The Book Mailbox Part 2

A week or so ago, I showed "the book mailbox" here.

I had put it up with command strips and was a little concerned it wouldn't hold. It seemed to be ok at first. Oddly enough, it held for about 5 days and then I woke up in the morning and it was on the floor. What was really weird was that it is a big metal thing with heavy books and it didn't even wake us up when it fell...

So instead of putting it back up, I rested it on the ledge that sticks out in our wall. I actually grew to like it there so I went and got a picture frame to complete the look so it didn't look so by itself. This is how it turned out.

I actually think I like the way this looks a lot better so it worked out :) 

Dressing Table

Ahh a dressing table... something I always wanted but never had room for. When I was a teenager I would get ready at my desk and now there is burn marks in the wood from the straightener. My Mother was not happy....

I always liked to sit down when I got ready .. mainly because it takes forever to do my hair so I would get tired of standing. 

When we moved to this apartment, I knew I was going to be able to put one in... I also knew that I had to get something because not only is there no counter space in my bathroom, there aren't any electrical outlets! Now 4 months after we have lived here I can finally post a picture of my dressing table!

This was when I first got it so I thought I would show you it in it's barest state. The dressing table is the Malm one from Ikea. The mirror is also from Ikea... and so is the uniform I'm wearing ;) 

I then got some con-tact paper and lined the drawer with it. This stuff is the most annoying thing to put down. Oh and I also forgot to mention... the mirror is hung by command strips because that wall is a dividing wall so it is concrete. We weren't able to put screws in it. Anyway, I will note the mirror is still there and hasn't fallen down!

Here it is with everything on it. The drawers beside are another Ikea product. I use them to store all my other beauty stuff besides makeup. This keeps all my stuff out of the bathroom. In fact, the only things in my bathroom are my facial care stuff and my toothbrush! The chair is a temporary staple until I can get a nice fancy one.

 

Moving onto the drawers, I won't show what is inside because I don't have drawer dividers for all of them. I will also share more detail into how I organized my dressing table on my business website. I use the first drawer for jewelry, the second for hair accessories and brushes, the third has hair products in there, the fourth has anything to do with skin care: moisturizers, body scrubs, etc. It basically has any excess that I am not using at the moment. And lastly, the fifth drawer has all my hair tools in there. The little white drawers on top hold my nail polishes. Eventually I am going to put little stickers on the top of the lids so I can easily see what color it is.

 

I got the mirror from homesense and I spray painted a regular cup to hold some of my lip products.

I will be doing a tutorial on the spray painting makeup holders next week. This is the other side of my dressing table. The frame is from Ikea and I made the print myself using photoshop. Pinterest is great for getting free fonts.

And of course I have to include Lady! If you don't know yet, I love Disney so you will see little Disney things pop up around my house. :)

So that is my dressing table so far. It is not complete yet but I figured it was time to show you. I still need to get all the drawer dividers for the rest of the drawers and I need to finish lining the drawers. I also need to buy a nice chair but that is not an immediate to do for that. Getting the drawers properly organized is higher on my list!

The Book Mailbox

I have been growing quite the collection of books I want to read or am reading... problem is they all sit in a very large pile on top of my bedside table. 

I was just sitting on my bed once staring at the wall and an idea hit me. I went into homesense to search for the perfect product to execute this idea and I came across a tin industrial "book mailbox." That is what we shall call it - because it is kind of like an inbox but for books!

Here it is all set up with some books in it!

Our apartment is very old and our walls are plaster and the exterior walls (and walls between units) are cement so screws don't jive that well here. Because of that, I use command strips to hang most things. They are seriously amazing! You can kind of see it poking out at the top there but oh well. I was a bit worried they wouldn't be able to hold the weight of the book mailbox (which is pretty heavy itself .. it is metal) let alone the massive books that I have stuck in there but it is still up there!

As you can see there are a few books on my nightstand, that is my Q&A journal and my planner. I write in those every night so I will keep them there. Underneath is some magazines that I really have to get around reading.... 

Overall I love how it turned out! It is a great place to keep these books and once I am done with them they will go onto the bookshelf in my office of course!

1 Month In: The Bedroom

As of tomorrow, we will have been in our new place for a month. Our place is far from finished and I have hardly even got started on some rooms but I am going to share with you what things are looking like now. I have 5 rooms to show you which I will space out over the week. Today, we start with the bedroom!

We started with this:

The blinds came with the apartment. I hate them but they will probably stay. Anyway... here is the now!

Brandyn's side of the bed. 

And my side... I couldn't get far enough away to get a picture of the bed in entirety lol. 

 

This is the closet. The bins on the top shelf hold my purses and Brandyn's work clothes. The blue bin holds seasonal decor (aka Christmas stuff). The drawers beside it hold my work stuff, bathing suits and winter accessories. There is a blanket on that blue bin because the cats like to go in there and sleep.

Here is a little basket. You may remember it from our last apartment. It was used to hold the toilet paper. It doesn't fit in the space between the cabinet and the toilet in this one so I re-purposed it. It now holds all of our slippers!

This is the view when you first walk into the room.

These drawers are the start of my dressing table. Each drawer holds something different.

... like my hair tools....

and hair products.... It also holds my make up, anything for the body like lotion or bath salts, and my makeup.

Gizmo was being extra photogenic :)

What we still need to do in this bedroom:

• Buy a dresser. While the nightstands are working for now, my clothes are busting out of there. There is no room for any wardrobe expansion which is just not acceptable.
• Buy my dressing table, mirror, chair and all other accessories to go with it.
• Get the little DIY magic I'm doing to my dressers done.
• Buy duvet, duvet cover and sheets (our mattress is very thick so we need deep pocket ones)
• Get art/pictures for above the bed 
• Do some DIY magic on the drawer system for my dressing table

Products that you see in this picture:

• Bed: Ikea (Svelvik)
• Sheets: Ikea
• Comforter and Pillow Shams: Home Outfitters (but I wouldn't reccomend buying these pintuck type ones because as you can see, a lot of it has already come undone and we have had it maybe a year?)
• Drawer system: Ikea (Alex)
• Nightstands: Ikea (Malm)
• Lamps: Homesense