Couch storage

With a new couch came the wish (need?) for more storage. In our previous couch I always had a «project» or two taking up a seat. To DaddyO slight frustration, it always looked abit messy. When a few springs gave in, we opted for a new couch. After looking around and trying a few couches, we landed on the Vallentuna series by IKEA. This is a modular couch that you can put together as you please. We went for the storage in every seat version. Now my projects can be put away when I’m not working on them. You can use IKEAs planner to try out the different setups to find your favorite and get a shopping list of all the parts you will need. Our setup has the code 4FQNNJ in IKEAs planner wizard (which you can find here). The girls still make a mess when sitting on the couch, so we went for the faux leather cover for easier cleaning.

assembled, but not finished cleaning up

I happen to come over a few pins on Pintrest on couch storage and fell in love with the option to have charger cables tucked away in a shelf behind the couch. I did some more digging and started planning my own version. My shelf ended up being a little more complex that the version I started with. A hinged shelf with storage beneath. So I would have less clutter on the living room table. Win, win!

hinged

I bought wood planks the width I wanted for the shelf and some square planks to fasten the shelf on. When I was happy with my setup, all visible surfaces got three coats of wood stain from IKEA. Within the shelf I place a power cord for the mobile phone chargers. No more cables stretched across the couch.

blending in

-how do you keep clutter away from the couch area?

The month of May

The month of May is a hectic month at CasaR. With Norways national day just passed, I have my hands full with planing and getting ready for the birthday of SweetieS and SweetieL. As they both are born on the same day it’s double the trouble fun.

As part of getting CasaR ready for the hoards of family and friends coming over, I have tried to organize our hallway. After SweetieL began kindergarten…it has been a constant mess…well some of it anyways…the shoes to start with…

before	after

I upgraded our existing IKEA setup. The old setup was two Tjusig shoe racks combined. I just added a third rack (remember to secure them together) and on top a Elvarli shelf on top. I added a few Grundtal hooks on the top rack so the girls can hang their jackets when they get in the door.

May 17th is Norways constitution day…so we all dressed up and went out. It is a tradition in my neighbourhood to have a May 17th parade….so we joined that. The girls mood was not dampened by the few raindrops that came falling down.

SweetieS	SweetieL

This week is full of events @CasaR. So when I get my head over water I’ll post an update on the girls birthday celebrations….

Hand bands and order

SweetieS has begun to have a growing amount of head bands. With my need for order…I set out to find a solution. Pintrest to the rescue! Inspired by this pin on Pintrest and a little help from IKEA, SweetieS now has a storage solution I’m happy with.

The solution is from the IKEA Bygel series. I used the rod, some S-hooks and two cups. Totally up to less than 50NOK!

Not off to find all the head bands located around the house.

- do you have any smart storage solutions to share?
- how do you store your head bands?

A box from IKEA

The other day I was at IKEA and came over this box….

a cardboard box

to put my used light bulbs…

What is nice about this is that if you return the box with used light bulbs, IKEA will donate 10NOK to WWF.

The box is free. So why not pick one up they next time you are at IKEA?
Read more about IKEAs environmental programs here.

I love these

crib bumpers by Smallstuff! The traditional crib bumpers that you get in Noreay is no match for SweetieS weight. Before she moved to a bigger bed she would stand along the sides of the bumper and push together the bumper, leaving a pile of “stuff” along the crib sides. I came across Smallstuff crib lines about two years ago, at a storage sale. So I bought this nifty crib bumper for just 250kr! which is cheap for this type of bumper I now know – because I wanted to get one for BabyL, as the one for SweetieS has moved with her to her big bed. The cheapest one I found was at www.lekmer.no or www.cdon.no (portals to lekmer). And with a few gift certificates I had @cdon and lekmers Summersale, I only paid for S&H (shipping and handling).

Here is SweetieS bumper on a IKEA Hemnes Daybed. I don’t think this one is available anymore. But it is lavender colored with white stars on one side, and the reverse on the other side – the side that is pictured below.

And here is BabyLs bumper on her “inherited” IKEA Gulliver crib. It is almost the same design as SweetieS, just that the stars are multicolored.

What I love about these bumpers is that there is no need to tie them onto the crib. The bumper is 4cm thick and can stand on its own as it is filled with foam and not fabric. They are 30cm high and 360cm long, thus fitting perfect along three of three side in SweetieS bigger bed. Can’t recommend these enough. Just love them!

- What is your crib lined with?
- Did you know that Smallstuff also have other wonderful products?

Crocheted square baskets

I’ve seen many round crocheted baskets, but I wanted a square one for my cabinet. I came across the blog by Bekki Bjarnoll and this post with pattern for square baskets. Inspired by this blog post I gave it a go. Though I didn’t follow Bekkis’ pattern.
I started with 15 slip stitches (sl st) and worked round and round with double crochets (dc). In the place where I wanted the corners to be, I double up on dc. When the bottom is the size of the basket I wanted, I started working my way up. In the corners I skipped a dc. When I had the height I wanted for my basket I finished of with a sl st – to get a straight edge.
I used black (color 15) Paris yarn by Drops. It’s a 100% cotton yarn. For one basket I used two skeins of yarn with a 4mm needle. Fits perfect into my IKEA Skär shoe cabinet – seems like this shoe cabinet has been discontinued by IKEA.

please don’t mind the mess…I’m getting to it…

Though it’s called a shoe cabinet, we don’t store shoes in the drawers. The drawers are filled with outdoor accessories for BabyS and BabyL – like scarves, mittens, hats etc…This cabinet is mounted against the wall in our hallway.

