by Making it Lovely as CD Storage and Organization | 66 comments

The great CD/DVD Organization of 2009 has begun. I have built the frames for two of these so far, but we may go with three.

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Needs Assembly | 13 comments

The chair was intended for Brandon’s office but now that I have it here, it seems a little too short. It’s comfortable though, and it doesn’t make the loud CREAK that his current chair does whenever anyone sits down in it.

Oh, and I just have to share my favorite little seating area at Jubilee: the kids’ conference table. I don’t think it’s for sale. I think it’s there so that the kids that visit can have a place to sit and color. :)

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Jubilee Furniture | 25 comments

I told Brandon that they were in his office because they’re manly. He then asked if I had also considered some other manly decorating ideas, like a bowl of knives or a fish tank of bullets.

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as A Vase Full of Arrows | 57 comments

It’s in his office, looking awesome.

Bookshelves line one wall of the room, and as I showed you last week, that’s where all of our DVDs are currently stored.

Brandon displays a lot of his stuff on top, and also on the shelves above.

The desk was left behind by our home’s previous owners, and the chair is from IKEA. Brandon doesn’t work from home like I do, so we figured that the chair would be fine for light, occasional use. It looks nice but unfortunately it has developed a loud creak that we can’t fix.

What’s that on his desk in lieu of fresh flowers, you ask? Fire Flowers!

OK, so his office is more like a combination of Google Maps PLUS geeky pop culture references.

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as It’s Like Living in Google Maps | 49 comments

As I had mentioned, we’re not ready to go 100% digital. We’re probably about 40% there… Brandon has 34 GB of music on his computer, and I have another 22GB on mine. We do have most of the music we currently listen to on our computers, but we still play CDs all the time. And Brandon is a movie person. I think I have 10 or 15 DVDs, but Brandon has about 700. PLUS video games. Here’s where they’re all stored:

Those are Billy bookcases with doors in Brandon’s office, but we’ve filled them to capacity. Overfilled them, actually. And we don’t have any more room in our house for additional storage… unless we can use the dead space under the stairs leading to the second floor. The room looked like this when we moved in:

We just lined up the bookcases to block that big open space. If we got a couple of media cabinets from Can-Am though, I think we could install them so they seem built-in.

Brandon and I are both crazy about the way Rearranged Design stored their CDs. If we get the same CD sleeves and these DVD sleeves, we could fit everything into one tidy space. The only problem? This will not be an inexpensive undertaking. BUT…

• The CD sleeves show the spine of each CD insert, so they’re still browsable.
• The DVD sleeves hold the covers without cutting or folding them, and they hold two discs.
• This setup would solve our storage problem and we’d still have room to grow.
• Alphabetization would be easier to maintain with sleeves than with a binder.
• Taking out a few CDs at a time with their corresponding sleeves seems easier than grabbing a bunch of loose discs from several different binders.
• The cabinets have a safety feature to prevent toppling by only allowing one drawer to be pulled out at a time. Brandon was almost crushed by a filing cabinet once, so he’s all too familiar with the danger. We will soon have a curious toddler, so this feature is a big plus for us.
• The drawers can be locked. Again, with a curious toddler on the way this is another big plus.
• We could FREE UP SOME SPACE in the rest of the house.

Now we’re just trying to decide if we want to tackle this whole project at once, or if we should do it in phases. We could start with the CDs first, storing them in boxes that we already have. And when we move on to the DVDs (and outgrow the boxes), we could find an affordable dresser instead of the cabinets to save money. Or do we just spring for it all now? It’s a little crazy, but it would be so nice after it’s finished.

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Our Possible CD/DVD Storage Solution | 27 comments

image from Apartment Therapy

We went through, grabbing a sample of each carpet style and color that interested us. Then we started narrowing down the choices (too dark, too light, can’t withstand heavy foot traffic, and so on), until we ended up with our final selection: Feelin Groovy in Pewter.

Brandon and I also really liked the Be My Neighbor Rug.

Where could we use something so awesome? In Brandon’s office, of course. He’s going to feel like a giant.

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Time for a New FLOR | 27 comments

First, a big thank you to everyone for your input (White Molded Chairs)! We chose option #3, and the old broken chair was replaced with IKEA’s Jakob swivel chair. As I had mentioned before, this isn’t a true home office – Brandon only sits there for short periods white internet surfing or playing around with iTunes. We both find the new chair comfortable, though it probably wouldn’t be great as a full-time office chair.

The pendant (which we had already switched out earlier) was replaced with an $8 orange shade. I also switched out the rug. I liked the one that was already in there, but at 3′x5′, it was a little too small. I grabbed the brown and white rug that was in my office (5′x7′), and the size is much better. An orange pillow from west elm (from a few years ago) completed the room.

And now, because it’s fun, I threw together another magazine-style layout with sources:

The house is really coming together now! We’ve only had bits and pieces done until now, but it’s so much more satisfying to see it shape up as a whole. Here’s another view:

I love the dashes of white and orange in all three rooms. Cohesiveness makes me happy. :)

© 2007, published by Making it Lovely as Brandon’s Office, Updated | 11 comments

1. Nelson Swag Leg Armchair, DWR $379
2. Saarinen Tulip Armchair – Vinyl, DWR $1232
3. JAKOB, IKEA $139
4. molded desk chair, west elm $149
5. Eames Molded Plastic Armchair, DWR $329
6. SNILLE, IKEA $14.99
7. orbit chair, CB2 $119
8. Saarinen Tulip Armless Chair – Vinyl, DWR $1152
9. Eames Molded Plastic Side Chair, DWR $229

© 2007, published by Making it Lovely as White Molded Chairs | 29 comments

It’s a pretty straight-forward room, which is why I hadn’t written about it yet. There was no remodeling, no new floor, no daunting work of any kind! We painted and put furniture in, the end. ;)

The wall opposite the desk has three more IKEA Billy bookshelves with doors. Brandon loves movies, so we have about a million DVDs. The bookshelves barely contain them all.

Ho! What’s that in the bottom right corner, you ask? Why, it’s Brandon’s 2′ tall AT-AT of course!

© 2007, published by Making it Lovely as Brandon’s Office | 9 comments