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Though my school going years are behind me, during this time of year, when "back to school" starts popping up everywhere, I get in the mood to shop for fresh notebooks and new tools. Anyone else?? Below is my round-up of some of the most stylish "school supplies" for grown-ups: 
1 - single subject notebook, 2 - white pencils, 3- 17-month black and white striped agenda, 4- zippered gold pencil case, 5- gold scissors, 6- white binder, 7- black and white folder, 8- white calculator
My friend and San Francisco based interior decorator, Maggie of Maggie Stephens Interiors, recently finished up this beautiful bright living room for one of her clients:
Isn't it fantastic? I love how she incorporated different high impact pieces (that rug!) without overwhelming the room. The mostly black and white palette makes the space feel very sophisticated and pulled together, while the accessories add color and fun (how cute are those gold pineapples?). See more photos of this living room here.
Ok guys, get ready for some serious organizing porn. I recently got a sneak peek at Neat Method's most recent portfolio photos and I was so impressed I just had to share with you all. If you haven't heard of Neat Method, they're a company that specializes in stylish home organization. These girls after my own heart and are so talented, as you'll see from these images of their work below:
organized closet
organized jewelry
organized handbags
organized kitchen
organized dry goods
organized walk-in pantrySo beautiful right?? Raise your hand if you're feeling inspired to get your home organized! For more, check out the fun before and afters on their website.
In an effort to make our move last month, less stressful than our previous ones, I decided we needed to do things a little differently this time around. During past moves we packed without any type of strategy. More often than not, boxes would go unlabeled and because boxes didn't clearly indicate which room they belonged in, the people helping us move, would put them down in any random spot in the new place. This would result in an overwhelming first few days (and weeks) living at the new place as unpacking took forever and we would frustratingly run around to each room and open and look through all the boxes whenever we needed to find something that we hadn't yet unpacked.
What brought down our stress a couple notches during this most recent move, was color coding and numbering boxes while packing. Doing this made things much more organized. The movers were able to easily identify what room to put each box in, and once we were moved in, we were able to quickly determine which boxes to open first and also where to find any unpacked item we needed.
For any of you moving soon, below is the strategy we used. I hope it will help make your move less stressful. If you think this might be useful to someone you know, be sure to share it with them!
Supplies
label pads in various colors (one color for each room)
a writing pad or notebook + pen
highlighters in the same colors as your label pads
black markers
a piece of poster board
Steps
1. Designate one color for each room in your new place and use the poster board to make a legend. Post this somewhere that's visible while you pack.
2. Designate a landing spot for all of the packing supplies and let anyone helping you pack, know where that is. A basket, caddy, tray or bin is helpful to corral everything.
3. When packing a box, label it with a numbered post-it note in the color that corresponds to the room it will be going in.
4. In your legal pad, jot down the number of the box and it's contents. Place a star next to any priority boxes that you'll probably want to open within the first few days of having moved in. *Bonus: If you pack a few different rooms at one time, it's helpful to highlight what you wrote down, in the color that corresponds to the room it will going in. Doing this will make it easy to later scan down your list when you're checking to see what box something is in.
5. On moving day, post the legend somewhere where the movers or you and your crew will see it upon entering the home. That way, whoever comes in the door with a box, can immediately place it in the room it belongs in.
6. Once you're moved into your new place, refer to your list to determine which boxes you want to open first. As days pass, use your list to help you easily locate any unpacked item you may be looking for.
Today I'm over on La Dolce Vita with a post on decorating with the colors sea mist and greige. Read the full post here.
As mentioned in a previous post, earlier this month, Style Me Pretty Living, one of my favorite lifestyle sites, featured a tour of my previous home. Since the feature went up, I've received inquires about the sources of some things, so I thought I'd post a complete list here for anyone else who may also be curious to know. Because the apartment was a rental that we planned to live in for only about 2 years or so and we had other priorities financially, when it came to decorating and furnishing it, we did so on a small budget, splurging only on a few select pieces. BTW, this post from 2012 shows a few photos of what the place looked like when we first moved in!
white desk - Ikea, leopardpillow - Arianna Belle, shelving unit - Ikea, rug - Overstock , doube gourd lamps - Target, black quatrefoil mirror - Target, artwork - Parima Studio, turquoise binders - Office Depot, orange tray - West Elm, file box - Office Depot
FAQ
Q: The base of my Docksta table gets dirty easily from people resting their feet on it, how do you keep yours clean?
