The First Impression

We all know that making a good first impression when meeting someone is key to a good relationship, or getting a job etc. I believe first impressions are also very important when decorating a house, and first impressions of your decorating style is at the front door; your foyer. 

I believe the foyer is a key spot for design, everyone will see this part of your home and besides family and friends, other people will see not much more. Thus I believe it is a good space to spent time on, those who will not see the rest of your home will form an impression of your entire home based on just this room, and therefore making sure it leaves the impression you would like your visitors to have is important! The foyer is actually one of the rooms I am most excited to decorate! 

I believe foyers can say a lot about the house and lifestyle of the homeowners, if the foyer is messy and overrun by clutter, coats, shoes etc. than that could promote your home as unorganized, lack of storage space or cluttered. Rather if it is organized, pleasantly decorated your home would look organized, and feel welcoming. 

To get your creativity going or to inspire you for your own entry way I added some pictures along with my thoughts about each:

www.stonegableblog.com

#1: This foyer belongs to Yvonne from StoneGable blog, I am absolutely in love with her foyer and had to share. I love the colour green and plants so this foyer was a big hit with me. I think the wreath in front of the mirror is a great idea. If I had this foyer I would change the wreath with the seasons.     

www.houseofturquoise.com

                                           

#2: The next foyer belongs to Erin from the HouseOfTurquoise blog, and again I am in love with the colours. My favourite colours are green and blue, and everything about this entry way promotes welcoming to me. It only has a few pieces and is kept very simple. I love the accent colour on the door also, its an effective way of tying in the exterior with the interior of a home, and let's not forget that ceiling... it completes the whole look!

www.homeportfolio.com

#3 Lastly is a more contemporary/ modern approach that is also very simple. I like the neutral tones used. This foyer uses a lot of shapes like on the floor tile, with the stool bases and the mirror which I think is very unique. It isn't my personal style but I still wanted to share as it may be some of yours!

What I would suggest including in your foyer is a spot to sit down to take shoes or boots off. A bench, a chair, stool or ottoman work great for this. If you do have a mudroom area in the home you will a lot more freedom with decorating in the foyer as you won't necessarily need coat hooks, shoe storage etc.

Let me know which foyer out of the three you liked best. Till next time!

-Ilana

Jewelry Organization

A little while ago I started organizing my jewelry and that of my sister's. We both have lots and lots of jewelry that needed to be organized desperately. I figured I would share our organization solutions with all of you so you may organize your own jewelry in the same or similar way! :) 

PROBLEM: My sister, Kim has a extensive selection of earrings and has a bit of a earring obsession ;) thus all the more reason she needed an organization system that allowed her earrings to be displayed in an organized manner, as previously they would be piled on top of the others in little boxes and bins and resulted in a time consuming task of trying to find a matching pair. 

SOLUTION: We purchased a cork board frame at Walmart, it allowed us to poke in pins from which then pairs of earrings can be hung. As shown in the photo above you can organize your earrings in a visually appealing manner. :)

PROBLEM: Next up is my mixed collection of jewelry including bracelets, earrings, rings and necklaces. I had a lot of bracelets, way too much to organize, so I actually stored 40% of the bracelets I never wore in a box. I also have a lot of stud earrings which are hard to organize and easily lost. 

SOLUTION: I had always had this jewelry display box so I put it to use. I sorted through my current jewelry and got rid of or stored the jewelry I never wear but wanted to keep. Next up I cut up some black card stock that would fit the square trays in my jewelry box, I cut the card stock in a way that allowed it to tilt up a bit so it can stand a little, like a picture frame would (Like a picture frame, I attached a flap to the back so this would remain tilted). I poked some push pins into the box beside the mirror and hung some of my earrings there as most hang on my sisters display. All my jewelry pieces except my necklaces now have a spot! :)

PROBLEM: So of course I ran into a necklace dilemma as I wanted my necklaces to be hung, but didn't have the space in the jewelry box to hang them nor did I have enough wall space for a cork board frame.

SOLUTION: So instead I bought some push pins and stuck these straight into the wall. Yes i know, this is a crazy idea if you love your walls...which I do, but I felt confident that I could pin them in the correct spot the first time around and so I did. ;) I am pleased with the final look and it has become a piece of organizational-art in my eyes! (Don't know if organizational-art is a thing, otherwise it is now, aha!)  

PROBLEM: So last of all I wanted my sister to display the rings she owns, and wanted to make it look visually appealing, another organizational-art situation I guess... ;) She had some empty space on her shelving to allow for this.

SOLUTION: I had purchased mirrors from the Dollar Store a while back and purchased clear ring holders from Amazon. Combined with some decorations in her room they make for a nice display, i especially love the reflections of both the rings and sunglasses within the mirrors!  

I hope you enjoyed reading about the way I organized our jewelry and hope you feel inspired to organize your own! Below are some links of the items I purchased mentioned throughout the blog post. 

~Ilana

RING HOLDERS | CORK FRAME (SIMILAR) | 

Welcome to "The Creativity That Built Me" Blog...

If you are anything like me you probably have hundreds...if not thousands of home decor and inspiration folders on Pinterest, numerous stacks of home decor & design magazines lying around the house and always the urging desire to re-decorate that room for the tenth time or to enter that home decor store one more time to do up some inspiration. 

If you are anything like me, you'll feel right at home here, where I will be sharing my home decor obsessions, ideas, inspiration posts and information I have gathered from my two year study of Interior Decorating. 

~Ilana 

PS: I wasn't kidding about the hundreds of inspiration folders on Pinterest... feel free to pop by and check out my numerous folders on every topic you could imagine ;) and those are just 6 of 'em. 

https://www.pinterest.com/ilanaoverink/