5 Instagrammers' Clean and Uncluttered Looks I Can't Get Enough Of

While we wait on the new kitchen countertop installation, draperies to be installed, and some furniture to be delivered, the Mr. has started on his beloved project of the dressing room.  It'll take him some time to finish, as this won't be another IKEA PAX hack...  he's building from scratch:

... and while he was at it, he also started building some pull-out drawers for the kitchen's lower cabinets.  Testing a completed one here:

Meanwhile, I can't wait to start decorating after all these installations are in place!  We talked about how I've found new love of clean and uncluttered decor, influenced by the KonMari method, in my previous Small Space post.  Today, I want to share the 5 interior designers' Instagram accounts, whose feeds I pour over for their timeless minimalist looks.

Em Henderson

She's currently Target's Home spokesperon, and her style resonates with the brand - comfortably lived-in and unpretentious. I would say her signature look is mid-century with a modern/ Scandinavian vibe.  She styles a beautiful vignette with a few statement pieces and makes it seem effortless.

Studio Mcgee

They're a fast growing interior design firm that specializes in mixing a few eclectic statement pieces to enhance a room's bright and contemporary style.

Erica Cook

She just exudes style, from head to toe.  Just like her impeccable fashion sense, her home is styled elegantly.  I love her black and white decor with accents of warm metals.

Sally Wheat

You might've come across her work numerous times on Pinterest.  Her play of patterns and textures makes her rooms decorated but uncluttered.

Sophie Paterson

Her thoughtful mix of greys and taupes creates spaces that are serene and inviting.  She keeps her accessories simple and let the layers of textures and statement furniture pieces in the room speak for themselves.

With the help of these pros, I've come up with some key elements that they use to seemingly decorate effortlessly.  

How to achieve a clean and uncluttered look

1. Use neutral colours for walls or major furniture pieces - play on colours with accessories in vignettes, throw pillows, and other textiles.
2. Keep accessories simple, with one or two statement pieces per surface -  leaving some empty space between objects make it easier on the eyes to enjoy the uniqueness of each piece.  
3. Create subtle contrast - in textures, colours, and patterns to create interest and balance in the space.

When I can finally unpack and purge through the rest of our boxed up decor after all these installations, I'll be sure to keep these common themes in mind as I decorate our new spaces.  Looking forward to see our new house decorated in this clean new look!

Do share other home decor instagrammers that you love!

Laundry Room Wish List and Our Design Options

You know the feeling of something so close, yet so far?  That's how I'm feeling right now about our upcoming move.  I've shared all of our new house's decor and design plans except for one very important room - the laundry room.  I've never really given much thought about a laundry room until I realized how much of a pain it's been with a basement laundry here at the rental.  Had this been a bungalow, it wouldn't have mattered.  But our rental is a 3-storey townhouse + basement, and that makes putting away our clean laundry back up 3 flights of stairs quite the workout.  Needless to say, I've just gotten worse in falling behind in this department constantly.

We had a great sized laundry room at our old house, and spoiled that it was upstairs with our bedrooms.  Most people prefer the laundry with the mudroom downstairs, but I may be the exception.  It's so convenient to have it upstairs, and makes laundry less of a chore... and a workout.  Though admittedly, I didn't think of it that way.

Our laundry room at the old house

Luckily, the laundry room at the new house is also on the bedroom floor!  It is probably 2/3 the size of our old laundry room, so I'm determined to make it as functional as possible.

Builder's layout of our new house laundry room

No upgrades were made with the builder for this laundry room.  We just couldn't justify the prices they charge for the optional upper cabinets and to have their favourite plastic utility sink fitted in a cabinet.  Plus, we didn't want to be limited by their cabinet selections nor the positioning for what I have in mind.

I have a simple wishlist...  but after having done laundry in the basement, these seem like luxuries:

• lots of task lighting

• countertop as folding station

• ample storage

• drying area - hang drying and lay-flat drying

Nice and bright lighting

The smell of fresh laundry would be more enjoyable in a brightly lit laundry room. Back at our old house, the laundry room lacked natural light and was dark, lit only by the builder's dome light fixture that we never switched out.  At the new house, my first priority for this laundry room would be installing task lighting.  This photo from Rambling Renovators below is my inspiration for bright task lighting.  Even though this laundry is in the basement, it's nice and bright with the pot lights.

