images via Elle Decor and Camilla Styles // quote via Martha Stewart
before and after: a mother’s story of organization
Somehow, Katie Buchanan of Little Rock Paper Scissors manages to make organization fun. Her tried and true strategies for cutting clutter, combined with her quick wit and outgoing personality, make for an enticing and informative read every time. This time of year especially, we’re all seeking ways to add order to our lives, and we’re happy to report that Katie will be here with you every step of the way! Her new column begins today with an office makeover for her mom.
In honor of a month celebrating mamas, here’s a story of “Go clean your room!â€
Once upon a time, I was hired for an amazing office organization project. I would have free reign to really show off one area of my business, Little Rock Paper Scissors! I would assess the space, toss out junk, shop for supplies at The Container Store, organize it all neatly and get to do so for one of my favorite clients in all the land: My Mama!
Just when I thought the deal couldn’t get any sweeter, I was also able to see for the first time what a huge, disorganized, closet slob my mom really is! The project put a very sharp end to her ever-present suggestions of tidiness, and I hope my sister, Susan, is reading this.
“Susan, if you can hear me…Mom has been living a lie! And her days of giving us domestic advice with just a hint of brow-raising assessment are over! You hear me? O-V-E-R.”
Now, one thing I do pride myself on is what my friend Betsy calls my being a “perfectionist without judgment.” Just because I can make things fall into place spic and span-like does not mean for one single second I will ever judge anyone for less-than-tidy spaces! We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Mine just happens to be that I am a very strong event planner, organizer, personal shopper and obsessive-compulsive neat freak who actually likes making messes just so I can clean them up. Don’t forget, they make doctors and pills for this.
However, when it comes to Mrs. Perfect America Mother, Francois, well, now that’s a whole different situation. Judge on, my friends.
Please be warned, the following photos are very disturbing:
If you need eight rolls of scotch tape, seven glue sticks and 894 dried up, topless ink pens, she’s your woman.
I know you may find this hard to believe, but what you have to realize is that this entire 10 by 12 foot room is gorgeous and spacious. Everything is top-of-the-line. Including the mess that is EVERYWHERE.
Hey, Susan, look, there’s a great picture of you and your precious children…right behind the heap of ziploc bags she uses to organize other, smaller ziploc bags.
The above cabinet quite possibly has more square footage than my entire house. Seriously, I could lie down flat with arms open on each of the eight shelves.
I could go on, but I think you are getting the picture. I’ll stop here. Sure don’t want to risk losing her as a client!
Fast forward one trip to The Container Store and four highly productive hours later:
Sadly, I could not get her to budge on the Yellow Pages. They are here to stay. Right next to her PowerMac that is used primarily for web surfing (I hear a rumor that the yellow pages can be found there) and crossword downloading.
Supplies at The Container Store: $375
Four hours with Little Rock Paper Scissors: $400
Being the mother you always wanted to be: Priceless!
And honestly, who could ask for a better boss? I love you, Mama!
To close, some real world tips from me, professional organizer/daughter of the year:
1. Organizing begins and ends with psychology. It is OKAY to be a cluttered mess. It is also OKAY to toss things. I promise. Swear, cross my heart. If there is an article in the newspaper you are dying to read, the topic will come up again. And the Internet is a very magical thing!
2. Go in this order: Purge (ruthlessly), sort, store/file, label, repeat. Each time you do it, and over time, the less there will be to worry about. Kind of like plucking your eyebrows…
3. Use FREE expert advice! www.containerstore.com has FABULOUS tips for organizing every area of your home. Their products are the best and most preferred. They can also be pricey. Find what you like, and shop around to find things you love that won’t break the bank. Even shop local!
4. Organization can be useful and beautiful. There are always ways to incorporate your personal style into a functional space. Don’t let organized = restrictive and less-than-pretty! Let the colors and styles you love in home décor and fashion reveal themselves in the products used to organize your life. (We picked out Mama’s stuff all pretty-like, and it matched the outfit she had on that day…in autumn colors that suit her!)
5. Did I remind you to label, label, label? Store it, file, label it, forget about it. If you never go looking for that “gotta have it†file/instruction manual/bill again, then you know to purge it in a few months, which is when you need to re-organize. About twice a year, as seasons go warm to hot and back again, PURGE!
6. Although organization can be and IS fun, don’t be completely silly. Get a fire-proof safe for the major things that cannot be replaced and/or have life or death ramifications. Be ruthless about what life or death ramifications REALLY mean. Pictures of European vacations are nice, but they can be kept in the brain for years and years for free. A birth certificate and the passport that carries you from fabulous place to place, cannot.
Painted Burlap Ottoman Makeover
At Home readers, you are in for a treat! Live the Home Life blogger and DIY extraordinaire Cara Wilkerson is now a monthly fixture on the At Home in Arkansas blog, sharing her tips and tricks-of-the-trade for bringing new life to old furnishings! We were blown away by Cara’s first post (she makes refurbishing this ottoman look so easy!), and we cannot wait to see what else she has in store. Welcome, Cara!
