Leah: 1 Ikea: 0

Do you recognize this funny looking guy?  

Well, if you do then you have assembled a lot of Ikea furniture just like me.  And let me tell you, being familiar with this strange Ikea Assembly Man is not always a good thing.  I have cursed at him MANY times for being so unclear.  

 

It all started when my best friend and I moved into our first apartment in Manhattan after college.  We insisted on building all of our furniture ourselves, despite both of our mothers telling us it wasn't a good idea.  Hours later, with tears in our eyes and blisters on our hands we admitted that maybe they were right.

Now, almost ten years later I am still putting together Ikea furniture and staring at the instruction booklet (that has NO WORDS!!) with a look of confusion.  But I am happy to say that yesterday I assembled a new freestanding wardrobe for my bedroom in record time.  Yay!  It was really great to be able to move some of my clothes out of the guest room and sort through the stuff I never wear.  

So, thank you Ikea Assembly Man.  It was nice working with ya (for once!). 

~Leah

Just Dreamin'

Some days... well, most days... I dream of having a closet that I can fill entirely with crafts and gift wrapping supplies.  I think it would look something like this.  

I seriously love everything about this photo; the rolls of wrapping paper mounted to the wall, a rainbow of ribbon choices inside a trunk (so cool!), labeled bins on the shelves for projects.  Not to mention the lovely curtains and rug... aaahhh, I WANT IT!!  

What do you dream about having in your home?

~Leah

(Photo Credit: RealSimple.com)

elfa Sale!!!

This is the first year in five years that I have not been designing closets at

The Container Store for their HUGE sale.  

The Container Store

A part of me is having "elfa withdrawal," but at least I still get emails from the store 

with photos of all the amazing organized solutions. 

Have you ever tried elfa in your home?  

They call it the "Potato Chip Product": Once you try it, you keep buying more! 

~Leah

My Organized Friends!

Today kicks off a full week featuring my organized friends! 

I'm so excited to share some of their photos with you.  

Each one has their own style and loves feeling organized, just as much as I do. 

RYAN: 

My fun-loving, adorable friend who is always up for a trip to West Elm or to World Market.

Multi-purpose bins and baskets

Look at how amazing his hall closet looks when all of his miscellaneous household items are contained in these clear bins!  The handles make it easy to pull out the baskets and the clear containers are great for visibility.  All from The Container Store. 

elfa drawer units

Here is his organized pantry where he uses elfa drawer units (again, the Container Store) to keep his yummy snacks and ingredients in place.  The drawers are great for those deep cabinets!  

elfa decor closet

And last but not least, his incredible closet!  Seriously, his closet is a part of his home tour when new people come over.  He even took the doors off!!  And I can bet you that it looks this amazing any time of the day.  Inspiring or what?!  

Thank you, Ryan, for letting us into your beautiful home.  By the way, did you see the new West Elm catalog??  SWOON!

~Leah

Confession

Two obsessions have come together:

Ellen and Portia DeGeneres.... and organized shoes!!!

This photo of their closet came from Architectural Digest...

click here to see more photos of their beautiful home. 

Aaahhh, swoon!

~Leah

Did you know that we only wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time?

Well, if that is true then my closet would have so much more space in it for other lovely things... 

like shoes!!!  They don't count, right?!

~Leah

Confession

Alright, this is a two-part confession...

The first is that I am completely sucked in to the reality show Guiliana & Bill

Guiliana hosts E! News and Bill is best known as the first winner of The Apprentice.  

The Rancics are an adorable couple.  They are constantly moving and traveling, 

but they always make time for each other.  So cute. 

Now, am I the only one that is watching this show???

Okay, the second confession is that I was SO JEALOUS of Guiliana's new closet!  They just bought a new home in LA and decided to turn their extra bedroom into an entire walk-in closet- swoon!  

It looked something like this:  

California Closets

A girl can dream, right?!

 

~Leah