living room progress

I've been working on changing up our living room for the last few months. With the current crazy rental market in the Bay Area it doesn't look like we'll be moving any time soon, so I decided to try to make the best of the space we have and give it a little refresh. It's not quite finished yet, but I thought it might be interesting to share a bit of my process and a peak into the changes I've made so far. Read on to see the progress of our living room:

tiny houses

Would you ever consider living in a tiny house? There's a whole tiny house movement happening in response to the trend of houses in the US getting bigger and more expensive (even though families are getting smaller). People live in tiny houses for a variety of reasons, but many people do it to reduce their environmental footprint, eliminating clutter, save money, live debt free, and re-connect with the world outside their front door. You can read about one family's reasons for going tiny here.

I've lived in some pretty small apartments, but I don't know if I'd actually be able to commit to a truly tiny house (we're talking 200 sq ft here). As you may know, I'm not so good with minimalism. I can certainly get behind the idea of scaling down though, especially with rent and housing prices in the Bay Area these days. Being able to build your own home for $30K and not having to worry about a rent or mortgage payment sounds pretty amazing!

Even if you're not ready for a tiny home, I think many houses could benefit from some of the creative storage solutions that people have come up with in their tiny homes. I wish more apartments had as much built-in storage as some of these. Check out those drawers built into the stairs!

This couple built a table with hydraulic legs, so it can be raised to use as a kitchen counter, or lowered for a dining table. Oh, and the sides have hidden drawers! Why doesn't IKEA sell this?

And don't forget the most fun use of lofted space: ceiling hammocks! 

Want to learn more? Watch the documentary Tiny: A Story about Living Small (its available on Netflix) and  check out more of my favorite tiny houses on my Pinterest page. Then buy your own tiny house from Tumbleweed!

[Photos from top to bottom: tiny cabin via Country Living, built-in bookcases via Jessica Helgerson, cabinet drawers via Kokopelia, adjustable table via Dwell, ceiling hammock via Tiny House Pins]

organizing bookshelves by color

I recently reorganized my bookshelves by color and I'm in love with how they turned out! I previously had them organized by category, which made my inner librarian happy, but wasn't very visually appealing. Read on for a glimpse of my organizing process, and the final results:

There's really no way to do this without making a big ol' mess. I sorted all my books into stacks on the floor according to the color of their spine. Since my bookcases only have three shelves (which are not adjustable), I had to further divide each color stack into short books and tall books. Once I saw how many books I had in each color, I decided to put all the colorful books in my larger bookcase, and the black and white books in the smaller case.

There are many ways to organize the layout of your rainbow. Because of the heights of my shelves, I decided to do a full spectrum of color on each shelf. This proved to be a challenge, as I had far too many red and blue books. I had to get creative with some sideways stacks to get everything to fit.

Ta da! The colorful bookshelf in all it's rainbow glory!

The black and white (and a little grey and gold) bookshelf. It's quite orderly, but not nearly as fun. Looks like I have to only buy colorful books from now on!

on the hunt: coat racks

Finding a coat rack that's attractive, modern, and doesn't break the bank can be a bit of a challenge. I've been on the hunt for one for our living room and was somewhat surprised by how expensive they can be! I managed to find 8 options below with clean lines, fun shapes, and a price that won't cause sticker shock:

Top Row: Modern Aqua Rack $50, Metal Lime Rack $64, PS 2014 Green Rack $30,  White Metal Rack $99

Bottom Row: Black Peg Coat Rack $99,  Pink Framework Rack $75,  Branching Orange Rack $99,  Bamboo Coat Tree $69

I ended up ordering this one from Target (seen above in the top row). So far it seems to be good quality, and I love the lime green color! 

For even more options (including some that are way, way more than a hundo) check out my Pinterest board.


[Top photo of Peg Coat Rack from CB2]