bedhead shelf

If I could make even slight structural changes to this house, I would build this in a heartbeat! It is so lovely -- a perfect blend of beauty and practicality. With these shelves, the bed doesn't need side tables. Plus, you can store all kinds of stuff there. Books, decorative objects, a clock, glass jars with plants...anything that is pretty  and useful!

The colours in this photograph are also lovely -- so pleasing and soothing, yet bright. It makes me happy! :)

the breakfast club corner

Mostly finished unpacking today: just the paintings, larger decorative items and my bags and shoes are still lying in cartons.

Take a quick look at what I'm now calling "the breakfast club corner": cereal, coffee and different kinds of tea! 

I decided to put all this stuff together on a small open shelf -- we use these items every morning and I reach for one of the teas at least 2-3 times a day! This was it's accessible and also looks very attractive. Adds a pop of colour to the kitchen :)

moving day!

We've finally moved into the new place! Today morning saw us getting here bright and early with the packers. By noon, all the worldly possessions we had brought with us were lying in the kitchen. The day was spent unpacking and organising about half the boxes. 

Most of the clothes and kitchen items were at the top of our priority list, followed by books, DVDs and some decorative items to make the place look homey. Although we've had to leave most of our books and movies in storage in Delhi, we have some perennial favourites and a few new titles with us.

Check out the bookshelf -- it's my own interpretation of the gorgeous shelf unit I wrote about in a recent post. The shelf unit was already there. Everything else is ours, including some souvenirs picked up during our travels and a few cherished gift items from family and friends.

dressing up a small apartment

Our new apartment is very, very small - so it's going to be imperative to blend beauty with functionality. Also, given that it's already pretty much furnished, buying special furniture items for small spaces isn't really an option.

Luckily, we have a tall standard shelf unit, midway between the open kitchen and the living room. I absolutely LOVE the shelf concept in the picture below: a few colourful books, some pretty crockery, a couple of decorative items, and concealed storage. It's practical AND it looks great!

I'm thinking books, DVDs, jars of dry fruit and some pretty glasses on the top shelves. Maybe add a few decorative items in front of the books and DVDs. For the lower space, I doubt I'll be able to get drawers like this where I live, but I can certainly get my hands on some cane baskets with lids or some such. Could use those to store linen methinks.

Am very excited about this unit. The problem of storage has been keeping me up at night...a few more ideas like this one and I may just manage to solve the mystery of where to store our stuff!

UPDATE: You can see how my version of this storage shelf unit turned out here.

Picture source: Better Homes and Gardens