Just over a year ago, I stumbled upon a lovely little estate sale ottoman that was just too impossible to resist, so home he came with me. With a simple fabric switch-a-roo, this guy was much improved, but I have to be honest, I wasn’t 100% happy with his transformation.
With a plethora of other furniture rehabs capturing my attention, this guy waited patiently in the wings until I could tackle him with plan B. Well, my friends, the time has now arrive to reinvent this furniture friend…again…so let’s get down to some serious rehab business.
First up, slight demolition. We’ll begin by removing the existing fabric. Needle-nose pliers work wonders in plucking staples from any upholstery project.
Once the cushion is stripped, our next step is to paint the base. For easy painting, we’ll hammer a nail into the bottom of each foot. This gives the legs a little lift to ensure that every angle of the foot is properly covered.
One solid coat of primer (I swear by Kilz) gives our future paint a solid surface to stick to.
Once our primer is dry, a couple of coats of white paint come into play. We’ll use a plastic bag to wrap our brush in between coats, keeping the bristles from drying out and saving us the hassle of washing our brush between each coat.
Next up, fabric for the cushion. For this part of the project, we’ll mix it up a bit and try something new. Painted burlap is definitely in the near future.
To create a striped effect, let’s use painters tape to outline our pattern.
My initial thought is to use black paint, but I feel the urge to opt for a charcoal gray instead. Wiping excess paint from the brush and applying in short strokes gives us a light, slightly aged feel and keeps the paint from bleeding underneath the painters tape.
While the paint is still wet, we’ll remove the tape and pat ourselves on the back for transforming our burlap from boring to brilliant.
Once our paint is good and dry, let’s flip the fabric over and work our way around the end of the seat cushion, attaching our fabric with a staple gun, flipping the seat over from time to time to make sure our stripes are laying straight.
Once finished, we’ll place our seat cushion back on the frame and admire all of our handiwork. A completely simple transformation, and I could not be more excited. This is definitely the life this little guy was meant to live.
room of the week: before & after kitchen
Our readers tell us they love Befores & Afters…it’s the “a picture says a thousand words” concept, and we all love to see how dreary spaces can be brought to life.
This one (designed by Pasha Bass and Bill Beringer) is a favorite, and we liked it so much it graced the cover of our May issue, which is all about renovations. It went from cramped and outdated to light and bright, just like the rest of this historic house.
The white palette mixed with all that beautiful marble is a personal fave. What kitchen colors inspire you?
exclusive rue issue #5 sneak peek!
My oh my, we’re busy little bees around the At Home in Arkansas office. An issue to send to press. A blog redesign. A series of new blog columnists, including the lovely Tracy Porter. And today, we’re sharing yet another source of design inspiration…
We’re partnering with our friends at Rue magazine to bring you a sneak peek of Rue Issue 5! How {incredibly} exciting is that?
Rue editors Crystal Gentilello and Anne Sage forwarded along these two gorgeous images of Kendall Wilkinson’s showroom in San Francisco, photographed by Sean Dagen. Both make their debut in the new issue, which goes live one week from today!
And if they’re any sign of what’s to come, we’re all in for an unbelievably inspiring read. Mark your calendars for Rue issue 5 on Monday, May 23!
Be there, or be square!
quoting designer jeffrey bilhuber
Photos via Jeffrey Bilhubercraft room makeover by jerusalem greer
This week, we’re introducing you to our new columnists! Last week you met Tracy Porter and Chris Olsen. Today, meet Jerusalem Greer, the talented and creative craft artist and self-professed “nest fluffer” behind Jolly Goode Gal! For a sample of her unique style, check out her home featured in our July 2010 issue. As a mom, she’s perfected DIY projects on a budget, and we knew she would be a great fit for the At Home in Arkansas blog.
Jerusalem’s monthly column on crafting begins today with tips on creating your ideal craft space.
Everyone loves a great make-over story! A fun, and often inexpensive, makeover is to create a craft space in your home.
Whether you have a whole room to dedicate, a closet or perhaps a small corner of an existing room (dining room, family room, kids room,) you can achieve an adorable and inspiriting craft zone that will fit your personality and your pocket book, and bring some order to your crafty chaos.
So, how do you go about creating the perfect craft space for your needs, space and budget?
Here are a few easy steps to get you started:
1) Decide where your craft space is going to be based both on what space is available in your home, and what kind of crafting you do there. Reflect on what type of crafting you enjoy most. If you enjoy machine sewing your space will need to access to a table surface and an outlet. However, if knitting is your forte then perhaps you just need easy access to ample storage for your yarn and needles and a portable craft bag or box that can travel with you from room to room as you work.
2) Once you have decided on the type of space you need and the location, you can begin the fun task of gathering and collecting inspiration pictures. The Internet, catalogs and magazines are full of inspiring ideas. One tip: don’t just look at “craft rooms†and storage pictures per se; look at everything that inspires you, from floor to ceiling. I have found great inspiration for craft storage in farm & feed stores, education supply catalogs and many other unlikely places.
