New Year, Love Your Space: Colors that Bring Happiness into a Home

A new year means not only a fresh start for you, but also for your home. No matter your style, incorporating new fresh colors will add new life to your space. Not only are we seeing clients leaning towards these trends, we are beginning to see them pop up in local boutiques as well.

And what better color to incorporate into your space than Marsala, the 2015 Pantone color of the year. It’s perfect for chairs, benches, and decorative details. Marsala is beautiful when paired with black and white.

Pastels are always perfect when aiming for a calming, feminine feeling. Soft blues, grays, and purples are easy to combine with neutrals as well as more saturated colors.

Speaking of saturated colors, boy are they are making a comeback. It seems that after years of gray being the go to neutral, we are pulling away. It is time to bring excitement back into our homes through the use of electric colors. Bright oranges, deep blues, and exciting greens will definitely be finding their way into interior spaces all around.

New Year, Love Your Space: The Best Ways to Store Holiday Decorations and Gifts

Variety of Storage Containers

First thing is first, storage containers. There are so many options available now other than an old cardboard box. Of course plastic containers are great in terms of convenience and durability, but if you want something a little more specific, you are in luck. 

There are options for the smaller Christmas necessities such as wrapping paper.

The one pictured can hold up to 12 rolls, and has inside pockets for holding gift tags, ribbon, tape, ect.

To protect and organize your ornaments, pick up one of these storage boxes. Complete with three removable layers of divided trays, which hold 72 ornaments all together. 

Even your wreath can now be stored away properly. This bag has an internal hook and adjustable buckle straps to make sure your wreath holds its place, and stays dust free for the coming year. 

 

And lastly, if you’re looking to update your tree storage, check out one of these wheeled bags. It can hold up to a nine-foot tree and has internal straps to make sure it is all nice and secure.

Label, Label, Label

Before you go and tuck everything away, do no forget to label. This will make sorting through the following year a breeze. Instead of writing across a box or bag with a sharpie, try another quick, simple approach. 

Type up a tag with a large title so you can quickly generalize what it contains, and allow for an area below so you can list out the specific contents. For more versatility, you can place a clear laminated sheet on top of the label and then list the contents. Just a little tip to make your life easier when adding or tossing decorations during the holiday season!

Maximize Your Storage Space

Now that everything is as organized as possible, lets keep moving in that direction and maximize your overall storage space. Of course you can always use a shelving system or cubbies. 

But spice it up a little; take advantage of every unused space available to you. More and more ingenious approaches are being widely used. I love the idea of under stair shelving. 

No extra space is used and it is completely out of the way, add doors if you want it all out of sight as well. In attics and garages, look to your ceiling for added storage. 

“Ceiling shelves” can be used for smaller items, they are easy to access, simply undo the closer, whether it be a cleat or a lock, and pull down the box. 

Another idea is to add wooden beams with a lip to slide boxes in out. You once again are not using up floor space and the items are out of sight and out of mind.