Rambling Renovators

Folding station countertop

We had a long folding space at our old house's laundry room, but it was under-utilized since it was another dumping spot for miscellaneous household items.  I'm paying for that now, as I miss that dearly and would love to have a folding counter at our new house!  

A popular trend is to build the laundry room to function like a small kitchen, minus the cooking part. Pull-out hampers, built-in ironing boards in cabinets used for kitchens, and of course, a countertop as the folding station, just to name a few.

This photo below is my all time favourite.  It's such an elegant space to do laundry!  I also love how the countertop above the washers/ dryers is beautifully equipped with laundry supplies.  

Hampton Design

My plan is to run a countertop from the laundry sink and across onto the washer and dryer as the folding station.  That should provide lots of space for folding and decorating :-)

Storage and lots of it

To avoid another dump site at the new laundry room, I need to designate a place for everything from the get go.  You know, the usual suspects of light bulbs, extra cleaning supplies, vases, containers, etc.  Don't know how they always found their way onto my laundry counter back at the old house.

I love this combination of closed storage and open shelves with baskets.  The open shelves make the backsplash area look higher than it is, and in turn make the ceiling look taller.  Open shelves would be an ideal spot to store frequently accessed items, such as towels and other linens.

The Block Glasshouse by Darren & Dee

This set of closed storage with frosted glass labels is super cute!  The glass doors also help to reflect light in a small space, making the laundry room appear brighter.

Source unknown

Drying areas

There just never seem to be enough room to hang dry our delicates here at the rental.  I'm just drooling over the hanging space above the counter in these photos:

Source unknown

Organized Interiors

I was back and forth on the location of the hanging space.  If we do install the hanging rod above the counter, our hanging garments will face the entrance of the laundry room,  I'm not sure how well that'll go with the clean and uncluttered look I'm after.  

My best option is to leave the wall above the machines only for storage cabinets, facing the entrance, and install the hang drying racks on the wall beside the doorway, like so:

Bolig Magasinet

This way, the hanging garments are "hidden" from sight when you look in.  I've already gotten this collapsible hanging rod to go on that wall.  It'll be folded in when not in use to minimize the space it takes up.

Arrow Hanger

And these foldable drying racks from IKEA can go under the rod, collapsed when not in use also:

IKEA

Design options

While the wall with the drying racks won't be too attractive, my plan for the opposite storage wall will hopefully make up for that.  My dilemma is whether to match the base sink cabinet fronts to our graphite set of machines, or to choose a wood toned front to add warmth.  These are currently my coveted choices from IKEA's SEKTION kitchen series:

Glossy grey

Walnut effect light grey

These horizontal wall cabinets, also from IKEA's SEKTION series, would be great for the upper storage.  We can run them along the length of the wall, leaving out the bottom door for the combination of open and closed storage options mentioned above.

As for the countertop, this slab of Caesarstone in White Shimmer with pieces of mirror chips in it would pick up the white shimmery lines of our builder's floor tiles.

Caesarstone 3142 White Shimmer

To add visual interest, the curvy lines of these moroccan lantern backsplash tiles create an interesting juxtaposition against all the flat surfaces in the laundry room.

Saltillo Tiles

Since the Mr. is a visual person, I've put together this design board to help him visualize what's in my head.

faucet / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Designing the laundry room to function efficiently is a must, making it pretty is a bonus.  Don't know about you, but laundry is my most dreaded chore.  I'm hopeful that beautifying this utility room will help me get back on track with our ever growing mountain of laundry.  The logic is simple:  happy laundry room --> happy wife --> happy life  ;-)

Which base cabinet option would you choose?

Basement Family Room Inspirations

The Mr. has been working endlessly on reupholstering the French chairs, but he joked that I pulled out my DIY whip at him after we came back from our vacation.  That was so not the case!  Being the eager beaver himself, perhaps he felt elated that he had worked out the kinks on the first chair, and just couldn't wait to get his hands on the other 3.  

I have to give kudos to the Mr. for his first attempt at reupholstering.  The chairs are turning out nicely, matching the overall decor scheme of our basement family room.

