I’m back today with part two of this week’s organizing inspiration! As I mentioned in Monday’s blog post, my goal for 2015 is to balance out the estate sale marketing with more beautiful spaces that my staff and I have organized. In that post I shared gorgeous photos from a home that we have organized from top to bottom in Silicon Valley. It started as a relocation project and over the last 6 months we have unpacked, fine-tuned, and maintained the space. When I say “we” I am including my wonderful clients who have been involved for every step of the way.
Today I am going to give you a peek into their pantry, wine room, and laundry room. Let’s start in the pantry, the beautiful walk-in pantry. My client designed this space with the idea that it would be used by family, house staff, and the occasional caterer. The cabinetry turned out wonderful and the endless amount of space is such a perk. Not only does it house all of the food and grocery staples, it also hosts the speciality small appliances like the soda stream, bread maker, food processor, etc.. In this space I wanted it to feel like a high-end grocery store so I added products like mesh wire baskets and ceramic topped canisters for a luxury look.
These white lidded canisters make me float back to my childhood watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The thought of opening one to enjoy a caramel or a chocolate covered raisin sounds like a vacation, doesn’t it! Little touches like this will make you pantry feel purposeful and high-end even if it really isn’t. I bought them at The Container Store and they come in a multitude of sizes.
I’m digging these chalk labels! I have them in a variety of shapes and size and they are so handy. I bring them in my organizing goodie bag and my clients love seeing them when I give them the final tour of their space. They sell chalk pens in every color you can imagine (yes, I own the rainbow) but for this project I stuck to white. It will be easy for my client to change if she needs to and it stands out against the cabinetry.
All in row, just like your favorite grocery store! If you are seeing this picture and you think it looks like I’m wasting space I’ll tell you that your pantry is just too darn full. Lining things up by type and layering them just like the grocery store will help you find what you need and prevent you from overbuying.
These mesh baskets are also from The Container Store. They come in several sizes and I use them for everything from pantry snacks to sweater bins on a daily basis. They look modern and chic and give my clients the visibility they need in a product that isn’t a standard clear bin. I attached chalk hang-tags so the kids will be prompted to help maintain the space. I think it looks great!
The next space is the wine room. When we initially unpacked the space we labeled each grid both vertically and horizontally so we could place the coordinates into an electronic wine-cellar system. It’s really handy if you are collector and if you are not interested in using the bar code scanning method. We unpacked over 60 boxes of wine and it took my team 8 hours with the help of our wonderful client. When it came time to remove the bright-colored coordinate stickers I knew it would be tricky to find something that would number the grid without looking tacky. In the end I used a chalk label and a craft punch to create small squares that we could place throughout the room. Instead of labeling every row we labeled every 6 going horizontally (so the numbers would be even) and every 5 going vertically (so the numbers would be odd).
It was tricky to find a labeling system that would work so I was thrilled when the client approved of this make-shift system. As you can see in this photo below the labels are no noticeable to the blind eye but if you do see them they blend and have the same rustic appeal as the wine and the cabinetry.
Is it happy hour yet?
Okay, the next and last space is the laundry rest of the laundry room. You can’t tell from the photo but there are 2 washers and 2 dryers stacked with storage above. I love the 4 cubbies for laundry bins and the pull out drawers for more laundry bins. I found the perfect bins for clean clothes at The Container Store (surprise, surprise) and I have each cubby designated to each of their children for clean clothes to go upstairs. The pull out drawers have tall bins for dirty clothes and are divided for towels, whites, colors, and dedicates. This space is always in use so it’s key that there is amble space for clean things to live while everything else is being processed.
Here is a closer look…yes the fixture is amazing! The best part about it is that it is on a sensor so it turns and off when you walk in and out of the room. This feature is a great investment when you have a busy family or a room that is in frequent use for short stints (guest bath, coat closet, pantry, etc.)
Well I hope you enjoyed part 2 of this week’s organizing inspiration! This home was so much fun for everyone to work on! We started at the end of July purging and planning and then moved them in in August. I had a large crew (Taylor, Billy, Jordan, Noelani, and myself) working on getting everything unpacked and out of boxes for 4 very long days. After that we let them live in the space for a few weeks before we came back to fine-tune and add more products. Taylor and I went back in December to help them make last-minute changes and prepare for their holiday events and we are looking forward to continuing to work with them as their family needs change and grow. It’s projects like this that make me so happy that I chose to go down the path that I did! These clients were such a joy to work with, they respected my time and my expertise and we were able to collaborate and work together to organize the home of their dreams.
These are some of my favorite behind the scenes shots from this project. It’s been a fun journey so far and I’m excited for future project like this!
I always learn something or get a new idea when I read your organizing posts! Live seeing the estate sales, but I’m so glad you’re going to be sharing more organizing projects this year! You’re such an inspiration!