This project is brought to you by Kleenex, all styling, neurotic issues and seasonal sinuses are 100% my own.
Once the winter holidays are behind me and spring is in the air, I crave change and organization like crazy. I have been in this house for nearly a year and it’s taken me that entire time to find the perfect nightstands. I mentioned this here when I shared my other unlikely nightstand with you guys, two weeks ago! I have big… no… huge, plans for my bed and somehow regular nightstands just didn’t seem like the right choice in this space. I happen to prefer a bit of a taller nightstand because I think it’s a more comfortable reach when you are laying down or sitting in bed, and makes sense for my lifestyle, which happens to involve a lot of time in this space. Since I work from home, that also means a lot of hours logged working in this space, so a desk is perhaps the perfect solution for my side of the bed.
I like to style for a space according to how I actually live in it and how I use a space dictates the decor quite a bit. It will drive me nuts if the things I constantly use and need easy access to, don’t have a place to ‘live’. If some of those things are unsightly, they need a box or a drawer, even a tray will work to hide them from sight most of the time. I am actually neurotic about this in my own little head and it will bug me to no end until I find the perfect solution. A solution that doesn’t require I work overtime to keep an area looking beautiful and orderly and will allow me to actually use it, at the same time. But let me be clear, I am not by nature a crazy cleaning lady. In fact, I am perhaps a great organizer by nature, but absolutely horrible at keeping things clean, hence the need for a solution that makes things easy for me and still looks good, because after all vanity is such a huge part of the equation for me… kidding.
Toys are inevitable… no matter how hard I try to keep toys in a particular spot, they just keep creeping back in like the plague. A large basket is perfect for them and can hold throw pillows that are really only for decoration and not technically for sleeping. The other option is launching them onto the floor or the couch before I settle in for bed. I’m thinking the basket is the better of the two. The drawer of the desk stores lotions and creams that I need for my hands and for diaper changing since much of that happens here as well. It also hides the remotes, notepads, pens and my iPad so that I can work (or not work) without the bird going nuts for any of those things, since he is absolutely obsessed with each and every one of them and is now a master button pusher and learning how to color and throw, sometimes simultaneously! Eek. The faux snakeskin box holds pictures, drawings and cute little memory keepsakes that I don’t want tiny little hands getting into but need to regularly add to as they happen. It helps me to keep their ‘home’ close at hand so I don’t set these things in another spot with the intention of putting them away later… and then never get around to it… you know you guys do this too. I love a living plant in a space, and this one has the added benefit of keeping the lid on the box and acting as a deterrent for the tiny people running about, without being so big and heavy it’s a danger.
I purchased a very thin marble slab tile to use a an oversized coaster of sorts, so I can set glasses and dishes. I’m not going to lie, I eat in bed, a ton… truly. Having a surface to set things so wood won’t get damaged from water or drips is quite nice. But, should I have a little spill, a tissue is easy at hand to do the job. I use Kleenex for essentially everything, including spills around the house. The fact that Kleenex has created boxes that are cute and can stay out in plain sight without having to be hidden away is kind of fabulous and I’m so appreciative. When you constantly have 800 things you are holding and you need to clean up a spill or a drip, being able to pull out one or even a couple of tissues with one free hand (or a finger) instead of having to manhandle the paper towel roll or search for a towel, is perhaps the most convenient thing in the world. If you are a mom, you know exactly what I am talking about. I think this habit started when I had my first baby and has managed to stick around ever since. It’s just so much easier, especially when your children are still small and more hands-on, so I turn to it time and again. Also, it’s quite possible my little family has some of the worst seasonal allergies I have ever seen, so between my excessive and inexplicable use of Kleenex for virtually all household purposes (they actually now have products specifically for household purposes like hand towels, which is amazing – though for me it’s a convenience thing, one box, one thing to buy, 100 uses) and our nasal issues, we go through tissue in bulk. Having several design options in styles that match my decor for any particular space saves me and the mister from bickering when I ask him to stock up and to choose some that ‘match’. That would be the kind of thing that might send him over the edge most of the time, and a non-matching design might literally do me in… but with stylish options like Kleenex has created, all I have to do is provide him with a color and set him loose. For this space I tend to prefer a neutral or a peach and they designs in both! I don’t have to hide the box behind a large pot or lamp (yep you know you have done that too) and it can live right out in the open and that make me a happy gal. It’s the small things in life I guess, isn’t it…
Be sure to check out the Kleenex style finder to see which style suits you best and while you are there check out some of the fun facts about Kleenex throughout their 90 years, it’s pretty interesting and you can see the new designs while you are there and find one that works with your own decor! Celebrate your sinuses or your own weird uses for tissue and let your box live out loud in plain sight!
Disclosure // Thank you to Kleenex for sponsoring this project and for creating an updated, modern, and stylish product package. I think we all appreciate a company who considers our needs as a consumer, at least I know I do!
