Spinoff: Stylish minimalism?

[cherylchoo]

I read somewhere that those pix you see in magazine spreads that have bookshelves in them, the rule of thumb was to only fill them no more than 60% - even 40% would be ideal. that's why when you look at them closely, you often see 1/3 of shelf of books, then a vase or a small horizontal stack of books on the other end, or if there is a full shelf of books there might be one item on the shelf underneath, etc. So you might consider rearranging the stuff you have on one side to fill the whole thing.

Although I totally get making the stuff on the bottom baby-safe. And that when they are toddlers whatever you put there isn't going to stay there.

I have an empty bookcase in our new living room right now, and I'm only going to put library books in it once we get set up at our new library. We used to check 80-100 books out at any given time (between the five of us), and I always found it very helpful to keep them all in one place separate from other books. I'm pretty sure that will fill up this bookcase somewhere in the vicinity of 40-60%.

[Bmomma2C]

The bottom 2 shelves of each of the bookcases in our LR are designated Boy Space... books on one, DVDs on another, toys on the rest.

[peaceloveowls]

Im working on this. I have a "design binder" that I carry around with me to yard sales/ thrift stores/resale shops. I have collaborations of my rooms that I want in this binder. I have budget sheets, fabric swatches, everything I could think of for each room in my home as I design them.
It is slow going right now as I am looking into a bigger home BUT its fun planning for that home I have a set budget of what I can spend every 2 weeks while looking for things for my home.
Right now while I try to get my final home /ideal home put together on paper AND in furniture that I am DIYing (for the most part) in my current small home I am rapidly getting rid of all the clutter. There is ALOT of it. It is simply just doing it.

Its like I have a bunch of hoarders living here. LOL of course the craft space isnt much better. SO lately I have set a goal of decluttering 1 room a week.
Leaving the girls room for last. Theres 3 girls in one room.
insane.

This week it is the craft space/computer room.
There is a huge bowflex in there that I am waiting on buyers to pick up sunday.
I will feel like I can breathe a little better with it gone I think

[Erinne]

Thanks guys! I hadn't really thought about the 40-60% full thing, but it makes sense. I think I'm just going to leave dd's side as-is and then have our games on the bottom shelf, library books on the middle, and some pictures or something on the top shelf of our side.
Peaceloveowls, that sounds awesome! I think I'd love to just live vicariously through the binder even if I didn't make it happen IRL.
Speaking of, are you all using Pinterest? Here's a link to my "home" board, if you're interested, and I'd love to see you all's too if you have one!
http://pinterest.com/erinne_and_ada/...for-the-house/

[poopstermomma]

I have a picture somewhere of my ladder bookcases in my living room-



Here are the ones in my daughter's room, whcih we actually need to store books on, and within her reach.I think I will reorganize them at the new house.

[cherylchoo]

Cross-posting from the kids' room thread. Would still love input tho. I don't want to "junk this up" LOL.

Ok, I finally got around to taking pictures of the girls' rooms, works in progress in the new house. The boy's room really doesn't have anything to take a pic of yet.

Let me preface this by saying that when we told the kids we were moving AGAIN, that we promised them they could pick out their room colors. So yeah it is a lot more, um MORE than I would have chosen for them, LOL. The colors were intense, so I planned to do a stencil on the wall to lighten it up and give it some interest. However, divine intervention led me to buy some fabric on supersale to achieve the same effect.

Both grandmas also wanted to buy them something special for their rooms, so I let them buy each girl a chandelier (something else the girls asked for I would have never come up with) and a table lamp. Again the grandmas let the girls choose and they chose less conservatively than I would have. Also, before in the old house they shared a room so we had no existing furnishings for them besides their beds, so we have had to start new with everything else. I've never gotten to decorate any of the kids' rooms before except when staging the house to resell.

This is the 8YO's girls room. She loves pink, and roses:



There is nothing else in the room but a pink floral hamper. She is using one of the dining chairs ATM to do her homework since I haven't been able to find an inexpensive white chair to go with her desk yet. The curtain rods aren't installed yet so the curtains are hanging on nails with diaper pins, LOL. I'm thinking of adding a photo collage and a bulletin board for her artwork. She also needs either a small dresser or a nightstand so she has drawers to put her socks in.

This is the 6YO's room, who recently changed her favorite color from turquoise to purple. She would not be swayed to do a lighter color, LOL:



She also needs the same things for her room, a chair and a dresser or night stand, a photo collage and a bulletin board for her artwork. I'm also considering a small bookcase for both rooms since they are avid readers, but I also love that wall bookholder from the other post.

We have a finished room in the basement for toys so they don't live in their rooms. I haven't finished organizing their closets yet.

Right now the rooms look cute but unfinished. I'm trying to go slow so they will stay minimal.

[pgkcb13]

This thread needs more pics!

(I say as I have yet to even post my amnesty pics in my own accountability thread... heh).

[hmichelle]

I love this thread! Since moving my little guy into his own room, I've been very careful about what is placed in his room. Trying to keep with a Montessori concept for his room which goes in line with minimalist but I just couldn't do stark white walls and such :/ I'll try to get some pictures up soon. One thing I plan on doing (since he's still little and don't want to hang pictures too close to his level where he could rip them off) is to paint a mural to match the quilt I'm making him.

[hmichelle]

I am also on Pinterest .... can't guarantee my pinning is minimal

http://pinterest.com/hmichelle05/