Prepare yourself to see my excessive love for pictures in all its glory. #sorrynotsorry
Anyone with toddlers can tell you that sometimes keeping them organized can be a chore in and of itself. One of my most favorite things that we did during the pandemic was build EV's closet. It is a little girls dream (or at least this mama's) and although we have a contractor neighbor that installed everything, everything was courtesy of Ikea and the visions of Pinterest. Any Ikea hacks we show in the house, people are always floored by and assume that everything was installed by an actual interior fabricator. We actually did bring in a professional design company (recommended by my best friend who used a similar service in Orlando, but her experience was way different) who just kept saying how incredible I was at organizing and didn't know how to change anything I had done with the exception of install an actual closet organizer much like the one below that we had gotten from Ikea (we had those old school wire racks) and then quoted us an excorbitant quote. No thanks, Pinterest and Ikea for the win. The bars were actually from Home Depot and were cut to fit the space. We brought a picture to Home Depot and the guy that worked with us talked different materials and prices and then cut it for us down to size. He even showed us where to get the necessary hardware so we didn't have to worry about anything extra or nor having what we needed. Going with a home store like Home Depot or Lowe's, not only did this saved us serious money, but we knew it would hold up for the long haul.
Because I will never get enough of this space or the fact that it appears that I was intoxicated when I took this picture.
I love having a designated 'space' for everything in the kids rooms and in doing so it allows me to repurpose areas for other things without turning the room into storage and it not being a room that they want to spend time in. I recently took my work computer out of the Commodore's room so his room is officially now all his and I almost cried. I feel that the Commodore endured a lot of hand me downs from EV so as he has gotten older and expressed his own interests every time he gets something that is just for him, it overflows my cup. The same goes for his room since now he is encroaching on toddlerhood (be still my heart) and the importance of him also having his own space was important to me. I knew it was time to move my work computer into a different space in the house and because I select pieces that are transitional throughout the house other than Sean side-eyeing me about my plans, the moving of the furniture was fairly easy and now the Commodore has an entire room to himself and the gasping made it all worth it when he walked in.
Even though Ikea has THESE storage cubes and consoles, I bought THIS one at Target since they it was a little bit heavier quality and I loved that it came in a distressed wood which went more with the house (I also bought the one that matches with 2 storage cubes). I love buying baskets from Homegoods, but the drive-up from Target has become a game-changer and it is a lot easier for me to get to Target for a return than Homegoods which is outside of a Chic-Fil-a (IYKYK),.
The kiddos have one heck of a gallery wall (or multiple as you will soon see) and I wanted to be able to switch up pictures and give them a place for their special stuff rather than just the closet and lets be honest, I ran out of space pretty quickly. I have been casually threatened by Sean that if I get another piece of art, it will be grounds for divorce. I might have done quite a bit of damage at the Festival of the Arts this year. Sean and I try to maximize the space so that we can add certain pieces and have the room for it without it crowding the area.
Some of ther art remains from their nursery and I gotta admit that this is what I have struggled with the most. Each piece curated lovingly and placed in their room and as they grow older and I am beginning to transition to new pieces, I do not want to get rid of the others, just add on to them. I recently removed a Dinosaur picture that I loved and replaced it with the Ahoska Tano that you see below and it just about broke my heart, but EV was over the moon, so worth it.
I am sure at some point baby EV meeting Punzie (her first character) will transition somewhere else in the house and I will definitely shed some tears for this.
The beautiful AA Milne quote below has not moved as it was over EV's crib and I absolutely love it. It will end up over our bed and the picture that is currently over our bed, will go who knows where.
The same advice for furniture I feel applies to gallery walls that are mostly art based and that is choose pieces that you feel can transtion into other places in your home. I feel the artwork from Festival of the Arts is beautiful and we choose pieces that are significant to the kids so that if we had to move them or redesign the space in other areas of the house that they would be able to be incorporated and not look out of place. Not to mention and you might have picked up on it, but we are Disney lovers, so even if they ended up in our bedroom it would not look out of the ordinary especially if EV's nursery sign ends up over our bed.
I love floating shelves. When it comes to floating shelves, this is where Homegoods and TjMaxx comes into play. They are a lot sturdier quality then Target and/or Amazon and they come in variety of looks and sizes, and I feel that they overall are just nicer and unique. The one on top is actually from the Opalhouse line at Target and I am not sure if you can technically, but even with drywall screws it is dipping. I love the one below it which is from TJMaxx because it not only provided a nice deep space for pictures, collectibles, dolls, etc., but the hook fixture allowed a place for special dresses. Obviously I put Star Wars here, but sometimes I will switch them out with dresses she hasn't worn in a while so that she gets use out of everything. Both of these were actually similar in price as well.
