Storage

A Crackling Fire: Indoor Firewood Storage Ideas

Here is a quick list of creative and unique (some DIY) indoor firewood storage ideas:

A recess wall can have firewood stacked inside of it. Or how about stacking firewood inside of a built in shelf just like in picture (3).
If you don’t have too much firewood to store, then get yourself a decorative bucket – such as a copper, galvanized, or brass one.
Use a wooden crate. Put it on its side to make storing and retrieving the firewood easier, just like in picture (2)
If you want to keep your firewood out of sight, then a wicker hamper would work best
All you need to store and stack firewood are two sidewalls. See if you can get some open shelving, an open media console (6), or an open side table. IKEAS EXPEDIT and KALLAX units are open shelves that can have firewood stacked inside of them.

DIY Ideas

The firewood rack in picture (5) was made using 2 cinderblocks and some 2×4
And the rack in picture (4) was simply made out of metal plumbing pipes and connectors, all screwed to a wooden base – you can see the DIY tutorial here.

Here are some other storage and DIY posts:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6

April 14, 2016 in Storage

Farmhouse Storage and Organization Ideas

The farmhouse style will usually have a white base. So mostly everything is painted white, and then you’ll have raw materials being used for the furniture, decor, and storage pieces.

Open Storage

In farmhouses you’ll see that shelves are open, whether that is in the kitchen as seen in pictures (1) and (2), the bathroom, or in the dining room (3) (4). This means you’ll want to make sure that the pieces you store (kitchenware, dining ware, etc.) are good quality, as they will act as decor pieces in the room.

You can hide or group items on the shelves by putting them in wicker or wire baskets.

Premium Materials

You don’t see plastic in farmhouses. Instead they make use of traditional materials such as enamelware and wooden pieces.

You’ve also got other materials such as:

Porcelain – like the jar storing the rolling pins in picture (5)
Glassware – like the jars in picture (6)
Iron hooks – just like the coat rack in picture (7)
Or metal – the bread box in picture (8)

Here are Some Simple Farmhouse Style Storage Ideas

Wicker baskets (9) can be used to group smaller items together, such as food items, linens, remotes, stationary, firewood, or toilet roles
Wooden crates and trunks (10)
Wire baskets (11) can be used to store the same things as wicker baskets, just in a different style
Galvanized buckets and tubs (12) can be used to store linens, drinks, firewood, or magazines
A wooden rustic ladder can be used to hang up towels in the bathroom, magazines or blanket in the living room (13), or used to hang up clothes in the bedroom.

Here are some more mood board posts to get ideas from:

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13

March 25, 2016 in Farmhouse Design, Storage

ReDesigning Your Closet: Ideas and Steps on How To Organize Your Closet and Clothes

There is no one size fit all solution for when it comes to organizing your clothes and a closet. There are however some concrete steps on how to tackle your own closet, create a system that works for you, and get everything organized in a way that fits your needs. Below I go over the steps and all of the questions you need to ask yourself to get your closet organized.

Step 1: Trimming down 80/20

Pretty much everybody could do with some trimming down in their closet. You have to be pretty ruthless here, and get rid of as much as possible.

Trimming down the number of clothes you have will mean:

You’ll have less decision making to do when you open up the closet
Every time you open your closet, it will be easier to get dressed – because you will really like everything in your closet
It is easier to get dressed when you have less

3 Questions To Ask Yourself

“What do I love in my closet vs. what is just ok?” (try and git rid of the ok items)
“Have I worn it in the last 12 months?” (Figure out which pieces you use the most, and the ones that just sit round. We tend to use 20% of our clothes 80% of the time – those are the pieces you want to keep)
“If I saw it in a store now, would I buy it?”

If you have any sentimental items that are too hard to get rid of, store them out of the way.

Step 2: Figuring Out Your Needs

The next step is to figure out what you need in a closet system.

These questions below will help you figure out what sort of closet system you need. If you have dresses to hang up, you’ll maybe need more railings than shelves. If you have winter vs summer clothes to store, then you’ll probably need closet storage containers that can be closed up and stored away at the top of the closet, or under the bed.

The items you use the most, you’ll want to be super organized and the easiest to get to. These pieces should be upfront and center and clutter free.

What items do you need in your closet? What can you store out of the way?
Do you have long dresses?
Winter and summer wear?
Do you need to store linens?
Do you need to store other items?
What are the clothes you use the most? Workwise, and weekend wise?

Step 3: Designing Your Closet

Once you know what you need to store, the next step is to figure out how to organize your closet. So the next thing you need to do is to compare what are your needs (from step 2), with what you have to work with as your current closet – and what you need to change to get it right.

Are you building a closet from scratch, or do you have drawers, or just railings. Can you expand your closet? Are you able to store non essential items out of the way, under the bed or in a different room.

