Redecorating the Front Room: Bookshelves

When you walk in our house, you enter through a small foyer, then enter the "front room". It was probably called a parlor back when the house was built, but for fear of ridicule, I will not be calling it a parlor. It's the room where I read the newspaper, do my bills, keep all my books, decorate with etsy finds. Over the last year, my book collection outgrew the old shelves and now will keep growing (thanks, grad school!), so I desperately needed new shelving. After a long search, I settled for IKEA's Billy bookshelves. I took a lot longer than I thought, but thankfully, it was finished just in time for my show, Desperate Housewives. I must have been really drained because I kept watching TV, then somehow ended up drinking a beer and watching Swamp People on the History Channel. Here's to Sunday nights! Cheers!

Decorating with IKEA FAMILY LIVE

I often refer to IKEA as "Mecca". I can only make the pilgrimage about twice a year so I have a game plan and detailed shopping list in hand when I get there. I mean, the place is HUGE! I usually end up getting "IKEA-whelmed" about half way through and have to eat some swedish meatballs to refuel. So trust me, I have the IKEA magazine practically memorized, but it's hard to picture my house inside all that Swedish decorating. Not everything I own is from IKEA. This IKEA FAMILY LIVE website is exactly what I needed--decorating ideas using a mixture of IKEA and other stuff.

Cheap Thrills: IKEA Tekla towels

Photo: IKEA, Apartment Therapy, Metaphore

On my last IKEA trip, I picked up a short stack of these Tekla kitchen towels because they were only $0.49 each and I needed some better looking towels. Since I've had them, I use them for a million more uses than I had thought. I fold or roll them into napkins, fold them and line bread baskets, lay them on the coffee table for a placemat, use them to cushion vegetables in the fridge. They aren't real thick, but they are absorbent and do get the job done as far as drying dishes or cleaning up spills. And for $0.49, I'll just use two if I need to. They're already on my list for the next IKEA trip.

Weekend: Organizing the Office

This weekend, I'll be putting this together:
HELMER drawer unit from IKEA



Then, reading some of those books on my shelves:
"Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly" by Anthony Bourdain



And in the end, my office will hopefully look like this:
Photo: Betsy Burnham's office in Lonny Magazine

I hope your weekend is more exciting than mine! But, if do get bored, go and visit the Cream City Vintage shop on Etsy.