Our basement family room came about as we decided to have our builder finish the basement for our media/ lounge area.  It's not a huge space, but will be a cozy area comprising of these on our wish list:

Cozy Lounging Area

Basements don't need to feel like a dungeon.  We want the family room to be a style extension of our main floor's transitional decor, and a welcoming spot where we can comfortably put up our legs.   This photo below has all the right elements, down to the blue and white decor that we love.  An oversized ottoman as a coffee table is as inviting as it gets to putting up your legs.  This elegant and serene space is just the decorating style we're after.

Garrison Hullinger Interior Design Inc.

Media Centre with Multiple Storage Duties

One can never have enough storage in their lives.   Since we're not planning to have a home office this time around, items that resided there at the old house need to go somewhere.  Where else would be a better place to park these items than a large media centre?  We need our media centre to handle multiple storage duties beyond media hardware and accessories.

We originally wanted one end of the family room to house full height storage, similar to our office built-in at the old house.  However, at our pre-dry wall appointment, we noticed the ceiling is partially dropped where we intended to have the built-in unit.  Instead of having full height built-in storage, having some low storage would suit our space better. I'm loving this series of low storage:

Sophie Paterson Interiors

Another view of the same room:

Sophie Paterson Interiors

Low storage doesn't take up the wall space above the unit, making that space more airy.  I also love how the lights installed close to the edge of the wall reinforces that roomier feel as the light bounces off the walls.  

Rather than filling up full-height shelves with knick-knacks, we can still style the top of the low storage unit with some statement pieces.  We won't have a fireplace as the focal point for our family room, instead that would be where our TV sits, and we would have the low storage continue across the length of the wall. 

Game/ Craft/ Eating Table

Now that little man has taken on an interest in board games, we occasionally spread out his monopoly set on the floor here at the rental.  We can technically play on the dining table, but half of it is in a constant state of disarray as the dumpster of miscellaneous items.  I'm not a huge fan of sitting on the floor for long, back issues and all.  And this is when the idea of having a separate table in the family room came up.  It'll also be a great spot for wrapping presents, building models (one of The Mr.'s favourite past time when he had no DIY projects), and other family crafts (my wish).  I also imagine us using the table as a pizza servery for our movie nights!  

Whatever the purpose may be, I think I found a table that fits our style and space.  This one from IKEA is a bang-for-the-buck choice!  Even better yet, it's extendible, which is excellent for those rare occasions when we may need a larger table.

IKEA

And then come the chairs...  as mentioned in this post, we got these vintage French round back chairs at an awesome deal.  After lots of elbow grease, the Mr. has repainted and reupholstered them.  I think they'll pair perfectly with the IKEA table above.

Stylish Bar Area

The Mr. and I love to wind down the day with beer or some wine, and having a bar area in the family room would be a fitting addition.  Our basement isn't humongous, so we would only allocate a small space for this dry bar.  With a smallish space to work with, traditional kitchen upper cabinets would feel too stuffy, not to mention it's too predictable.  

These chic dry bar nooks below demonstrate that we don't need a large bar area to be functional.  Installing open shelves keep the bar essentials readily accessible, while the mirror back opens up the space by reflecting light.  An under-counter beverage centre keeps the drinks fresh and cool, completing the stylish nook.

Luxe Interiors + Design

Source Unknown

Brooks and Falotico

Powder Room

Don't we all dread the need for a bathroom break in the middle of an action-packed sequence?  Be it game night or movie night, to make that necessary yet annoying trip as short as possible, having at least a powder room in our basement is a must. Instead of a full bathroom, we opted to have a powder room so that we're not wasting valuable space for our basement family room.  We'd rather let our lifestyle dictate our use of space than wasting the bathroom space just to have a higher resale value down the road. 

Since it's a powder room, no doubt the builder would just drop in a white pedestal sink in there.  We would eventually like to swap that with a bathroom vanity with storage.  This powder room needs to have its own inventory of linens and tissue papers, because the last thing I want to do is to go up and down the stairs just to refill supply!  This vanity here has drawers storage that I love.  Those dresser legs lift it high off the ground, giving the small powder room a more spacious feel.

Venato Bath

Just a bit more than a month to go, and we'll be in our new house!  It can't come soon enough!  I think I will be overwhelmed with emotions when we finally get to use this basement family room for the first time.