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One of my absolute favorite things about moving from Florida to Tennessee is finally getting to enjoy all four seasons. Spring brings blooming trees, summer is full of pool days, fall glows with mountain color, and winter offers just enough snow to feel magical. Honestly, there isn’t a season I don’t love.
What I haven’t mastered yet, though, is swapping out and organizing seasonal clothing. Now that we’re in the winter months, all our wintertime accessories have become a mess around the home. Gloves and hats, for instance, might be tucked into storage bins, stuffed into kids’ drawers, tossed into the coat closet, or forgotten entirely inside jacket pockets. That’s not ideal — especially on dark, frigid school mornings when everyone suddenly needs a hat right now.
Our old system (a basket shoved into the closet) quickly turned into a jumbled mess, making it harder to see what we had and who needed what. That is until I decided to use a lid organizer.
Why a Lid Organizer Is Perfect for Hat Storage
When I came across an Instagram Reel by Courtney Broadhead of @keepitsimplesparkles, one detail immediately caught my eye: her solution for storing beanies. She used a dedicated hat organizer that retails for about $47 on Amazon. It was clever — but also looked very familiar. In fact, it looked exactly like the lid organizer I already use to file baking sheets in my kitchen cabinet. Instantly, I knew I had to try it.
What Happened When I Tried This Storage Hack
I pulled the lid organizer out of the cabinet and tested it with our beanies — and sure enough, they fit perfectly. Each hat slid neatly into its own slot, staying visible and easy to grab without collapsing into a pile. What I love most about this setup is how clearly you can see everything at once. Instead of digging through a basket or bin, every beanie has a dedicated spot, making it easier for kids (and adults) to grab one and put it back.
The only challenge I’m still working through is where to store it. Our under-the-stairs closet is oddly shaped, so visibility is tricky. I think this hack would shine even more in a personal closet or a traditional coat closet with a shelf.
Still, turning a simple lid organizer into a beanie station is hands down the smartest winter accessory storage hack I’ve tried — and it’s officially earned a permanent spot in our seasonal organizing rotation.
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Victorian conversion apartments like the one I live in come with many enviable perks, like large windows and high ceilings. But because they started out as larger Victorian houses that have since been chopped up into smaller apartments, these conversion apartments also come with plenty of quirks. Challenges include drafty windows, a lack of bathrooms, and the biggest one of all: at least one oddity in the layout.
In my home, that head-scratcher was the living room, which I can only describe as a large “hallway.” It has my bedroom at one end, the kitchen at the other, and the entryway in the middle, almost like a railroad-style apartment (just not in a completely straight line). It’s also windowless apart from a sliver of glass near the ceiling.
My living room started out in fixer-upper shape, with dated 1970s finishes, so gutting it down to its bare bones was the first step. I followed that with fresh wood floors and a new fireplace. This was the easy part! Choosing where new light switches and outlets should go was trickier, as was arranging the space so that flow of traffic to the surrounding rooms made sense. And then there was the lack of light! Here’s how I made it all work.
I went for an open layout with distinct zones.
I’m an interiors blogger who’s written about lots of homes, including my own, and I knew that fighting my home’s original layout was useless. Instead, I tried to create distinct zones within the living room’s long, open space.
I began by narrowing the opening between the kitchen and living room but opted for no physical separation between the spaces, not even glass doors. With the narrower opening, both the rooms work as two separate spaces but also allow my family to feel like we are together even when we’re in different areas.
I made the doorway “disappear.”
To reduce the number of angular doorways, I turned the opening of the entryway into an arch. I made it “disappear” by painting the entryway in a much darker color (Mylands’ Millbank). Now, when you’re in the living room, it’s almost as if there’s nothing there.
I fully embraced minimalism.
Although the style of this home was originally Victorian, my style naturally leans more minimalist. Luckily, the natural light and scale of Victorian-style homes lends itself well to my style, too. Painting the walls crisp white made the space look bright and helped maximize every bit of light.
I maximized natural light.
Adding windows to the living room wasn’t an option. So, lastly, I replaced almost the entire rear wall of the kitchen (which is an extension) with 18-foot-wide glass sliding doors. While costly, it is the single best splurge I made in this transformation. Now, I don’t even notice the lack of windows in the living room.
My favorite thing about the after is how light and bright my windowless living room looks and feels. And I absolutely love that as a family we can be in separate spaces but still feel like we’re together.
Estate sales, yard sales, and antique shops were regular weekend destinations for my brother and me as kids. My parents, always on the hunt for period-appropriate decor for our Staten Island 19th-century house, made sure of it. Since then, I’ve had a love for home design and…read more
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From designer bags to LEGO sets, most of us have some sort of hobby or collection that takes up a lot of real estate. For me, it’s perfume. I have a moderately sized perfume collection that is continuously growing (much to my wallet’s dismay), and I realized it needed a designated home.