The one shown below is in the Commodore's room. I adore it since it reminds me of a tie-fighter. If you have no clue what I am talking about not only can we not be friends, but I now have to have a picture here to show you...said tie-fighter.
I hadn't intended it to be in the space below, but the original spot had it coming out a lot farther from the wall then I thought it was going too (typical me). After moving around some pictures, I ended up prefering it here. He has all these cute vintage inspired Star Wars lovies that I got at Target (they make sound) and were orignally in the lovie Pillowfort wire basket in his room. I thought they would be cuter displayed and I literally bought this piece specifically for that. It was a little more expensive then I intended to spend on it (I think it was around $40), but I had TJMaxx rewards, I was with my mom so I got the senior discount (don't tell her) and the fact that it resembled the wings of a tie-figther was hard to pass up. Truth be told, I would have ended up paying full price regardless.
I would say that there is at least a floating shelf in every one of our rooms. I just love what they can do for the room, decor, and space.
I am still not ready to get rid of Danny's nursery piece that is above his Darth Vader picture, so that is where it will remain for now including the Mr. Toads piece.
I hate even showing the gallery wall in our bedroom, but it is quite literally a constant work in progress, if you saw all the holes and knew how many times I have added and moved things around, your mouth would drop. So here we are until I can pull together something else, but this at the very least will show you how you can use your Mixtiles or if you were on the fence about purchasing some, this will show you how we use ours. I am thinking of doing a shape of some sort and incorporating the art a different way, but I haven't gotten there yet nor do I feel I have the Mixtiles I would want to use. Plus, if we end up moving the large AA Milne sign in our room, I might do a gallery around that.
This is why it is important to get pieces that can move around the house. However, if the question is whether Mixtiles are worth investing in?! A 100%. I love the company, their customer service is phenomenal, I love how they look on the wall. I also purchase holiday themed ones so I can change them out for the holidays. Having Mixtiles instead of incorporating frames where I might not be able to get the same one again (here is looking at you Target) makes it really easy to get the same look. They look clean and minimal and I am not worrying about the pictures attaching to the glass and being destroyed in the heat. If you live in a humid area and ever tried to remove a picture from a glass frame that has been there for awhile, you know what I am talking about. I also love that Mixtiles is decently priced, they offer amazing package deals the more you buy and they also now offer a variety of sizes. I swear I am not a spokesperson, I just really love them. My two gripes is that you cannot buy extra adhesive (I have needed it and instead have had to buy a brand new picture of the same one) and again if you are in a humid area no matter what they tell you, it can get stuck on your wall and can pull the paint off. This has only happened to one of mine, but it did happen (and yes, the paint in our bedroom was not cheap, so that was not the issue).
I ended up buying THIS floating shelf in Target just so that I had extra space for special pictures that I didn't want hung, but I wanted displayed (EV meeting Ahsoka, our pandemic handprints, something from a newspaper that my dad was in, and my silicon wedding bands). I love it and it granted me a bunch of space on my dresser that I wouldn't have had.
The picture below was originally above our tv until we got a larger tv and then it moved over to where it is pictured (seeing the transitional theme). The picture originally there is something we got when we first moved in that I wish I had more attachment too (it is now over a computer desk in our dining area and yes, you read that right), but at least it made it an easy decision when I replaced it. I purchased the floating shelves from Amazon. They are extremely light weight and I wish they were a little longer so that more frames could fit on them. Plus they are thin (width wise), so other than frames they wouldn't fit much as far as decor on them. However, for the look I wanted and the space itself, they were perfect. The shelves have held up longer than I thought considering the reviews that I was reading about wood splitting, etc., but if you are using them just for pictures and nothing with too much weight, you should be fine. I also think these would be really cute in a bathroom.
Anyone else completely obsessed with art and pictures and have something on every wall?! Does anyone elses partner want to kill them because of this obsession?!Super interested to hear how you display everything. Are you more of a minimalist and like nothing on the walls? I am honestly jealous of you, but I am too much of a lover of pictures if you haven't figured that out yet. I want all the pictures everywhere and covering all the walls as displayed lol.
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