The holiday guests have left, you’re back from your travels that you last-minute packed for, and the lazy days of lounging around are coming to an end - it’s no wonder your home is a hot mess! Trust us, you’re not alone. January is the perfect time for a refresh to start the new year off right.
To help you get back into the groove, we’ve pulled together three organizing tips to declutter your home and two design tips to breathe new life into your space - that's FIVE tips & tricks total to kick start your 2022!
1. First Come, First Serve
Entryway Beginnings
Your entryway is the first place you see when you step in your home to decompress from the day, making it a great place for you to start your refresh. The best way to reduce clutter is to make sure everything has a home.
A well placed cabinet can serve as a shoe hider, a tray on a table can help corral mail and keys, and wall mounted hooks make it easy to take the coats off your hands. Bonus points if you can fit in a bench to take your shoes off AND create space for stylish bins and baskets underneath! We even recommend this dual purpose Ashcroft storage bench from Madison Park.
Or check out our clients’ entryways by clicking the images below for inspiration!
2. Coffee Table Sweep
We’d like a grandé coffee table please, hold the clutter! Coffee tables tend to be the universal dumping ground for books, magazines, Christmas cards, remote controls, this morning’s coffee mugs, iPads… the list is endless. As one of the central focal points of your living room, you definitely want to keep this area neat.
Stylish decorative boxes make for awesome remote control hiding places and stacking a few key books and magazines adds a functional charm. Top the stack with a decorative candle or vase of flowers and you're a coffee table master. Everything else can either be tossed or placed back in its intended place.
Take Hannah's transitional design coffee table for example:
3. Invest in your desk
Keeping your desk uncluttered means finding some inspiration to put things away. There are two key ways to go about this.
The first is gathering that sea of paperwork into manageable piles, boxing all remaining loose items, and then dispersing them into chic desk accessories like pretty file folders, wide top vases that dual as pencil holders, and decorative trays or boxes.
The second is investing in a proper desk with lots of built in drawers and storage space. The more you can hide your desk’s knick knacks and paddy whacks, the more motivated you’ll feel to get your work done. A clean space is a productive space after all, which makes the investment oh so worth it.
But, of course, don’t forget to sprinkle in some not-so-hidden motivational memos around for added smiles!
4. Oatmeal, spice, and everything nice
Warmer tones have unveiled a welcoming renaissance in the design world this year. It’s out with the grey of yesterday, in with the clay! And all elegant neutrals for that matter. Think accent walls, decor accents, and sofa colors like oatmeal, sand, and the spicy earth tones of saffron, rust, terracotta, and amber.
Take this modern eclectic room our interior designer Rain created for our client Diana. It’s oatmeal spice heaven! Not to mention the stylish cabinetry and organized shelf space she added in for extra decluttering ammo.
5. Out with the new, in with the old
There’s been a shift away from streamlined furniture and Pinterest-inspired everything to spaces filled with warmth, history, and vintage character. Try storytelling your life with an artful curation of nostalgic pieces you’ve had for years in tandem with unique, one-of-kind finds. The comfort and coziness of familiar things in these times of uncertainty are priceless.
Take this living room design our designer Cristina created for our client Lindsay, for example. Cristina was sure to add a comfy leather chair with upholstery tacks for that Old World feel and sprinkled in timeless classics like black and white photography of familiar landscapes, vintage timepieces like metal clocks, and etched crystal old-fashioned glasses.
Looking for help with any of the tips and tricks we just walked through? Work with one of our amazing designers to get a one-of-a-kind space designed just for you.
