Pepper Design Blog

Guest Post: Organizing Tips by Simply Modern Mom

When Tiffany asked me to take part in her “Simply Said” series by sharing a few suggestions for keeping celebrations simple yet classy and fun (think great decorations, cool themes and handmade details) I was delighted to share my tips & tricks. Tiffany in return put together a wonderful post on living room organization that I think you’ll all love, so without further ado, here she is:

********************************************************************************************

Hi, I’m Tiffany from Simply Modern Mom and I am excited to be here on Pepper Design Blog. Love Morgan and her amazing ability to make things look gorgeous all the time. My site, Simply Modern Mom is a place where moms learn and share ways to simplify their lives. I share tons of tips, photo tutorials, craft projects and lists.

As a mother of two girls age 4 and 18 months, my house used to look like this. Who knew two little girls could make a mess this big every. single. day.? Don’t believe me? They are in the pictures. Proof. And the mess even traveled upstairs and into other rooms. It wasn’t unusual for me to find toys in my bed, in kitchen cupboards and hidden throughout the house. Every inch of carpet was covered with toys. Ridiculous.

To put an end to this insanity, I got clear plastic bins. Shoe box size in a pack of 10. I organized the toys in each bin according to type. It’s soothing for me to sort things. I’m one of those weird people.

The rule in our house is each child can only have one bin open at a time. If she wanted to play with toys in another bin, the first bin must be put away. If she is good, sometimes I would spoil her by allowing two bins opened at a time. Oh. You cannot what a difference this makes. My kids learned to appreciate their toys and enjoy playing with them more than before.

Not only that, we purchased a coffee table from Ikea that holds all the bins below. It is nice to have the toys hidden and the play room is more visually appealing.

And yes, the play room has undergone a little makeover since the pictures taken at the beginning of the post. The play room is at the front of our house and one of the first rooms people see when they enter our home. I wanted to make it more inviting than childish. It is still a work in progress. At least it’s not cluttered with toys.

Thanks, Tiffany! What a genius way to corral in all of those toys!

Finally Movin’ on the Living Room Redesign

Photos have found their frames, sofa is in place, rugs carefully selected, a custom ottoman created, and a beautiful fabric lampshade addition has arrived from a fabulous etsy artist that I can’t wait to introduce you to! There are just a few more projects left before the living room is officially in it’s *happy place*.

As a quick reminder, this is what we started with:

The initial inspiration for the room came in the form of soft tans, beiges, raspberry reds, burgundy, chocolate and orange.

We started by painting the room a light tan to bring in a bit of warmth (there’s nothing like good friends to tackle an all-day project).

I found the ultimate color palette inspiration in a beautiful Suzani swatch by Calico Corners. I used just a yard of the favorite print to refashion a coffee table into a padded ottoman (you can check out the entire diy project here).

And that’s where we’ve left off! I can’t wait to share the new details and the final room this week.

With just a few additional diy projects and a couple of key decisions to be made (it’s awful when you can’t make up your mind) I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the progress in the next few days.

Hope everyone had a restful and relaxing holiday weekend!

Rooms Inspired by the Month of June

Once again this month’s post comes all too late! But since we have one last day in this beautiful month {hoping it’s not June Gloom where you are} here is a bit of inspiration pulled from the soft blues, turquoises, indigos and cobalts that remind me of June.

I love the use of both contrasting and complimentary colors in rooms that favor the cool hue. How great is that yellow at the top, or the layers of soft blue at the last picture in the bottom right corner (that quatrefoil chair is pretty amazing too).

This wallpaper is gorgeous!

Teals and turquoises bring a coastal feel to any space and the solid walls are a beautiful backdrop to accessories like the gold bamboo coffee table, chinoiserie pillow cases and backless sofa above.

Blue bedrooms are one of my favorites… I’ve always been partial to warmer colors in living rooms, dining rooms and kitchens, but I can’t get over how great a blue bedroom looks.

Here’s a darker take on blue. Bringing in a strong navy, cobalt or indigo can be a great substitutes for black and dark brown in rooms.

That’s my June blues round-up… to see more ‘Rooms Inspired by the Month’, click here.  Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Images: House Beautiful on Flickr and DecorPad