"Senegalese Storage" the Ikea way

Everyone is going ga ga for Serena and Lily's Senegalese storage baskets, and I will admit, I'm joining the hype.  After the prevalence of African stools and textiles such as kuba cloth over recent years, African baskets seem like a natural trend, especially when done up in such fun colors.




Available here.  Only problem (can you guess?)  The price tag.

Amber over at Amber interiors took matters into her own hands when she found a similarly-shaped basket at Home Goods, and improvised with tape and spraypaint.



Pretty cute, right?  (Tutorial, here.)

When I first saw the Serena and Lily version, I was immediately reminded of the Asunden collection at Ikea.


While they don't come in a large storage size, the type of weaving and the shape of the lidded bins gives the same feeling.  I bought the group of three (above) back in the fall, and have been using the smaller ones to hold toilet paper in two of our bathrooms (there's no closed storage), and the lidded one for trash in our master bath--love that it's covered!  There are also these bath accessories:



And this individual lidded basket


The best part?  The set of 3 is $34.99, the pair of bath accessories is $9.99, and the lidded basket is just $6.99.

Sold.

Simple Storage Solution

When I re-did the girls' room, there were storage implications. Bringing in a dresser displaced the tiered toy bin, but it also freed up some plastic drawers in the closet. (In Boulder, there was no room for a dresser, so we got these green plastic drawers from Target to hide in the closet.)

Because the girls mostly play with toys made up of smaller pieces when they are in their room, the little drawers were just the right size for some carefully chosen toys. Only problem: while the drawers are plastic, they aren't totally clear, and the girls are used to having their toys where they can see them.

So I took pictures of the items that belong in each drawer, laid out on a white surface. I printed them on my home computer and taped then to the drawers.


Because Clio is learning to read, I also made labels for each drawer. I wrote them in cursive because in Montessori, kids learn their cursive letters first. I just taped those right on, too.


I thought about creating little frames on the computer, or at the very least "designing" the labels, with borders and a cute font, but in the end I decided not to over think it, and to go with something functional and educational for the girls, rather than something all design-y for me. It is all inside a closet, after all, and, perhaps this is sacrilege, but I do think the world has gone a bit overboard in insisting that every last item be adorable, stylish, or both.

What I DID do was make sure the bins were all coordinated, and mixed it up with the green-and-white woven ones on the top of the drawers. Luckily, they also coordinate with the dominant color in the rooms' overall design: green.


And you know what? The system works like a charm. The girls are able to put their toys away where they belong and, miracle of miracles, they actually do.

Craigslist Find

I've been searching for a dresser for the guest room on a very tight budget, and when I stumbled upon this dresser and hutch combo for a mere $75, my jaw dropped for all of it's cuteness. The faux bamboo! The brass hardware! The little finials on the top of the hutch!


I mean, right? Makes me want to scrap the girls room and start over, building around this. I won't, but I'm tempted.

It reminded me of this awesome piece in designer Celerie Kemble's office.

[via Domino]

Love the turquoise color. MN folks, someone should really, truly, snap this piece up!