I have always loved baskets.
However ... I have very few.
I have loved them when I see them
in other people's houses.
I have loved them when I see them
in little country stores.
I have loved them when I see them
on sale at Michaels Craft Store.
However ...
I have never just gone out and bought baskets.
Why?
Probably because ...
I "couldn't afford it" ...
I always had "better things" to spend $$$ on ...
our house wasn't really "country" style ...
our house wasn't really any style ...
While I have always thrown in a few country
decorations and pieces of furniture hear and there,
our house has always been more ...
"hand-me-down" style ...
utilitarian "what-do-we-need" style ...
crowded "we-have-12-people-living-here" style ...
After 29 years of marriage,
Papa and I are having FUN with
our re-decorating / re-organizing project.
Oh. My. Yes.
I am being very purposeful in each and every purchase.
God has BLESSED us with some amazing new pieces
of furniture through our Craigslist shopping,
and we have paid for EVERY piece by
selling more on Craigslist than we've bought.
Now that the furniture is all purchased,
I am having fun with the decorative touches
and organizational strategies.
This week, baskets are 50% off at Michaels.
So, I headed there with a plan.
This basket is on one of our new bookshelves
in the living room. The little sign is one that
I already had; it's not attached to the basket.
This basket is the perfect size for Mama's Paperwork ...
the paperwork that is usually stacked on the
kitchen counter or dining room table.
This way, the paperwork is always handy,
and can be organized in file folders in the basket,
and Mama can get it out to work on it any time,
but it will not be just randomly stacked. Yea!
The green matches the Sage Green of the kitchen,
and the fabric matches the Taupe wall (behind it)
that ties the dining and living room together.
I LOVE the little Country Button details.
This is ...
Mama's New Kitchen Desk.
It used to be the phone desk and the
pile-stuff-as-high-as-you-can desk.
It held plastic cups, lids, old cell phone charging cords, etc ...
It was the anything-and-everything counter top.
Now ... it is the phone desk, the iPhone charging station,
the computer modem, and Mama's Calendar Desk.
Mama's Calendar used to be stacked on top of
or under Mama's Paperwork stacks
that were on the dining table or kitchen counter.
This cute little basket is Mama's In-Box.
It will hold Mama's Mail and
Mama's Bills To Pay.
I'm going to tie some raffia around the top of
a canning jar for Mama's Pens & Pencils.
This tall cupboard is next to the refrigerator.
Only tall people can reach the top of this cupboard.
Therefore, it became the catch-all place for unnamed
tall people to put things that didn't have a place
(bbq lighters, bags of chips, cookies, etc...).
Mama decided to fill this catch-all space with a basket.
If unnamed tall people want to stash something up there,
they will have to take down the basket, and the
item(s) will have to fit into the basket.
No more messy area that Mama can't reach to clean.
This cute basket has a little blackboard on it.
I need to find a piece of chalk and then label this basket.
How about ...
"Tall People's Junk Basket"
I bought one more basket today.
It's a brown basket, with a fabric insert with
green and taupe criss-crossing lines.
It fits perfectly under our new living room End Table.
No pics of this new basket,
because BOTH batteries died on Mama's Camera,
and I can't find my battery charger.
Oh dear.
What to do!
More pics coming soon ...
... the Plum & Taupe Living Room
... the BEAUTIFUL New Bookshelves
on either side of the fireplace
(w/ Papa's funny story about
the mantel falling off the wall)
... the New Plum Curtains with
"Shabby Chic" Taupe Sheers
... the Taupe & Sage Green Dining Room
w/ Plum Curtains and the
New Oak Hutch
... the Sage Green Kitchen
... the Taupe Hallways
... the Plum Hallway Portrait Collage Wall
... the Stairwell's New Look
Do any of you decorate with Baskets?
What rooms?
What do you use them for?
Just decoration ... or organization?
I would LOVE to hear about YOUR baskets!
Also ... what is your Decorating STYLE?
Country?
Shabby Chic?
Modern?
Hand-Me-Down?
Utilitarian What-Do-We-Need?
Help! We're Crowded!
I love this! I always think about decorating with baskets but struggle with what I would use them for, I love what you've done with these...so cute!
ReplyDeleteI love baskets!! I use them in my craft room on the shelves for envelopes, cards, some stamp sets, etc. I love the look of a basket on a shelf.
ReplyDeleteIn my family room I have a large basket filled with home made family books that I have done over the years. It makes them available for the kids to look through when they visit. I have a cute basket by my recliner for trash and a nice basket under my end table that keeps books and periodicals in one place. I also have small child toys in a basket in FR and another basket full infant and toddler books in FR. In the living room I use baskets for plants.
I do love baskets! I also buy smaller ones from the second hand store near me and then use them for gift baskets for friends, family and shut-ins. I keep a large supply of goodies that I get in the dollar section at Michael's Crafts. I also shop Body and Bath for their sales to go in my gift drawer , and of course a package of my handmade cards gets tucked in, also. So....I think baskets are splendid for gobs of things!!
My decorating is eclectic!! (whatever that means!!) I use lots of color, have some antiques, wonderful family heirlooms on display in the dining room. I like the words that are available at Craft Warehouse and have those on the walls with family picture collections. My kitchen is blue, white and yellow, carried over into the adjoining family room. I have used a wonderful sun flower wide border in the kitchen, and have pots of yellow daisies in the family room.
Well, enough of that. Come visit me sometime!! I'm loving your pictures of the 'do-over' at your home. LOved that book case picture you let us see partially. Wonderful!
We are a family of 5 (hopefully more soon!) living in a ranch 3 bedroom/2 bath home. We have a kitchen and a den and that's it. So, to keep clutter away I bought 3 baskets. One for me, one for my husband, and one for the kids. At the end of the day, anything that is in the kitchen or den that shouldn't be goes in the basket of who it belongs to. Hubby and I empty ours out as needed, but the kids, who all 3 share a room (the other room is their playroom...but hopefully soon to be nursery!) have to empty theirs out daily as part of their chores.
ReplyDeleteI also have baskets in their playroom. It's a kid sized shelf with 12 baskets on it. On the front of the basket has a picture of what toys belong in there. So each category of toys have a place (one for cars, one for plastic animals, one for their dinosaurs, etc) and the kids know exactly where their toys go when it is time to clean up since the picture is on the front. Then I also have two of those plastic organization bins that have three large drawers each. Those hold all the Legos, blocks, and train tracks/train pieces (again with a picture on the front so there is no mix up).
So this is how I've kept clutter to a minimum in our modest home!
PS Have you heard of Pinterest? You might like to look there for great ideas on not only organization, but for education ideas, crafts, foods, etc. All it is are pictures you look at and "pin" onto your "boards" so when you want to go back and look at it, you just click on the picture and it takes you to the website where the picture is located to give you all the details. Check it out if you haven't already!!
I have that basket with the chalkboard on it too! All your basket purchases are very cute.
ReplyDeleteThe photo in your blog header is amazing. You have a beautiful family!