Making it Lovely » Organization

IVAR!

Making it Lovely — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:26:40 +0000

Remember this floor plan sketch for the basement, with the storage units labeled GORM (which is either a really unfortunate name or an IKEA product)? Right. Well, I went out to IKEA last week with the little ones in tow to make it happen. I’d promised Eleanor a visit to Småland, so she played while August and I hit up the utility shelving section. The shelving I’d planned on was cheap, but it felt cheap. Wobbly and thin, I was afraid it wouldn’t hold up well, so I went for IVAR instead.

Five days later, Brandon took all of the pieces out of the car and brought them downstairs. I took over from there.

Building the corner unit went smoothly. Each shelf has a tiny plastic pouch with its six pegs stapled to it. You just line those up in the end and corner supports, rest a shelf on top, and away you go. I assembled it, attached the whole thing to studs in the wall, and was done in 15 minutes. Next, I wanted to build the chest of drawers I’d bought. It was an expensive component but I figured the drawers would prove useful.

The instructions showed the chest installed with a cross-brace above, and I realized I’d have to move the corner unit to attach a brace to the side. Not a big deal; I just had to unscrew the safety strap attaching it to the wall. I went to get a shelf so that I could determine the proper distance, and I realized I had no pegs. The corner shelves each had a piece of wood beneath for stability, which allowed space to attach their hardware pouches. The others are just shelves that stack flat against each other. Of course by the time I’d reached the warehouse section of IKEA with two punchy children up past their bedtime ready to run around or melt down, that detail didn’t register properly. I also overbought long shelves and now need to return to IKEA for shorter versions, along with my 48 missing pegs. I don’t do well with last-minute changes, clearly.

No matter! I took one corner shelf out and used the pegs to attach a shelf along the top, I lined another shelf up along the floor, and took measurements that way. Whee, problem solved! Why do people have such a hard time assembling IKEA furniture?

I attached the cross-braces to two sections, congratulated myself on a job well done, anchored everything to the wall, and moved on to build the drawers. As I put it together, stopping intermittently to take photos, I was composing this blog post in my head.

Do you know how fun it is for a perfectionist to put together one of these storage units? No, really, I’m not being sarcastic. Do you know how fun it is!? This thing snaps together and is easy to build, but not if you want it to be level/plumb, or sturdy. And this is both.

Whee, what fun! Let’s stop and take pictures! Note that this is step 1. This will later become important.

I was running out of room in the small storage room of my basement, but I wanted to build everything right there. The chest weighs 70 pounds, and I wouldn’t be able to move it myself if it was fully assembled in another room because it would be too bulky. (I wanted to build everything myself.) So I cleared a small area and got to work. The directions weren’t clear and attaching the drawer glides was confusing because you had to intuit everything from illustrations, but I figured it out. Drawer glides, attach the sides, slide in the backer, attach the last side, done. Time to build the individual drawers.

Since I didn’t have much room, I figured I’d be clever and build just one and make sure it fit, attach the case to the shelving supports, then build the other two drawers. So I did. And that drawer slid in so smoothly into the middle slot. Success! I did a little dance and got back to work. The chest was heavy and cumbersome, but not impossible to get into place. (Again, I wanted to do this all myself.) I finally lined everything up just so, screwed the final brackets in place, and slid the drawer I’d already built into place. I put it in the lowest slot this time, then noticed the three-inch gap along the bottom. I chastised myself, channeling Brandon in my head with appropriate Star Wars nerdery, but apparently the phrase isn’t even “don’t get cocky, kid.” The “kid” part comes just before. I didn’t even get that right.

I fumbled for the next 15 minutes turning the drawer upside-down, then removing the unit I’d just gotten into place and turning the whole thing upside-down, and still I couldn’t get my drawer to line up. Finally, I realized I’d attached the glides incorrectly. They had to be unscrewed, turned and flipped, and reattached. Remember step 1? Yeah, that’s where I screwed up. After I’d corrected my mistake, getting the chest back into place was much more difficult than it had been the first time. Of course it was more difficult! This is why people hate assembling IKEA furniture!

