Art Wall

view from kitchen/living area

view from bedroom

floor plan not to scale

click for larger view

You've seen her previous apt. Here's the new place; a bit smaller but she owns it (!) and is taking her time to get it set up right. She wanted to do a black wall so I suggested the long hallway and using it as the main art wall. The kitchen is open to the hall so you can still enjoy it at every end of the apt.

My art installer loved doing their last place and did a great job here using pieces not used in the previous apartment (she's got a lot of art!!). And he left her room to add to it as she expands her collection...

Since you asked, the wall is painted Benjamin Moore Witching Hour in matte finish.

Blog Love: The Laundress

I've sung The Laundress' praise before. Love their storage pieces and their mission to get people to take care of their beautiful delicates on their own. They've had the blog for years, they don't blog often but what they do talk about is worth reading!

I especially liked their popular post Pit Stain & Ring-Around-the-Collar Removal....

Living Better With Less: Reuse What You're About to Throw Out To Organize Your Home

beautiful glass candles:

now as beautiful containers for office supplies or in medicine cabinet:

dry cleaner bags to help handbags keep their shape:

toilet paper rolls to keep utensil tray in place:

Candle Holders as Drawer Organizer and/or To Organize Your Medicine Cabinet

Opt for beautiful glass candles so you can reuse the glass. The smaller ones are perfect for the medicine cabinet for make-up brushes, q-tips, cotton pads, small tubes of whatever. Even in a drawer or on a desk to hold paperclips, push pins, coins, etc.... Once the candle is fully burned, use a butter knife to scrape out as much of the wax as possible. Then use the scrub side of a sponge with soapy water to get the rest of the wax out.

Dry Cleaner Bags to Help Your Bags Keep Their Shape

Your dry cleaner should take back the hangers for reuse, but they won't take the bags so you can use them to pack; click here to find out how; and use them to help care for your handbags. Tie a bag at the end and stuff as many bags as needed inside, then tie it off at the other end (so you only have 1 thing to pull out when you use your bag instead of a flurry of loose bags), and stuff in your handbag to help keep its shape.

Toilet Paper Rolls To Keep Your Drawer Organizer in Place

Toilet paper, paper towel rolls (and/or from a lint roller) keep your drawer organizer in place. Sometimes there's a inch or two left over. Shove the rolls in the back of the drawer to help keep the tray from sliding every time you open the drawer. You may have to fold up and stick one roll inside the other to make it stiff. In the pic above from my kitchen I have several stuffed back there.

Catalogs / Magazines as Boot Shapers

If you don't want to drop $10+ per pair for boot shapers, just roll up one (or a couple) magazines or catalogs that you would have otherwise recycled I hope, and place them in your boots. voilà!

What Make-Up Can't You Leave the House Without?

(images courtesy of into the gloss)

Did you see this article in the NY Times "My Lipstick? It's in Here Somewhere" about what cosmetics people carry with them when they leave the house and what to carry them in?

I side with Emily Weiss, the founder of the beauty blog Into the Gloss, who generally only carries lipstick/gloss. And if you haven't seen her blog, you must right now.

What do you carry with you?

Home Office (Almost Finished) Make-Over

before:

in progress, almost done:

(click image for larger view)

Many clients just need me to help them to a certain point of a project which they can then finish on their own. This client needed help with the larger issues of setting up his home office; where things should go and how, what order to tackle things, hanging his posters, etc. I helped him go thru some things then he finished the smaller things like organizing his books and papers on his own.

I took one of the two low bookshelves that were lined up to the right and stacked it on top of the one of the left. Having the two next to each other made getting in the closet tight but he really needed the storage so we needed to keep it somehow. We were hoping to clear out the closet to make room for two of the three file cabinets but a pipe only gave us room to fit the one, so we stacked the other two in the back.

There's still a large lucite poster to be hung next to the Escher that you can see the top of behind the bookcase, we didn't have the proper hardware to hang it.

What I Did Today: Organized + Styled a Bookshelf

before:

after:

All the books were taken off the shelves and gathered from other areas of the apartment. We categorized and cleaned them along with the the shelves. Books she needed the easiest access are on the lower shelf. The last thing we did was add the decorative pieces and photos.

We moved the lighting around as well. The things on the top of the black surface (another bookcase) are there temporarily, once cleared it will only have the small light, clock, and large basket. Also, she already had these shelves but was concerned about it's stability so I suggested she add more hanging standards and brackets to make them more sturdy.