Shoes anywhere. In storage bins under the dresser, in a storage drawer and mostly all over the floor. All the closets are stuffed. Moreover the rooms are small. Any suggestions for how to organize everything?
Before tackling your shoe issue, you should first clean out your closets so that they aren’t stuffed. Walk over to your master bedroom closet and take a fearless peek inside. Ask yourself these questions:
1. Do I have items here that don’t belong in a closet?
In general, let’s say that clothing is the only thing you should find in your master bedroom closet. This isn’t the place to store hundreds of family photos in search of albums. It isn’t the ideal spot for holiday decorations. Gift-wrap and bows shouldn’t take space away from suits and dresses. You catch my drift.
2. Is the closet bursting with clothing I haven’t worn in a long time?
Perhaps you harbor full wardrobes from various sizes. It’s time to clean everything out and keep only what serves you now. A charity or women’s shelter is waiting for your things and wants to give you a tax receipt!
3. Is everything separated into categories and organized by color?
If your closet isn’t at least divided into categories (blouses, sweats, skirts, slacks, etc.), every time you think of an item you’d like to wear, a battle to find it will ensue. It does indeed take a few hours to organize a closet. Over the course of a year, however, you’ll save twice that time.
Now let’s consider those shoes. I once organized a famous actress who had a huge shoe collection. She kept 89 pairs that I organized by color in stacks of clear acrylic boxes. (”If you can’t see them, you generally don’t wear them” is a good rule of thumb to remember.) And even she parted with 40 pairs! If she can give away 40 pairs of Manolo Blahniks to a women’s shelter, I know you can weed through your collection. After you pare down your shoes, divide your collection by type. For example, it’s nice to keep day shoes, sport shoes and evening shoes separate. If you live in a climate with four distinct seasons, you may have a winter and summer selection. Here are some common shoe storage solutions:
1. Hang a canvas shoe rack over your closet door and keep your sport shoes there.
2. Like most women you probably don’t use your evening shoes too often, so they can go into clear acrylic shoeboxes on a high shelf in your closet. (You may want to have an extra shelf put in if you see a huge space between the standard shelf and the ceiling.)
3. With your closet organized, you can introduce a shoe rack. The metal expanding shelf variety works really well. You can also use a cedar shoe rack if you have the space and protect your woolens at the same time!
It’s not easy to choose the right wall paint for your home. Standing in the paint shop looking at that giant wall of paint chips can seem overwhelming when trying to choose the right paint color. There are so many different colors and finishes to choose from that you might be tempted to not paint at all. Learning how to choose the right paint can make that dreaded trip to the paint store a little less confusing.
Never buy paint based on how it looks in the store because it will always look different at home. Grab as many paint samples you can find in the color you’re interested in. Choose shades that are both darker and lighter than what you think you might want because you’ll be surprised how different they’ll look when you get home. If you have an inspiration piece, coordinating fabrics, or wallpaper that you’re trying to match, bring those with you as well to compare to the paint chips.
Spread out all of your paint chips out in your room to get a general idea of which ones work and which ones don’t.Immediately eliminate the ones that don’t, set them aside, and don’t look at them again. Trust your instincts and keep moving forward rather than backwards. Tape the remaining samples to the wall and stand back to look at them. Study them over the next couple of days at different times. Look at them with the lights on, lights off, curtains open, and curtains closed. Look at them at night with various lights on. Eliminate colors as you go until you get down to your top three choices.
Go back to the store and buy small sample sizes of each color. Most paint stores now will mix a small tester size and some paint brands are even selling prepackaged tester packets right off the shelves. Take these testers home and paint a large square of each on the wall to see how they look over a larger area. All paints darken when they dry, so they’ll look slightly different. Analyze them again over the next couple of days in different light.
Once you’ve chosen a winner, you’ll need to decide on the finish. Interior paints come in five finishes: flat, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss, and glossy. Flat finishes have no shine, a rough texture, and are great for hallways or rooms that don’t get too dirty. Eggshell finishes have a slight sheen, like an eggshell, and can be used in bedrooms with light traffic. Satin finishes have more shine to them, a smooth texture, and work well in most rooms, especially kitchens or bathrooms because of their durability. Semi-gloss finishes are very reflective, easy to clean, and work best in kitchens, bathrooms, or kids rooms.
Always make sure the wall surface is flawless before you paint with semi-gloss because it highlights imperfections. Glossy finish is the shiniest paint you can get, so it’s rarely used on walls. Glossy paint is best used on furniture, cabinetry, or trim.
Choosing the right wall paint may be affected by the type of paint you have to use; for example, paint that are specifically designed for use on rough exterior wall come in a limited range of shades, while there is a huge variety of colors to paint a room, available for use.
Decorative painting patterns do have one thing in common: because they are all carried out by hand, the finished result will always be absolutely unique, giving the surfaces that you decorate a personal touch. The way you manipulate the glaze, with plastic or rags, and with subtle or bold ragging technique will determine the final texture you create.
Choosing the right wall paint creates a unifying backdrop to harmonize an eclectic group of furniture. Use a contrasting white for the furniture and artwork to let individual pieces stand out and take on greater importance. When used together, soft beiges, tans, whites, and grays will never clash.
Paint, colors to paint a room cost as little as ten dollars a gallon and as much as one hundred dollars. The success of your painting project depends greatly on the care that goes into selecting the paint and tools and preparing the walls. With a little creativity and some decorative painting patterns you can make a masterpiece for your home.