A: Magic Erasers!
Q: How did you hide the wires and cords of your wall mounted TV in your living room?
A: We used these cable management covers we found on Amazon. I've also seen similar ones at home improvement stores.
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All photography by Esther Sun
I've had a lot go on these first few months of 2014. Life has been non-stop, with limited down time, but thankfully all because of good things. I started a business training program, two of my pillows were featured in Style at Home magazine, I did a photo shoot for a feature and interview on Style Me Pretty, and most recently, we moved out of our apartment, 20 miles south into a condo in Los Angeles.
I'm currently a few days into the unpacking, and the condo is finally starting to feel like home. Moving reminds me how much I'm affected by my environment. Boxes everywhere without things easily accessible can be overwhelming and draining. I'm anxious to get all the boxes emptied and all our belongings put away and organized in their new home. Once that's done I can do a bit of decorating :) Follow along for updates!
I have a new How I Organize series post for you guys today! The spotlight is on blogger and shop owner Sue of The Zush, who shares with us how she beautifully organizes her accessories:
These photos are from my closet and the little dressing/vanity area right outside my closet. I try to keep all my accessories (and I have a lot...I LOVE accessories) out where I can see them, but I like for them to look neat. Right now I've got most of my clutches lined up on a shelf using pot lid holders that I picked up at The Container Store. As for my perfumes and jewelry, I love to display them out on trays. We sell a lot of trays at The Zhush and this python one is my favorite. I also love this little ceramic tray as a catchall for keeping smaller items like cell phones and earrings looking neat and pretty. Finally, when I'm not sure if I'm ready to get rid of something, I usually move it into one of these fabric square storage boxes (also from the Container Store). If I go looking for it, then I know I need to keep it, if not, then after about a year, I'll usually give it away or donate the item. If it's something really sentimental, I'll save it for my children.
-Sue
I love seeing our pillows in their new homes. Julia of Gal Meets Glam decorated her living room with our Leopard Velvet and Channels Ebony & Ivory pillows. Love that she started with an inspiration board and made it come to life!
Have photos of a space you've decorated with Arianna Belle pillows? Tag us on Instagram (@Arianna_Belle #ariannabellepillows) for possible feature here!
Hope your day is filled with lots of love!
Photo of styled vignette by Domaine Home, featuring our Blush Velvet pillow.
For this week's 'How I Organize' series post, I'm excited to feature lifestyle blogger and vintage shop owner Christina Han Johnston. She gives us a peek inside her jewelry drawer and shares with us how she keeps it beautifully organized:
I've always been a magpie, even when I was a little girl, so it's no surprise that now as an adult, I own an online vintage home and jewelry shop (soon to be reopened). Since I collect jewelry for the shop all the time, I sometimes keep pieces for myself (a perk of being the owner!) and so my own personal jewelry collection can get out of control. I discovered one day on Pinterest that you could not only organize, but also display your jewelry in small plates and bowls.
Well, luckily for me, I also collect small vintage plates so that's how I like to store my jewelry in my vanity table. It's an aesthetically pleasing way for me to see what's in heavy rotation and it makes it easy for me to grab and go when I'm in a rush. A lot of these plates I found at my local thrift store, so organization doesn't have to mean spending lots of money. And I love to use the gift boxes that my jewelry comes in (as long as they're pretty!). It's a practical way to protect really special pieces, and a great way to add a pop of color to your display area.
One of the many things I enjoy about my job, is discovering talented new-to-me interior designers. I thought it'd be fun to spotlight them here on the blog as I'm sure many of you will also enjoy seeing their beautiful work and gain inspiration from it.
This week's spotlight is on Jennifer Wundrow and Heather Brock, founders of their own firm -Nest Design Co. based in Sausalito, California. A selection of lovely spaces they've designed:
Did you drool over that reading nook and that kitchen? Yeah, me too. See more of their work here!
