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:

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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!

Adding a Fabric Backing to an Everyday Bookcase

I haven’t had a chance yet to highlight any of the projects from the Stylish Living Interior Design Expo from a couple of weeks ago. The organizers of the event asked me to create ten or so easy fabric projects that anyone could use to instantly update their space.

One of my demos was a quick bookcase transformation. The bookshelf I used was a standard backless shelf from Ikea (the 8 cubby Expedit). For the improvised backing, I had particle board cut to size at Home Depot and used a favorite Calico Corners fabric for lining.

I know fabric-lined bookcase demos are all over the web so I won’t post every detail here on the main page… but if you’d like to check out my step-by-step directions follow the jump! Read more »

New Favorite Trend: Stacking Books

One of my favorite new trends is a unique way to display your favorite books: stacking one on top of the other. It’s a simple way to mix up your current bookshelf or create new displays around the house.

I love the way stacked books look on ledges, like the above left photo, or the way the ‘invisible bookcases’ (shown below) work seamlessly into the above right room.

Follow the jump for more great ideas and where to find the shelving units displayed! Read more »