I had a couple of pics of this up on my Flickr a while ago but I realised I never posted about it here! I have a white Billy bookcase in my study/sunroom, tucked neatly into the awkward corner between the door to the kitchen and the french doors out onto the deck. There is not a lot of storage in our house, and with me running my little business from this room and the hubby studying his MBA at the same time... well, lets just say the junk had piled up in the bookcase.
So I took the time recently to do a bit of a spring clean and tidy and its so much better now, both to look at and find things in!
Here are the before shots - not nice at all. Textbooks and pens and stationary supplies and folders and paperwork everywhere!
And here are the afters: the folders all lined up nicely, stationary tucked into the little white boxes and paper supplies neatly filed into the magazine holders. The plain cardboard box on the top shelf was a cheapy from Ikea and holds all those annoying little electronic bits and pieces - mobile phones and chargers, adapters, extra cables etc. I wrapped the box in white paper, with a panel of blue striped scrapbooking paper on the front to tie in with the other blue items.
The blue fabric covered document tray on the second shelf was from Target, marked down from $20 to $8, and I also bought the matching mouse mat for my desk for just $1!
And I know theres been a bit of a backlash against colour coded books, but you can't deny that it makes Physics and Calculus and assorted other textbooks look damn fine ;)
Its amazing what a difference a simple tidy and organisation can make, and its so easy to find everything and keep it clean when everything has its place.
In other news, the recycled plastic rugs I bought on ebay for out on the roof terrace and back deck have arrived and they look fabulous! My only tiny worry is that Morty seems to have developed a taste for the rug on the back deck, he's already nibbled a small hole so I hope he doesn't destroy them. The back deck is currently a bit of a blank slate so no pics just yet, but I'm thinking with my economic stimulus payment from K Rudd I'm going to get a lovely outdoor lounge for out there. And all I need on the terrace is a shade sail or umbrella, and then I can show you its final before and after as well.
PS. I have added a new item to my Etsy store - printable bookplates & bookmarks :)
READING: The Brick House, a fabulous renovating/decorating blog I've just discovered via Apartment Therapy. This gal is the thrifting queen - so many wonderful midcentury pieces on a budget of less than $100 per piece, including a beautiful George Nelson light fixture for just $6!
INSPIRING: This post on Modish (via Avie Designs, also a HUGE inspiration at the moment), such a pick-me-up during a crisis of confidence.
LOVING: Kelly Giesen (website and new blog and a great set of shots of her place on Flickr), also via Apartment Therapy. Her fireplace/TV storage shown below is to die for, I wonder if I could do something similar in our place?
Kelly Giesen's TV/fireplace, via Flickr
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3 comments:
I'm glad someone else loves the fireplace/TV storage! It got so much hate on Apartment Therapy, but I've definitely spent much of today trying to figure out how to make it work in my space!
I totally hear you! Its so strange that it got such a harsh reaction as its such an elegant solution. I would think its more comfortable to look slightly down at the TV then arch your neck to look up at it mounted above the fireplace. I read your post on it over on your blog - I say go for it, if our TV didnt also entail hubby's rather large set of surround speakers I would be doing it in an instant, as it is I need to figure out a way to minimise them as well as the tv... *sigh* Boys and their toys, huh?
It looks fabulous! And you're so right - color coding does wonders. Well done!
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