The How I Organize series is back and I'm excited to feature my first participant of 2014 - the lovely Kristin of The Hunted Interior! She gives us a look at how she organizes her small but very functional and stylish kitchen:
Living in a smaller home makes you learn to organize and store things creatively. Utilizing the vertical space is one of those tricks we have learned to use to it's fullest. We do store large pots & colanders above our cabinets, but we do try to keep them grouped together to minimize the cluttered look. We also have a large basket that houses all of the less frequently used items such as muffin tins & baking utensils. Hanging all of our pots & pans on a pot rack also allows them to be easily accessible, while still being up & out of the way.
Another vertical tip that has saved us, and our lack of counter space, is the use of a magnetic knife rack. We have zero room for a knife block, so this simple addition to our backsplash again makes everything accessible while still feeling modern and stylish.
Being that a lot of our storage solutions are out in the open, I try to make them as visually appealing as possible. In our open shelving this is accomplished by using all white dishes, storing dry goods in classic ball jars and grouping items such as our wooden utensils and storing them in an unexpected way. I also like to keep items we use frequently out and at the ready. The gold brioche molds are used most frequently as snack cups for my daughter. While we do not have a large kitchen, we have found that this space works really well for us.
-Kristin
You may have heard some organizing experts say that you should only keep the most current issue of each magazine and toss out the rest. While I think this is a good idea to do with informational magazines that can quickly go out of date, with interior design, fashion, and lifestyle magazines, since issues from a few years ago can be just as inspiring as current ones, my thoughts are, it's okay to keep them as long as (1) you will revisit them and (2) you have the space to keep them organized and accessible so that when you do want to refer back to them, you can do so easily. Its nice to be able to grab a bunch of magazines whenever I need a good dose of creative inspiration. Sure there's plenty of content and inspiration online, but sometimes you just need a break from all the digital. Some magazines also, like old issues of Whole Living, are great for when I want to unwind and relax.
I store my favorite magazines that I keep in their entirety (meaning I don't rip out pages from them), in these white magazine holders from the See Jane Work Office Depot line. This makes them accessible when I want to refer back to them. In the past I had stored some away in a box and put them in a closet. Since they weren't accessible, I forgot I had them and they never saw the light of day. It was only until we moved that I rediscovered them.
Having them organized like this, with the issues of the same magazine together, allows me to see what I have. I love that all lined up they create a neat streamlined look.
For magazines that have select pages I want to save, I tear those out, throw out the rest of the issue, and organize the pages into magazine binders. The benefit of doing this is not only that it takes up less space, but it also makes what I save searchable. Since the binder is categorized with tabs, it is easier to refer back to something when I go to look for it.
Of course organizing pages into a binder can be a little time consuming, so when I don't have the time to do it right away after pulling them out, I put the loose pages into these labeled boxes:
They're easy to flip open and are the perfect size. I limited myself to just two so that it would force me to get the clippings into the binders instead of just letting them pile up endlessly.
Do you collect magazines? How do you organize and store them? Do you have a system for making sure your collection doesn't get out of control?
Hope this inspired some ideas!
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This post is brought to you by Office Depot. All content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Arianna Belle Blog sponsors that allow me to create new content like this!
Most of you probably know and love See Jane Work- a favorite go-to place for stylish office supplies. What you might not know, is that they recently added several new products to their collection for Office Depot. As soon as I got a preview of the goodies, I knew I needed to add some of them to my workspace, and was excited when Office Depot offered to send over my picks, just in time for a little new year refresh. Here's a look:
A white pencil cup that coordinates with my desk, to hold pens and highlighters, and a pretty lilac edged sticky pad for writing checklists, shopping lists, and to-do lists.
Matching turquoise binders for keeping various business papers neat and orderly. They fit nicely lined up in the cubes of my Expedit unit.
Clear white dot project envelopes to easily carry fabric samples, etc. with me to meetings with my team.
A white stapler to replace my old one that wasn't working properly anymore. I paired it with the matching white tape dispenser to make a stylish little duo. The tan cup I already had, but is also from the line. Love that it's sturdy enough to hold my heavy gold tailor scissors.
Small updates that are helping create the setting for an organized and productive start to 2014. Are you freshening up your workspace for the new year?
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This post is brought to you by Office Depot. All content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Arianna Belle Blog sponsors that allow me to create new content like this!