I didn’t want to hide my beautiful bottles away, and I also wanted to be able to easily access them, so the medicine cabinet was not an option. So I set off in search of a chic yet inexpensive way to display my prized possessions — and I found my inspiration (where else?) on TikTok.
In my search, I stumbled across this post from Gianna Butler, a Los Angeles-based creator with the same problem (and taste!) as mine. “I found an inspo picture on Pinterest and figured I could totally find something similar [by] thrifting or scrolling through Facebook Marketplace,” Butler told me. After weeks of searching, Butler was able to snag a stunning vintage spice rack for just $15 on Facebook Marketplace.
How I Turned a Thrifted Spice Rack into a Perfume Display
My own style definitely leans vintage too, so this was the perfect solution. I love the idea of giving an old piece a new life — and a new purpose. “The woman selling the spice rack told me this was a special piece; it had been her mother’s, and she was hoping it would go to a good home,” said Butler. “It was meant to be.” So, armed with inspiration and a mission, I headed to the thrift store myself.
Luckily for me, I didn’t have to search for long. In the home aisle, I found this gorgeous vintage mango-wood spice rack — and for just $12! I promptly checked out and headed home, eager to style my new score. I was a little nervous about whether or not the bottles would fit — most perfumes come in 1-ounce, 1.7-ounce, and 3.4-ounce bottles, with a typical maximum height of around 4.5 inches, which is similar to most spices — but my collection fits perfectly.
I am so thrilled with how this unassuming, inexpensive thrift find became a statement piece in my bedroom. The stunning, dark-stained wood makes the glass bottles pop, and definitely nails that vintage vibe I always strive for when decorating. My collection brings me so much joy, and even more so now that I get to see it every day.
If you’re also looking for a way to display a collection of yours, consider a spice rack! Thrift stores and online marketplaces are filled with pieces just like the ones Gianna and I found. If you’d rather skip the thrift store, though, this trinket shelf from Urban Outfitters has a very similar look. It’ll cost you more, of course, but it definitely still has that vintage vibe I love.
For a lot of homeowners, the pool is a part of a general home improvement project, but it doesn’t always fit in the decor of the property. In fact, more often than not, the addition of a pool can clash with the whole look and feel of your garden. So, instead of increasing your home value, it can have no effect at all, despite the investment cost.
If you are worried about how your pool impact your value of your property, it’s time to think about how to create a coherent and consistent style for your outdoors. Here is how you can make your pool feel more at home.
Elevate The Liner
Did you know that your pool liner doesn’t have to be boring? Romans have exquisitely decorated baths, so why couldn’t your pool be like that too?
There are plenty of stylish liner options, including above ground pool liners, so you are not limited in the look you can achieve. There’s a common misconception that only in ground pools can have visually appealing liners, but nowadays, pool owners can create the decor they want, no matter whether in or above ground.
This may not seem like much, but changing the overall visual from plain blue to something more elegant can already make your pool area appear more sophisticated and intentional.
Inflatable Pool Fun
Small pools are designed to provide a refreshing zone in the warm weather. They are not made for athletic performances because they are neither deep nor long enough for swimming. As a result, they often feel like an awkward, space-demanding addition to the garden.
So, if you start framing your pool as an outdoor water lounge, rather than a tiny swimming space, it instantly becomes more interesting and inviting. For example, there are plenty of stylish inflatable additions you could bring, such as an inflatable pool chair, which will make pool days a lot more entertaining. This will remove the risk of comparing your garden pool with an actual swimming pool.
The Area Around the Pool
In the summer, the pool can become the centre of your outdoor gathering spot. So, why not design an outdoor area where you and your family can spend time comfortably, even when you are not in the pool?
That’s precisely where looking for garden furniture that matches your taste and decor can be a game-changer. Granted, this means moving away from the typical plastic chairs and table ensemble, but contemporary furniture that is designed to inject sophisticated elegance into your garden will transform the space dramatically.
Nighttime Lighting
One of the main reasons why the pool looks out of place in the garden is the lack of practical features around it. So, using quality furniture to frame the shape of the pool will help create a sense of inclusion. But you can also make it more intentional with dedicated lighting solutions, such as sensor-based switch-controlled systems, that can illuminate your path to the pool at night.
Lighting is also a great way to create interesting shapes that can paint the pool area in a different light at night.
Can the addition of a pool become synonymous with increased property value for homeowners? More often than not, a thoughtful decor that brings the pool area to life can contribute not only to your enjoyment of the outdoor space but also to a return on investment when you sell the property.