- have you crochet any baskets? square or round ones?
- how do you store your outdoor accessories?

Pimp my Expedit, part two

A few days ago I posted about pimping up BabyS’ Expedit shelving unit. Coming across the post today, I realized I had forgotten a “small” detail…about the knobs I used for the Expedit door inserts. The knobs that come with the doors are small and simple.

picture of the Expedit knobs, “borrowed” from IKEA

As I felt these were a little boring and too small for children fingers, I went online looking for options. I wound up buying from this Ebayer…crystal-like knobs

 
“crystal knobs”, picture borrowed from ebay

And the result was a more girly Expedit…super cute!

- did you just use the parts that came with your Expedit purchase? or have you done some pimping?

Pimp my Expedit

Ages ago BabyS got a 5x5 Expedit shelving unit for her room. As she has gotten a few books that are taller than the 33x33cm cubes allowed, I wound up changing up the layout of the unit.

Normally a 5x5 unit looks like this:

picture borrowed from  www.ikea.no

To get the a cube bigger than the standard 33x33cm I choose to leave out one of the shelving plates in the corner cubes (top right corner). I put in a CD insert in the doubled up corner (unfortunately, this insert is no longer available from IKEA). The corner now looks like this:

I also bough a decal for measuring BabyS as she grows bigger, that I have attached to the side of the shelving unit. As you can see in the picture The decal is bought online, but can’t remember form where…I think it was from Tinydeal though…Here if you want one.

Enough from me tonight…

- Have you made any changes to your IKEA Expedit? Feel free to share

Cozy

The other day I went to IKEA for a little trip. Just to pick up a few necessities…

Usually when going to IKEA with DaddyO we rush through the aisles. But this time DaddyO had promised to let me have a little time to suck up all the Christmas spirit that was throughout the store.

Though there were no Christmas shopping on my part..except from some ginger bread dough. I did get my self an early Christmas present…for the cold days ahead…a knitted blanket from the Chalet Limited Collection of 2013. I didn’t see the whole collection, just parts of it. But I must say I liked the parts I did see.

a blanket for MommyS

Finally a blanket for myself after knitting a few for babies all around. It’s called Höfjäril and measures 120x180 cm and is made of a wool, polyester and acryl blend. Sorry for not providing a link…but I can’t find it on IKEA webpage.

Off to enjoy an evening with warmth from the fireplace and me neatly placed under my new blanket.

- Have you been to IKEA lately and seen their Christmas collection for 2013?
- What do you do to pamper yourself?

Finally some order

Today I finally got a hold of the baskets I wanted for BabyS’ changing table. We have had a IKEA Gulliver changing table for BabyS since she came into our lives. In the beginning there wasn’t much stuff in the shelves. But after almost a year all necessities are covered (I think). Along with more stuff in the shelves beneath came more clutter. So happy to finally get the baskets I wanted from Jysk – they have been out of stock for months! – I totally forgot to take a before picture….I just started organizing…

now we finally have some order

The baskets measure 32 x 44 x 22 cm and are called Shire. I was actually lucky enough to get the baskets while they were on sale, so I got them for about half off what I had initially expected. Yay!

With the baskets being out of stock for so long, it has taken a long time to get all our stuff in order. Better late than never I guess…

- how have you organized your changing table?
- what do you have easily accessible by your changing table?

Show me your lunchbox…

…and I’ll show you mine. With BabyS starting kindergarten this fall I’ve started looking for fun ways to pack her lunchbox.

I looked into different kinds of solutions and concluded I wanted a box with some kind of compartments. That way I can mix different sizes of food in one meal with just one box. There are MANY different solutions “out there” but the one I liked the most is the IKEA Krus box. Plain and simple…

Here is an example I came across from June HS blogg

Love that the dividers can be taken out and thus creating bigger/smaller compartments. IKEA offer this box in three different sizes and the prices won’t bankrupt you either;

Size:	24 x 14 x 10 cm	24 x 19 x 13 cm	24 x 19 x 7 cm
Price:	49 NOK	59 NOK	49 NOK

I’ve also gone shopping for cool trinkets to help facilitate the creativity going into making BabyS lunchboxes more fun! I’m looking forward to playing with these…

boiled egg molds…

some of the cookie cutters I will be using for more than gingerbread cookies bought from Dealextreme

I’ve seen lots of pictures where cookie cutters have been used to cut out slices of cheese, “fish pudding”, cucumber…

- What kind of boxes do you use to pack your lunch?
- How do you pack your lunchboxes?

Now all I have to do is get my butt over to IKEA and buy the boxes…

More nursery stuff

When I ordered the butterfly decals for the babys nursery I also ordered another one. One with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger.

Tonight I finally I had time to put it up…not too bad if I say so myself

 

My sister-in-law gave us their old baby cot for the nursery. She had mentioned that her son had left some teething marks on the rails, but if we wanted it, it was ours.

I tried a little dab of paint to make the marks less visible, but soon realized that it was a loosing battle. Thanks to a tip from my friend I gave it a more creative angle…

before

after

I just stamped some strips of paper with stamps from “In the Garden” 12 x 12 stamp set from Fancy Pants. The Distress ink I used is “Seedless Preserves”  from the the Ranger seasonal fall set. The strips are than fastened to the cot using Noga teething rail for cots from IKEA. I was planning on doing this to all the sides, but I only have rails for one side.

Typically my luck, this rail is not available in any of the IKEA stores in the Oslo area. Now where am I gonna get two more Noga rails???

If you happen to live by any IKEA store that has this rail in stock, please contact me Thanx