dining room

My dining room – in progress

Some of you have been following along {remember this post? and this one?} as I figure out how to best utilize my dining room. I want it to be pretty and functional, and as the only place to put a table in our home, I can’t turn it into a full-time office/playroom, but since we don’t have an office/playroom, this one rooms serves as all three, often simultaneously.

Over the Christmas break, we made a trip to Ikea for one of their oh-so-wonderful Expedit shelving units. We took down the Pottery Barn wine shelves that have lived in the corner for five years. The space looked like this for a while:

Keep in mind that it’s not always sunny and beautiful when we tackle projects around here. Some of the in progress pictures are dark and grainy or yellow-ish. I never claimed to be a photographer and you still get the idea, right?

Said wine shelves were perched on top of the shelving unit for a while as we were trying to decide whether to hang them somewhere else or not. Then, I started organizing the shelves to house some of Molly’s toys and some of my SBN/Junior League/teaching stuff that I use almost every day.

I love the white bins I found at Target {bottom cubes} and the file box from Container Store. Don’t fret – you’re not missing anything fun on top. The wine shelves are still there. But then I snagged two more white bins at Target and was hosting a Junior League meeting at my house, so now the shelves look like this:

Obviously we’re going to repaint to cover up the patches from taking down the wine shelves and I still have some styling to do to make everything as pretty and functional as I desire, but overall, I think it’s coming along well! The bins are plenty roomy for a lot of Molly’s toys and I love having my work stuff so accessible {as in, not moving around piles of stuff and pulling on overstuffed drawers!}. The best part is, it doesn’t take up more room than what we had there previously.

The only problem is figuring out where to store the wine glasses that used to be on the shelves. Oh, what problems we face, right?

And, for even more fun, I found some pretty dupioni silk drapes that I wanted to give a whirl, so I bought them and then sweetly asked Jim to hang the rod for me.

Before:

After:

I’m trying to decide if I’m going to hang the same panels on the other window, behind the huntboard or find a coordinating roman shade. I’m leaning toward the curtains, but need to see some pictures of curtains behind furniture before I decide. Send some my way, if you come across any!

Slowly but surely, we are figuring out this space and making it work for us!

I just couldn’t take it anymore

You may remember this post from April {*ahem* yes, EIGHT months ago} when I stated that I wanted to organize my work spaces and be more efficient. Well, the end of the semester came {in addition to being a one-half of SBN, I also teach at a local college}, then summer session, then Molly’s birthday, then fall semester, and then holiday card orders…and I fell farther and farther behind on my to-do list at home. Since that April post, we did move the secretary into the dining room and I like that it’s tucked away, but still accessible – especially to my desk, er, dining room table.

Last week, I lost two pairs of scissors and misplaced a list, which sent me into a tailspin and I decided I couldn’t take it anymore. I got to work.

This is what the secretary looked like Friday morning. Piles of papers, projects to start on, tutoring papers, final essays I had just graded, and all kinds of randomness.

Need a closer look?

And after seeing that hot mess, you didn’t think the drawers were any neater, right? And I started to clean out the desk area, I found one my favorite books of Molly’s, a CD, a sweet picture of my baby girl when she was actually a baby, and an old contact lens case. I also found a roll of stamps that I knew I had bought.

When I organize, I like to clear everything out, make big piles and throw a lot of stuff away. I had piles of supplies, SBN info, school info, home/personal stuff and then a few piles of items that belonged in different rooms entirely {like those contacts, which go in the bathroom!}. And of course I wouldn’t tackle a project like this without coffee!

I even found my long-lost label maker, a bunch of cords, and a battery charger to a camera we haven’t used in two years; the biggest pile of paper clips *ever*; and our museum membership cards. Whenever I take Molly to DPK or the Nature Museum, they have to look us up.

I know, I know. I’m shaking my head, too. How did I let it come to this?!

Once I had everything sorted {and for the record, I threw away those paper clips. Gasp!} I had started putting it all back together in what I *think* is an efficient, appropriate way. I kind of have to live with a system for a while. As Jim said to me in the car yesterday, “everything has its place until you find somewhere better to put it.”

Well, yeah.

So this is what I’m working with now:

postal scale, label maker, scissors, tape, hole punches, paper clips, stapler and staples

paper punches, circle cutter, ribbon for banners, sticks for cupcake toppers and centerpieces

paper cutter, assorted cardstock, SBN client binder and calendar, basket of cords

address book, stationery {mine and molly's} and notepads

I still want/need to do some work in the top part of the secretary, to make it more functional, but for now, I’m so excited that I can find scissors and tape! I’m also excited that this project cost ZERO dollars {unless you count the cost of the paper clips I tossed}. I used bins and baskets that I had around the house.

After completing this project, which took me just under two hours, I was motivated to tackle something else, but quickly lost interest. Hopefully I’ll be compelled to take on another problem-spot soon!