Six hours after I’d started my shelving project, I got the chest and all three drawers into place, threw a few fake plastic trees on a corner shelf (sans green plastic watering can), and called it a day.

Now I’m steeling up my nerve to return to IKEA, brave the returns area, and get my stupid pegs so I can finish the storage shelving.

Edited to add: Pegs! I’m an idiot. (Thanks, Amanda.) What would it take to convince everyone that this was an April Fool’s joke?

Shelving it

Making it Lovely — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:20:19 +0000

Every day (or nearly), I sit in my home office across from my Expedit shelves. Truthfully, I’m kind of over them.

More truthfully though? They probably wouldn’t bother me so much if I could just keep the rest of my office neat. (It’s a mess in here right now.) Still, I do a lot of mental redecorating that revolves around those shelves. Here’s what I’d pick if I could wave a magic wand.

*Poof!* New shelves that didn’t cost anything or take any time to put together, that magically styled themselves, and fit perfectly in the room!

Whitewashed Wood + Metal Shelves
Emerson Shelf
p.s. There’s more rustic industrial style in my post on Babble.

Slim Étagère
Lap Shelving System

Also, I pretend that if I had any of those bookshelves, that my stuff would somehow be condensed and look like this. Because it’s super practical to arrange one’s books with the spines facing in.

I assume the baskets and bowls shown are there to store the necessary pixie dust to make this configuration practical.

Put the Kitchen Door to Work

Making it Lovely — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:57:32 +0000

Here’s a little storage trick that works for us. I added hooks to the back of our kitchen door to keep all of our bibs, reusable shopping bags, and a couple of aprons. We also keep one tote there to act as a laundry bag for the bibs and dish towels that need to be washed. We almost always keep the door to the kitchen open, which means the side with the hooks is up against the wall. Everything is accessible, but we don’t have to see it all the time.

Series One Peg Rail
So minimal and lovely! So not like the hooks I actually have!
Cotton Canvas Tote
We keep one large tote to store dirty bibs and dish towels until laundry day. Ours is a grocery store bag that’s not nearly as pretty as this one.
Reusable Shopping Bag
I keep a few reusable bags in my purse at all times, and store the extras in a pouch on a hook. I like the ones from Envirosax and Baggu.
Woodland Tumble Embroidered Bib
Bibs are still handy for the kids when we’re having a messy meal.
Dryer-Activated Fabric Softener
We used to use dryer sheets, but I was pretty excited when Method sent over some of their new softener. It’s good stuff (but we do keep this in the laundry room, not the kitchen!).
Kitchen Apron
I’m kind of over cutesy aprons, but I love this simple one. Works for men and women.

Of course, that was the magazine-perfect fantasy version. Since owning a single beautiful bib isn’t actually practical, our door really looks like this.

(Trivia: That shabby chic bird hook was the first thing I ever bought from eBay.)

Charge!

Making it Lovely — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:44:40 +0000

We used to leave our cell phone (and other) chargers out on the kitchen counter. Drove me bonkers. I finally found a solution that has made a big difference, and it was so simple! You can read about it over at A Brooklyn Limestone, as part of her Junk Drawer Overhaul series.

Arranging a Collection

Making it Lovely — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:13:04 +0000

I’ve shown you how I’ve rearranged my dining room hutch full of white ceramics before, but I hadn’t ever shown my process. So here’s how I do it… I start with the big items first. You can’t shoehorn them in at the end anyway, and if you start with a pleasing arrangement the rest will fall into place.

Obviously I have such a hodgepodge of items that a symmetrical layout isn’t an option for me (though I do love symmetry). I work around that by making sure that the overall layout is visually balanced. For example, see that open lattice-work square in the bottom left? That gets balanced out by the votive holders on the right middle shelf and the scallops of the vintage cake stand on the top left.