Here are some of my all-time favorite craft areas:
Photo via here
Photo via here
Photo via here
Photo via here
3) After you’ve chosen your inspiration pictures, you can begin narrowing down the exact items you will need to purchase, re-purpose or re-store for the project, and those that even thought you love them, maybe are not the best choice for this project.
4) After you have narrowed down your choices. you can create an inspiration board (like the one above, featuring a patchwork theme) to help keep you on track as you forge ahead. Having an inspiration board can help motivate you to take the steps necessary to accomplish your project goal, such as saving those pennies, only purchasing what will fit your space, and staying true to your design.
So, regardless of how big or how small your craft space is, now is the perfect time to jump in and give it a make-over that both inspires and encourages you, turning your craft dreams into craft realities!
garden illustration by hannah alexander
One of the things we love most is showcasing talented Arkansans. That’s the reason we’re over the moon about introducing Hannah Alexander! Not long after we began browsing her adorable blog, Sundry Mumsy, we discovered she’s an amazingly gifted illustrator. So, you can just imagine our delight that she’ll now be illustrating her favorite pages from At Home in a column on our blog!
Hannah’s column begins today with a garden container rendering inspired by our May issue. Isn’t it lovely?
I’m a sucker for “befores and afters,” so this month’s issue of At Home in Arkansas is right up my alley. As I visually devour every page, I get the itch and start seeing everything in my house as a “before” shot, wishing I could re-do and renovate each room. But, alas, significant renovations require two things I am short on: time and money. But that doesn’t mean minor renovations are off limits. I might not be able to afford the whole face lift, but I can certainly apply a little lipstick!
My favorite cheap and easy trick to brighten up a room in need of renovation is some fresh flowers or an indoor plant. I LOVE the arrangements featured in the Container Makeovers segment of At Home this month. They are works of art, so beautifully composed! And, I greatly appreciate that everything I need to know about recreating the specific arrangements is spelled out for me: what plants are what, how to tend to them, etc. I need directions, people!! And I NEED these plants!
tulip louise: spring cleaning {wardrobe style}
Remember how effortlessly Anna Chatelain of Tulip Louise styled and modeled these top looks for spring? Well, we certainly do, and we were so impressed that we snatched her up to be a monthly columnist on the At Home blog!
Stints in the fashion district of New York City and the corporate division of Neiman Marcus make her a top choice for wardrobe styling in our state (visit Tulip Louise to marvel at her eye for fashion). We believe in living a well-styled life, and you can bet we’ll be anxiously awaiting Anna’s posts each month, featuring everything you need to know to get your wardrobe in tip-top shape.
Have you spent countless hours daydreaming of the perfect closet to hold your perfectly curated lovelies? Wow, we have so much in common! In days past, the simple thought of organizing my wardrobe exhausted me. Limited square footage {and cash flow} can leave a fashionista feeling downright discouraged. “Inspiring†images of sprawling wardrobes only made the task seem that much more daunting:
1: Mariah Carey / 2 & 3: Jenna Lyons / 4: Domino Magazine
Worry not! Below is a client’s closet that I recently helped tackle for spring:
Are you inspired yet? Wonderful. Here are four simple steps explaining how we did it:
1.    Switch out mismatched hangers for the same style throughout. TIP: Wooden hangers out of your budget? Opt for something like this!
2.    Separate your pieces by style {i.e. slacks, skirts, shorts}, then via colorway.
3.    {Space allowing} Store all shoes and clutches in individual rubbermaid containers. TIP: Take inventory photos of each item, then tape photo to exterior of coordinating container for quick reference.
4.    Place occasional pieces {i.e. swimsuits, belts} in storage bins to cut the clutter.
Now that you’re armed with the necessary steps, go forth and organize!
Yours truly-
friday favorites: lucite, beach style, sunlit spaces & Mountain Living
From art director Mandy Keener: “This is rockin! The lucite and skull combo is brilliant.” (“Style Inspiration: Lovely Lucide” via Burrs & Berries)
From advertising coordinator Laura LaRue: “I’m a bold color kind of girl, so this outfit and room definitely caught my eye. Now, if I could just get to the beach, wear that outfit and sleep in that room! Happy Friday!” (“Fashions to Furnishings: Under the Sun with Anthropologie” via Zesty Nest)
From associate editor Paulette Pearson: “Oh. my. goodness. These spaces make my heart sing! The streaming sunlight, the feeling of being tucked away with a bird’s eye view of the city. And I love that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, with tape rug outlines and books propping up the coffee table. Thank you, DesignLoveFest!” (“Lovelylight via DesignLoveFest; click here to see more)
From editor in chief Diane Carroll: “All sorts of favorites come together here: a favorite magazine, Mountain Living, (one of our sister pubs) features The City Sage as a guest blogger, and the post pairs rustic interiors with comfy and casual clothes. Fun all the way around.” (“Guest Blog: Anne Sage debuts “Outfit to Room” via Mountain Living)
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