storage – Making it Lovely

Pretty Things for Pretty Closet Shelves

My closet shelves got a little sprucing up! I rearranged things to better sort my jewelry (the earrings were piling up in a bowl, getting tangled and dusty) and the newly blank space between the shelves looked painfully bare. I had brought home the beetle, dragonfly, and bee from Target a while back at $10/pop, not knowing where I’d use them, and I’m so glad I did! Clearly my house didn’t already have enough bugs as decor.

There were a lot of questions about where things were from when I shared this space on Instagram Stories yesterday, so I’ve put together ALL the sources you might need in today’s post. Shall we?

Glass Jewelry Boxes

I’d been wanting a glass jewelry box to keep my earrings dust-free. The long, low version I bought this weekend is out of stock online, though stores may still have them (Oakbrook did) and there are plenty of other options below if you’re looking for something similar. Add a little ribbon to the clasp like I did if you’re feeling extra.

Shelf Brackets

You can find awesome brackets everywhere. House of Antique Hardware for historical reproductions. Rejuvenation for well-made styles both old and new. You want cute with detail like mine, you look to Anthropologie.

Clutches

People always ask why I have a Dictionary in my closet when it shows up in photos; it’s a Kate Spade book clutch! I got it years ago so it’s long discontinued, but they’re still available on eBay pretty regularly. The striped pouch behind it is new and I’ve included it below, along with more adorable clutches I would happily sport. (I’m picking up one of the super cute paint tube pouches for Eleanor’s birthday!)

Bag Charms

I added pom poms to my striped clutch, and I switch them around to different bags all the time. Mine was from Tory Burch last year — I saw it on one of the bags that I thought was just OK, but the embellishment was the best part by far. I was jazzed when I realized you could buy them separately! A wrist loop and tassel would complement any of the clutches above, and here are a bunch of other fun options.

Statement Earrings

A simple outfit’s secret weapon! I wear glasses everyday, and then I usually pick either a bold lip or bold earrings, and I can personally attest to the awesomeness of numbers 2 and 3 below.

April 17, 2018

Organizing the Linen Closet

Why do little closets take so long to work on!? I spent hours cleaning, purging, and organizing our linen closet yesterday.

And it looks better! Not amazing, but far better. And I’m definitely enjoying not walking around two full laundry baskets of bedding and towels that had become semi-permanent fixtures in the hallway.

Before I started, I looked at the space and thought ‘clearly, I need to take a trip to The Container Store for beautiful bins and baskets.’ Because of course that’s how my mind works. I already had wire baskets leftover from our old IKEA Expedits though, so I added those to the closet.

I went to find them on the site to link, and the newer versions (for Kallax, which replaced the Expedit) are far more stylish! Not helping curb the desire to buy new organizational stuff — even if they do serve the exact same function.

Meh.

This linen closet makeover by Megan Pflug for One Kings Lane is one of my all-time favorites.

Way to make my closet look like crap in comparison, Megan. (I kid. She’s the best.)

But it begs the question: I have to wallpaper another closet in our house now, don’t I? Or break a paint brush out at the very least. Add this one to the 2018 project list.

January 16, 2018

IVAR!

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?

April 1, 2013

Shelving it

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.

October 16, 2012

Put the Kitchen Door to Work

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.)

September 27, 2012

Hang-it-All Up

The stairs to the basement are looking cute. Finally.

The stairway is right next to the back door in the kitchen, which is the entrance we use most often. We used to have hooks and a shelf there for our coats and shoes, but we took them down when we remodeled the basement. Then the contractor mistook them for trash (an easy mistake to make), and thus we had nothing up for a while. Outerwear began to migrate throughout the first floor and shoes abounded.

I bought what I thought was an Eames Hang-it-All from a discount shopping site, but it turned out to be a fake. It’s fine, I just didn’t realize that when I bought it. But it’s here and it’s cute, and it’s great for the basement stairwell.

The stairs made installation difficult. I did make sure to locate the wall studs though, and I put together a quick how-to in case you ever need to do the same.

Bye bye, IKEA shelves that were mistaken for trash. Hello, accidental knockoff Hang-it-All. If my house were a reality show, this area would be the bad girl, stirring up drama. And it would be the lamest reality show ever.

This is a pretty simple before and after. We painted the walls pink (Wild Aster, Benjamin Moore) and the door and trim white (Antique White, Benjamin Moore). We no longer needed a shelf because we added a shoe organizer (from the Orla Kiely collection that Target had a couple of years ago), which makes the shoes much easier to reach. Then we hung our new hooks.