I add all the little bits and bobbins that I love at the end. Admittedly they can make the arrangement a little cluttered, so I do edit them down some. Not all of my pieces made it back in, but I tend to rearrange things often so they’ll be back next time.

I love having the built-in hutch to display everything. I wasn’t so sure about it when we moved in, but I’ve since embraced it. I’m still undecided about the beadboard (paint it or leave it natural?), but I’m going to live with it for a while before I choose. It ties in the wood floors and our wood dining set, and the contrast is nice with all of the white. I’ve pinned fabric to the back many times before, so that’s always an option as well. Besides, closing the doors gives the whole thing a bit more polish. Doesn’t everything always look better behind glass?

My Organized Office Closet

Making it Lovely — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:03:48 +0000

Organizing the catch-all closet in my office was one of the tasks on my 30 Before Thirty list (item number 12).

It’s hard to tell, but one of those bookshelves was already there along the back of the closet. I put it against the right side instead and brought up one more from the basement. All of my copies of Lucky and Blueprint (along with a few other magazines and catalogs) fit along one shelf.

Winter gloves, hats, and scarves are in the pink box on top of the bookshelf. There are also hooks above the shelves to hang a few things.

I gathered my many IKEA shopping bags into one big bag (the red one), and corralled the rolls of vintage wallpaper into a big plastic container. The green and white bag holds some random decorative knickknacks.

The coats are still hung along the left wall, along with my wedding dress at the back.

The end result isn’t as pretty as my bedroom closet, but it’s so much better than it was. I didn’t spend any money either, though I would have liked to have all new, coordinating storage boxes. Some day I do plan to replace that bare light bulb, but that can wait for now.

Have you tackled any similar projects lately (or are you going to now)? It’s not fun while you’re in the middle of working, but it’s so nice when you’re done!

Still Organizing the Closet

Making it Lovely — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:16:04 +0000

I had a few hours to work on the office closet while Eleanor was being watched yesterday afternoon, but it was not enough time to finish. I thought I could continue after putting Eleanor to bed, but no. She’s teething, getting five teeth at once (four of them molars), so she has been a wee bit cranky.

Still, the closet is looking so much better already from using the organizational odds and ends that I already had. Here’s a little inspiration though to check out while I continue working… How gorgeous are these Stockholm files? Lovely.

I’m Going In

Making it Lovely — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:45:41 +0000

I may not make it back out for a few hours… at least. This is item #12 on my 30 Before Thirty list: organize the catch-all closet in my office. Don’t you love how you can’t even see the floor? Wish me luck.

Notable contents:

giant styrofoam ball
argyle dog sweater vest
every issue of Domino and Blueprint
IKEA catalogs dating back to 2002
five rolls of vintage wallpaper
acoustic guitar
my wedding dress
empty boxes to be recycled
embroidered Serge Gainsbourg pillow
vintage 50s fur coat that was given to me over a decade ago but that I have never, ever worn and probably never will because I feel weird in it

CD Storage and Organization

Making it Lovely — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:46:11 +0000

Brandon and I have just finished transferring all of our CDs into slim CD sleeves. We kept the specially packaged discs as-is, but I wish we had switched out the generic plastic cases long ago because getting rid of them was a fantastic way to condense our collection!

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.

Cutest Dish Rack Ever

Making it Lovely — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:48:51 +0000

We added a dishwasher back when we remodeled our kitchen, but I’ve been washing Eleanor’s bottles, bowls, and spoons by hand. A tea towel on the counter worked well for laying everything out to dry, but then I found the grass drying rack by Boon. It’s adorable.

I tried to make the other side of the sink cute too. The green soap dispenser is for hand soap, and the olive oil bottle is for dish soap.

The green one is great but the other isn’t working out as well. I liked the look of it much more than any actual dispensers I had seen, so I thought I was being very clever when I bought it. When I tried to use it though, I realized I’d have to dilute the soap considerably for it to pour through the spout. Oh well. At least I tried, right?