10 April Featured Space: Living Room - Inspiring Tips & Tricks

As our lovely month of April is coming to an end, it's time to do a quick wrap up post on our featured space: Living/Family Room.  Of course, as things come up along the way, we can always revisit one of the most used spaces in the homestead!

When it comes to keeping our living/family rooms neat and tidy, I thought it would be fun to pull some inspiration photos of organized and spiffed up spaces, and compare for common themes!

  Image courtesy of RealSimple.com

 Image courtesy of bhg.com

Image courtesy of refinedredesign-staging.com

Image courtesy of roomenvy.wordpress.com

 Image courtesy of RealSimple.com

There are so many things I absolutely heart about each one of the rooms pictured above.  From the clear coffee tables, to the loads of wicker basket storage, to the bright and airy feelings, to the creative stashed away media storage.  Each one of these spaces say, "Come in and make yourself at home" and equally important to this gal, they speek in an organized language.

So time for a quick-a-roo Living/Family Room organizational recap of the top items IHeart for this months featured space, to keep it feeling neat and tidy, and making it easy to keep it that way to boot!!

IHeart Media Storage!

Keeping all of your media in order will make life easier in the long run, allowing you to better know what's been borrowed out to your mother-in-law and ensuring you aren't searching for endless minutes when you get the itch to watch "Uncle Buck".

I personally heart acrylic media boxes we stash our growing collections in, allowing me to store up to 120 dvd's/video games a pop, and with my personalized movie key, I always know right where to find anything I am in the mood for!

These Acrylic Meida Bins come with the 60 colorful and numbered sleeves {holding two discs each for a grand total of 120} from the Container Store.  

 IHeart Laundry Baskets!

Yeppers, I said laundry baskets and I am talking about livings spaces.  However, there are oogles of adorable lined and unlined options out there, that can offer a variety of texture and storage to your living space!  From tossing in a grouping of toys for kiddos or pets to housing extra pillows and blankets for movie night, laundry baskets are the "in" item in the living space!  Which is why I am totally sporting laundry baskets in both of our living areas! 

They perfectly hug my pillows and blankets that the family digs out when cuddling up with a good book or watching a movie, and then they tuck neatly away when done, making less eye clutter in the room!  And they are also great for placing in front of unsightly outlets or filling empty spaces at the end of a couch or next to a great chair!

As I mentioned, you can  get stylish laundry baskets just about anywhere from Pier 1 to to Target!

IHeart Storage Ottomans!

I have to say, storage ottomans are really one of this gal's absolute bestest buddies in our living spaces.  Again, I sport one in each of our two living spaces, however, they are completely different styles and for completely different reasons.  In our main living area, I have two rush storage ottomans that again, add a ton of storage and texture to the space, plus the price was totally right!

These little honeys tuck perfectly under our console table, and even better, they hold boatloads of toys, but no one would be the wiser which is why IHeart these so!

And down in our family room, our larger leather storage ottoman is a footrest/coffee table by day, and amazing hidden game storage by night... er... all the time but it just sounds right!

But just because that's how I use my storage, doesn't mean it has to stop there!  Of course it's all about what works best for you in your own spaces!  Anything goes from games, toys, blankets, pillows, books, magazines, shoes, files, video games.... opportunities are endless, making them such an amazing investment piece!

This one goes for only $33 smackaroos with free site to store shipping, making it much easier to snag it in a set of two!


IHeart Indoor/Outdoor Pillows!

A more recent discovery that I sort of wished I would have made 276 throw pillows ago, is that I am totally in love with outdoor pillows!  Yes, the pillows that should be adorning a beautiful adirondack chair on my front porch, actually live on my couch!

If these beauties are meant to stand up against torrential downpours and blazing sun, then they surely can stand up against my three sweet and innocent little boys!

I especially crushed and splurged on these fabulously bright and colorful ones from Pottery Barn, they are extra large and the pattern hides any chocolate finger prints {which of course would never grace my pillows -ha!}



IHeart Remote Control Caddies!

Eeek, rodents remotes have taken over our living room!  It can happen to anyone!  That's why if you don't have the moola to splurge for those uber fancy all in one universal gadgets, spring for a remote caddy instead!  It's so worth it, and that way, in any TV emergency, you won't find yourself digging in the couch cushions and under piles of toys to come up empty handed!

I reused an old Kleenex box for our bundle of controls, it actually worked out pretty perfectly!

However, they also have some pretty stylish ones on the market as well!

I am totally digging this acrylic version, since {as seen in our inspiration photos above}, acrylic items give a great sense of clean, open and airy!




Last but not least, IHeart frosted cabinets!

Concealing things from board games to components in any living space, will give the space less visual clutter and a more fresh feeling!  My favorite way is with some decorative frosted glass, as we saw here when a fellow blogger re-did her media doors.

Or as I do to tuck away more of our game collections:

And of course you could DIY it using some stencils and a can of frosted glass spray {which I am totally itching to try somewhere around here!}, or you could just take an easier route by using some adorable decals.

 Or you could take the even easier way out and just buy a frosted door for your cabinets!

No matter which way you choose, you will surely be happier in your space, when you don't have so much visual stimulation around you that you can't focus on the TV ones you love!

I think that about covers it from a storage organizing perspective!  What am I missing?  What totally gets your heart beating wildly for your personal living space, that I haven't covered above?

Of course, from a design perspective, there are so many other reasons why the inspirational photos above rock as living spaces.  I really love a room that has bright punches of color, tons of textural elements, concealed and decorative storage, tall window panels and an area rug that hold everything in place and pulls the room together!

Time for you to share your secrets with me, or even better yet, some photos of your organized space that I can feature for other readers!  Come on, you know you want too!