What are you going to need in your closet system?
If you have drawers, then you’ll need dividers to keep things organized – get some here
If you don’t have enough railings or closet shelving, is there a way to change it up
If you need more shelving than railing space, then you could get one of these hanging closet organizers and shelving units
Do you need shoe racks to keep your shoes tidy?
If you use drawers, could you do with drawer dividers to keep things organized?
Shelf dividers can help keep shelf space tidy
Do you need zip up storage or bins with lids to store seasonal items?

One great closet organization system design is IKEAs ALGOT. You can pick and choose railings, shelving, and all of the containers to store things away. These can be fitted into existing closets.

A Few Storage and Closet Organization Ideas

Here are a few quick ideas on storing clothes in your closet. You’ll need to find the right ideas that fit your needs and the space you have.

1) Here is a way to fold your shirts so they stand up in your drawers – making them easy to get to. 2) Steel hooks can be used to hang up pants – the ones pictured are expensive ones available on Etsy but you can get cheap ones here. 3) Drawers are where things go to get lost. Keep them organized with dividers. Picture from Lifeflix – get your drawer organizers here.

If you need help with shoe storage, head on over to my other post: Unique Closet and Entryway Shoe Storage Ideas

Need Extra Storage Space?

When storing things in the bedroom it is best to keep things hidden away and out of sight. This creates a less visually cluttered bedroom.

Hooks or even a pegboard attached to the inside of the closet doors is one way of adding storage space.
Under the bed rolling drawers
A bedroom bench with storage
Do you have any suitcases that are being stored away? These can be used to keep seasonal wear.
Alternative ideas include over the door hooks, a standing coat rack, or a ladder to hang up everyday cloth items like jackets (Ideas for Decorating With Ladders).

If you have a small closet, then have a look at this post for some creative ideas: Smart Small Closet Ideas and Storage Organization Tricks.

Style Tip: Get Decorative

It wouldn’t hurt to make your closet space look good, at the same time keeping it organized. You can easily do this by getting more decorative storage items such as:

Wicker baskets
Wire baskets
Enamel buckets

Check out my storage page for more stylized ideas.

Adding some closet lights, such as battery powered motion sensing lights, will help you see things in the back of the closet.

Closet Lighting Ideas: From Wireless to Walk In

How about this chic simple closet makeover idea from Popsugar:

For more closet makeover ideas, check out my post here: DIY Challenge: Give Your Closet Doors a Makeover

Getting Started

Step 1: Trim down

Pull everything out of your closet. Get ruthless in decluttering and getting rid of everything that you don’t need.

Step 2: Figure out your needs

Once you are left with just the items that matter, you can start to plan out what type of closet you’ll need to keep your clothes organized.

Step 3: Adjusting your closet design

You can start to adjust and customize your closet to fit your needs. By adding or taking away railings, drawers, or by buying drawer organizers and shelf dividers.

More closet related posts:

header image credits: 2/3

February 23, 2016 in Closets, Storage

7 Friendly Kids Room Storage Ideas

Remember to keep storage furniture and containers low down to the ground in a kids room. And also use simple storage containers, ones without lids are best. Keeping things low and simple, makes it easy for kids to store away their own items, and makes it easy for them to get things when they need them. Here are some simple kids room storage ideas that do just that.

1. Making It Look Good: Wooden crates look good, and are pretty versatile when it comes to storing things around a kid’s bedroom. Put them on wheels and they’ll be easy to move around (Apartment Therapy).

In my toy storage post, I talk about making storing fun. Use old vintage suitcases, or paint wooden crates to create a theme (for a boys room have a red painted crate with “Fire Department” in black, or a white crate with “NASA” in Blue. A girls room could have a pink princess crate, or a blue mermaid one).

2. Pops of Color: Check out the DIY plywood cubbie shelf in the picture above (Cherezbey), painted in different colors for a fun look. When it comes to cubbies, you want to have the shelves low to the ground – so kids can store things away easily and get items when they want them.

3. What’s Under the Bed? The space under the bed is a great storage space in a kids room. You can use sliding containers (IKEA). Or you can even build a DIY kids bedwith non-toxic pallets that has storage under it (Hviit). A way to create a lot of space under the bed is to use a loft bunk bed, so a desk can fit under it (Bunk Bed Ideas for an Awesome Kids Room).

4. A Bed Shelf: Having a shelf close by to the bed lets a toddler or a child keep toys, books or a light close by (Remodelista).

5. Making Use of Doors: The back of doors can be used for different kids storage ideas. You can get over the door organziers (get one here) that can fit over the bedroom door or over closet doors – Hello Little One. Hooks and railings can be fitted to the inside of closet doors for hidden storage.

6. Large Containers: Using large containers, without lids, helps make it easy for toys and items to be stored away in a kids room. Use plastic bins, metal buckets, a chest, or wicker baskets – all of these can be painted over to create a more playful look (BHG).

7. Keep Those Books Open: Simple wall storage brackets can be used to store and display reading books – letting kids grab a book whenever they want – seen on Domestic Simplicity and available from IKEA.

More kids mood board posts: