HOW TO STYLE BOOKSHELVES LIKE A PRO!

Hey guys!

We made it. First week of school is complete and the kids came home smiling. Phew! I had no idea how nervous I was for them until Monday night when I tossed and turned thinking about the first day jitters. The kids were cool as cucumbers and I had to most definitely mask the mama nerves!

I thought I would do an update on bookshelf styling. Last week, while Mr. Fix-It is was out one night,  I decided to do a little bookshelf re-style. Armed with a glass of vino, everything came off the bookshelves (ironic that they're called bookshelves, yet we have hardly any books on them?! You might have more styled on your shelves) and I started from scratch.

Sometimes, you just need a little shake-up in your decor. Nothing new to purchase, I just looked around the house and took items for all over!

Labeling 101 - Best Label Maker Ever!

Hi, I'm Alicia and I'm now obsessed with labeling.

I remember somewhere around 2004ish my dad bought a label maker and labeled every spice jar we had in the house. I knew at that moment that the organized look of pretty labels made me smile. So, it was time to upgrade that labeler. I wanted one with more options & graphics. Enter in the game changer. Its the Epson LabelWorks-400.

This weekend I was labeling obsessed. Why? Because anytime you label something, you just.feel.organized. From pantries, clothing, spices, kids' everything, to file folders. You name it, you can label it.

I'm impressed with the ribbon and tape that is available for the LW-400. One of my favs is this beige ribbon.

 My baby girl had a birthday party to go to, so I printed out a few sayings on this black on beige ribbon and we stuck it on the birthday present with pink washi tape. It's cute and doubled as a card.

Now that our pantry is done in the basement, there is no need to hear "MOM, WHERE ARE THE SNACKS? For a nice clean look, I used the clear tape to label the pantry.

 I moved over to the toy bins and labeled those too. This label maker has a ton of graphics you can add. It's a good way for the kids to work on their reading and know where to put their toys when it's time to clean up. Well, in theory they'll know, whether they actually clean them up is another story!

There are great fonts to choose from and different sizes. Yes please. I'm always looking for ways to get organized but have it look pretty. Label maker for the win!

Keep it beautiful.

Styling the Basement Built-Ins

Remember in the summer when I started talking about the built-ins for the basement and was looking for your thoughts on shelves vs bottom cupboards?

The built-ins were destined for this space. Oh my!

A little better...

 

 

To a fresh blank slate...

and here we are today...

 

I love built-ins. Our cabinet maker was awesome and he hooked us up with exactly what we wanted. Shelves on the top and cupboards underneath. Our house doesn’t have much storage so we have to use every inch of storage that we can. These cupboards right now are holding extra blankets for the basement, DVDs, video game randomness, even extra china that I have.  We chose simple black hardware with an iron feel and the shelving is adjustable so that we can switch up the size of shelving depending on what prettiness goes in there.

 

Here are a few tips when styling your built-ins

 

Start Fresh

No sense in trying to re-style your shelves with stuff already on there. Take everything off and start from a clean slate. Another great thing to do is paint the back of your built-ins, that’s what we did in the breakfast room.

It really defines the space, especially if you choose a dark colour. Navy or charcoal would be gorg. If you don’t want to commit to painting the backs, you can always cut those foam bristol boards from the dollar store into the size of the backing you need, paint them and add to the back. Or, cover a piece of cardboard with great wallpaper/wrapping paper, cut to size and add as the backing. So many possibilities! I think I’ll add a darker colour to the back down the road, but for now I’m liking the white in the basement. It keeps it bright.

 

Work with Wall Art

Look around your house. Do you have any framed art that would fit perfectly in your shelves? Framed art is a great way to layer your shelving. These ones are from Minted and I especially love the “anywhere with you” piece.

 

Group in 3s

I’ve talked to you before about this tip. Think in odd numbers. Vignettes look great in groups of 3s and 5s if you have the space.

 

Let there be Space

You don’t have to cover every inch of the shelf. Let your objects breathe and don’t think about what you’re doing too much. Honestly, if you over think it, it won’t work.

 

Switch it up

I added pinecones for the winter and a few red branches in the little blue vases. In the spring I’ll switch them out for something else.

 

Of course, use what you have my friends. Sure, if there is something you see that will be perfect in the space, then do it. I bought the infinity love sign in town at the cottage but everything else we already had.

 

'Squze the tv. Paw Patrol is a very popular show in our house these days!

I’m looking forward to showing you the other spaces of the basement soon. Now go style your shelves :)

 

Keep it Beautiful.

Get Creative with Storage

Hey everyone!

I don't know about you but I'm always trying to find ways to organize our stuff. Whether it's clothes, office supplies, hats and mitts or diapers...it feels good to have a space for everything tucked away. Wicker Emporium has featured my mood board I did this week in efforts to get creative with storage.

There are lots of storage options out there and they can look beautiful in your home. When furnishing kids' rooms, look for side tables with multiple drawers. I don't know about you but my kids love to collect trinkets from inside and out. Having drawers in their side tables allows them to hide their treasures and keep them in a safe place.

