This post is sponsored by Target.

Waaaay back when, The Man and I ripped out the doors and interior fit-out of the closet in the office. I never showed you the ‘after’ because, while the walls and shelves might have been all fresh and new, the storage was just as ugly a mess as before.

(By the way, don’t ask me why we have a Nintendo 64, I have no idea.)

I did get some Ikea boxes to stash all of the small things (much of my inventory of greeting cards, for example), but the bulky storage was still a problem.

We were still using boxes I had purchased while living at home ten years ago. When The Man and I moved in together, I painted over most of the girly pink and purple boxes in my favourite greeny-yellow colour – this was only ever intended to be a stopgap measure and a permanent solution was desperately needed as the paint was chipped and horrible and the cardboard was damaged.

I also wanted to switch from cardboard boxes to plastic ones, so they would be more durable and better protect the contents.

Trouble is, it can be tricky finding the perfect storage (especially if you’re on a budget). For the longest time, I had been looking for some opaque white plastic tubs (so I won’t get sick of the colour and I can hide the messy-looking contents unlike with clear boxes). I’d found a couple of options but they either had yukky coloured handles or were the wrong size for the space.

Then last week when Target asked me to put together my wishlist of favourite home decor items from their Home Sale, I finally found it: the elusive perfect white box!

After double-checking the measurements and whipped into my local store at Newton and picked up six of them. They were only $8.50ea down from $15 which is amazing value for such a versatile set of storage that will last for years and years. (Note: it says sold out on the online shop but I called my local store and they had some in stock.)

Of course, I excitedly brought them home and The Man was like, ‘yeah… they’re boxes.’ Ugh!

Anyway, I transferred all of my Christmas decorations, craft supplies etc into the new boxes and printed out some quick labels. I might make some more colourful labels later but for now I am so pleased at how neat it all looks!

GIVEAWAY WINNER

I know, what you really want to know is, who won the Target gift card giveaway?!

Our winner, selected at random, is JADE WILLIAMS! Congratulations Jade, I will email you shortly to sort out delivery. Then you’ll be able to get those frames you’re wishing for.

Thanks again to all who entered my first ever giveaway and of course big thanks to Target for sharing the love!

As you know, I run my stationery business from home. With it comes a whole bunch of packaging and shipping supplies which I keep in one side of the buffet cabinet in my office. The shipping gear on the bottom shelf was working quite well, but the packaging on the top shelf? Not so much.

On more than one occasion I had ordered more cellophane bags, thinking that I’d run out, then finding I had them all along but they were buried. Or worse, I had gone to start packaging up some products in their cellophane bags, only to find I had actually run out.

After a quick trip to Ikea, I added a couple of the Rationell Variera shelf inserts and my cello bags, labels and note card boxes are now divided up so I can easy see and access everything.

Only a quick and cheap hack, but anything that saves me time searching for things and makes my business run that bit smoother gets a huge tick in my book.

Weeee! I am so excited to share this with you.

Lovely local photographer Mel Boulden was kind enough to do a shoot of me in my studio recently. I’m so happy to finally have some great shots to submit with the increasing amount of interviews and other press opportunities that come up for Akimbo.

Feeling über professional.

Didn’t Mel do a wonderful job? Since I spend so much time here, I’ve tried to keep this room light, bright and airy (but still colourful of course!) and she’s captured that beautifully.

Photos by Mel Boulden Photography

Via La Maison Dannag

I don’t know about you, but it wouldn’t have occurred to me in a million years to use an old mattress spring frame as a pinboard. Doesn’t it add a wonderfully dramatic industrial edge to this Scandanavian style office? If you don’t have that much room to spare, try using a spring base from a cot instead of a full-size bed.

I did love my old DIY file folders but there’s only so long the wrapping paper will last before starting to look ragged. I stumbled upon stationery mecca Zetta Florence when in Melbourne last year and found these funky vintage office inspired file folders. Perfect!

I was struggling to decide what to buy (not wanting to miss out on buying something great but knowing I couldn’t take  home the whole store with me!) until I found out they just opened an online store. Check out their beautiful stationery and archival storage.

When I told you about our sexy new office chair, I was asked by a reader whether it was easy to clean. I couldn’t answer that at the time having only just bought it, so here I am reporting back.

It did get quite grubby but thankfully it was quite easy to clean. Even easier for me because The Man kindly volunteered got so annoyed by my slackness that he did it for me. His method was to wipe over with a wet cloth, wipe off excess water with a dry cloth and allow to air dry, before applying a leather conditioner (according to packet instructions).

The good news is that it didn’t just clean it, it’s actually prevented it from getting quite so easily dirty.

Better Homes & Gardens

Hang a shower caddy on an unused spot behind a door or on the side of a bookcase to create extra space for those stationery odds and ends that always get lost in drawers.

A few months ago I told you how The Man knocked my socks off with a scavenger hunt for our first anniversary.

One of the elements was this awesome giant letter ‘a’ that he’d made by the woodwork teacher from the school where he worked. I’d been umming and aahing about where to put it – it would look so cool as a wall feature but, well, we’re running out of walls!

Normally when I talk about giving something a quick coat of paint, I really mean painstaking preparation and several coats of paint. Happily, in this case I was able to just slap on a single coat of paint as I liked being able to still see the grain.

My cheerful oversized typography now adds a playful touch to the back of my office door (sorry for the dodgy photo, the room is so small it’s hard to get a wider shot that still captures the whole letter). It makes me smile every time I look up at it from my desk.

I’d had these pink box files for some years and they’re really handy, but the colour had faded a lot in the sun and was looking a little drab. Besides, it was the only remnant of pink in the now yellow, grey and aqua office.

They were perfectly functional so I didn’t want to ditch them, instead I covered them with grey fabric for a neutral, classy look.

I used this technique for turning thin cotton fabric into sturdy cloth stuitable for gluing. Getting the flaps to stay put is the only tricky bit but with help from some pegs and rubber bands you’ll be fine. It would work better on a cardboard rather than plastic surface like this, but since I use these files for seldom-accessed items they didn’t need to be super durable.

Cutting out the finger-pulls was going to be a real headache, so I simply stuck on some metal rim tags in the same shape and size. I actually threw out the previous contents of the files and haven’t decided what will go back in them hence the blank tags.

I had the tags, as well as the rest of the materials, already on hand so it was a lovely zero dollar project – and you gotta love that.

I mentioned recently that my new printer doesn’t fit neatly inside my desk drawers like the old printer did. Sigh.

With no printer to accommodate, there was now a huge amount of wasted space in the drawer unit. I went to Ikea to find extra drawers but you can’t buy extras in this size (you can only buy the whole set with the door front like we originally purchased). I do need pull-out drawers for some items like the scanner, but I figured shelves would suffice for most things (bonus: at 20 bucks it was waaay cheaper than drawers).

Before & After:

I picked up a pack of two shelves and they were installed within minutes. Add another couple of minutes to neaten things up and hey presto I have a much more efficient space to organise my paper reams.