How pretty would that robin's egg blue cabinet look in a bathroom? A perfect spot to store your towels and toiletries. Lovely.

Want to know how a dresser can be used for more than just keeping your socks, undies and t-shirts organized? Head over to the Wicker Emporium website and see my blog post.

Happy Weekend.

Keep it Beautiful.

Overwhelmed to Organized - Tackling the Linen Closet!

Hey everyone!

It's that time again:

Let's talk linen closets, shall we? What does yours look like? Is it a disaster zone? Are you constantly digging around trying to find a matching pillow case? Or is it beautifully organized? Before I had kids, I had this obsession with having a perfectly tidy linen closet and maybe because I have less time to keep it oh-so-perfect, that it turned into a TOTAL DISASTER! It's too much of a disaster to show you the whole thing so I'll let you use your imagination with this one shelf! OMG!

 So it was definitely time...

Everything came out and the donation pile kept growing!

This tiny space has the worst walls in the whole house. Missing drywall and the flame is from a fire that occurred in the house years ago before we moved in.

I hit up HomeSense, the Dollar Store, Ikea and Michaels for the supplies I needed. I knew I wanted to cover up these walls and just didn't have time to paint them so I found this pretty-in-pink Moroccan patterned wrapping paper at HomeSense. The shelf liner is from the Dollar Store, the white bins are from Ikea and the labels are from Michaels.

While my baby girl napped (well she decided to boycott the nap for most of the day!) I got to work measuring, cutting and getting that paper up on the walls! Looks so much better already!

 It felt good to get the medicine, first aid and kids' medicine (stuff like children's Tylenol and Advil) organized.

 How many sets of sheets does one family need? Honestly, how many people did we think were going to sleep over at one time? Now they fit into these two bins!

Our little linen closet has gone from this...

To this...

Ahhhh! Feels SO MUCH BETTER! Overwhelmed to Organized. I bought these grey towels from HomeSense. Seeing how these towels are for the kids (and guests) the white towels weren't staying so white with their little sticky fingers so grey it is!

I'm loving this fresh and bright makeover. Now I don't have to duck when I open up the door!

Whatcha think? Is your linen closet making you feel overwhelmed? As a first step, try taking everything out and sorting into piles. Please share your closets with me! 

This post has been shared with:
The Dedicated House

Keep it Beautiful.

OVERWHELMED TO ORGANIZED - Taking on the Junk Cupboard

Hi everyone,

Today is the first day of:

As promised I tackled the junk cupboard.

 I feel like most people have a junk drawer and somehow when we did our "built-ins" for the breakfast room our junk drawer morphed to that room and turned into a junk cupboard. Yowza! It's been driving me crazy and it made me feel overhelmed every time I opened it to throw in more junk.  It was time to go from overwhelmed to organized!

Here it is, I can't believe I'm showing you this disaster. Ready? No judging, we're friends right?

I know you all have something like this. Okay fine, maybe it's not so dramatic, and likely doesn't have a baby bathtub shoved in there?!? BUT there must be a drawer somewhere in your house (likely the kitchen) where everything that doesn't really have a spot ends up. Please tell me you do!?

I've got a few tips to help you go from overwhelmed to organized and kick-start your spring cleaning!

1. Take it all out!
Get in there, put it all on the floor or the kitchen counter and try to organize it into piles. Don't forget to have a garbage bag ready because I bet most of it will end up in there.  This actually took a lot less time then I thought. Why haven't I done this sooner?

What am I going to do with all this art that comes home? Hmmm...that's another project!

2. What Do you Need?
Your first thought might be to dash out to the store to get a whole bunch of bins and baskets. Before you jump the gun figure out what shapes and sizes you need. Nothing worse than getting home with a bunch of random baskets to find out nothing fits or you need more of something.

3. Shop!

I hit the Dollarstore (of course) and picked up these bins. You know me and my love for white but I also got an orange bin for the kids' markers. This way they know this is their go-to-bin for colouring. I also picked up this little shelf that is supposed to be used for dishes but stacks the bins perfectly and saves space.

I've also been trying to find a spot for my cookie sheets. I've been keeping them all in my oven which is a pain in the neck when I have to use the oven and take out all the cookie sheets, especially because I have no where to put them. Enter in a trip to Ikea. I bought these cookie sheet separators.

4. Organize

This is the best part. Isn't it pretty? So organized! Nothing fancy, just totally calm. This junk cupboard has gone from overwhelmed to organized and it feels good.

Fresh.Fabulous.Sophisticated

I challenge you this week to open up that drawer or cupboard that you've been ignoring and clean it out. You'll feel much better, I promise!

The linen closet is calling my name next. Just when you thought my junk cupboard was bad...stay tuned!
You can also follow me on Twitter @keepitbeautifu1 (that's a "one" at the end, not an "l")

Keep it Beautiful.