Beauty Room / Office Storage Breakdown
This post is a long time coming - but actually not all too long. Ever since I shared this photo on Instagram, a request I get almost daily is one asking for the breakdown of where everything is from. I made a deal with myself not to share that until I hit 10K on Instagram, so if you’re here that means we did it ladies and gents! (It actually happened a lot sooner than I had anticipated and thus I did not have this post ready to go up right away. Oops.)
Since I started this space, my “blogging area” has always been rather crammed. Mostly because it always contained my bedroom / living space and whatnot. So when I finally got my OWN room to designate for blogging and beauty things, I was stoked. I’ll admit that since I was younger, I’ve always been a “seeker” and wanted what others had. If I liked it, I wanted it too. The blogging community is definitely open with sharing where things are from and I’m still for it, but I did want to make myself stand out among others and not just do what the masses were doing. As I’ve gotten older, I definitely want to hone in my own style. Although I’ll still want something if I spot it, I think it through rather than making a hasty decision. I still take a lot of inspiration from other bloggers along with Pinterest, but just mesh it to be what I want. I’m still working on the space but I thought I’d share the highly coveted beauty shelf and tell you all where *most* of the things are from.
Drumroll please / / / The shelf is from IKEA. I loooove IKEA and although I try not to get everything from there, I still own a good amount. While some things are cheaper in quality, I do think others are worth more than their price. One item in particular are these shelves - they look chic and like something you’d see over on Apartment Therapy. I was previously looking at a different model, but similarly they have adjustable feet at the bottom that work perfectly on hardwood. I had initially wanted shelves like these years ago but my bf convinced me that they wouldn’t fare well in my bedroom with carpet. So when we moved into a place with hardwood floors, you bet I scheduled a trip to IKEA to get the shelves ASAP. (And then I patiently twiddled my thumbs until the weekend til’ we could build them.)
One of my main goals for my beauty room setup (and apartment overall) was to be able to snap photos whenever and wherever. I was always envious of others who could just snap up a corner of their home and make it look incredible. I wanted a similar vibe in my photos but it was hard to constantly have to set up and put things away. My boyfriend often liked to take photos of me as I was setting up my blogging area and share my BTS (Behind The Scenes) process. So having a space where everything is quite photographable has been such a game changer and a fuel for inspiration. It’s also great not having products stacked up in every corner of the apartment, and I definitely enjoy having my bedroom be a bedroom, my living room/kitchen be a living room/kitchen, and have all my beauty stuff in their designated areas of the bathroom and spread out in my beauty/office room.
So when I was picking out a shelf, I wanted something that would be seamless and instead of having a shelf with a bar in the center, I wanted something that would be completely open and this one checked off all the boxes. And with that, I came out of IKEA with the FJÄLKINGE shelf unit. Although the height of each shelf is a tad higher than I’d like, I know I can make it work. To keep some items tucked away, I like to have a few baskets at the bottom which serve as a place to store products I receive that need to be tested as well as store all the products I’m passing on to friends. To the side, I have this IKEA PS Locker Cabinet which I’ve been eyeing for years now (mostly because Kate from Kate La Vie has them and they look super stylish). I had been wanting a sort of bench to place my beautiful Anthropologie Gleaming Primrose Mirror on, but couldn’t find one that was sturdy enough to support it. I ended up going with this locker as it was sturdy and gave me some closed storage so I could store some things *not* as neatly. The furniture in my room is definitely a nice mixture of different styles but I think it all works. And it gives me a nice white surface to take any makeup menu shots 😏.
I’ve always been a fan of acrylic storage units as they look seamless and help keep the dust out. I have acrylic pieces from a few different places, but mostly Muji and The Container Store. I’ve had a few of the Muji drawers for a few years now and genuinely love how they function. I always wanted something that was clear since it allowed me to see what was inside, making it a tad easier for me to rotate products on a daily basis. Helps avoid the whole out of sight, out of mind scenario. Sometimes I think I went a bit too overboard with buying so many drawers as I just used it as an excuse for continuing to buy more makeup. Nowadays I swapped a few more drawers out to hold my watches and jewelry instead of makeup. The 3/5 drawer options from Muji are much more shallow which means not many things can fit. I usually place my lipsticks / eyeliners in these drawers as they don’t get stuck and are able to close easily. With the 2 drawer options, you can get the regular one or ones that let the top piece open and close like a jewelry box. Tbh I probably wouldn’t recommend these ones as two of mine have broken and I have to be quite fragile with them now. They’re probably only ideal if you’re planning to use them for jewelry. I’m not sure when it happens, but Muji has had the drawers 50% off so I definitely stocked up on a few drawers around those times and tell all my friends to do so. If it ever comes up again, I’ll be sure to share!
From Muji, I also have a few of these little box trays that are great for stacking / sorting products in drawers. I like to use them to group together products and sort them in bins so I can easily pull them out when I’m looking for a specific product. A lot of these are currently used in the locker cabinet or spread around my apartment in my desk drawers, bathroom drawers, and kitchen drawers.
From The Container Store I tend to pick up deeper acrylic drawers that can fit bigger products unlike my Muji drawers. I’ve picked up this large modular acrylic drawer which has been great for storing all my masks as I can see them all when I open it without having them all stacked on one another. I also have two of the medium modular acrylic drawers which I store some other deep moisturizers / jars that aren’t masks in. For a time I was also putting all my tube masks / hand creams in them as they all fit in well and could be seen. One thing I love about The Container Store’s products are that they can stack up and Tetris up to be a nice solid block. They also often have sales that include these products and they can often be found marked down on their own. I’ve never paid full price for any of the items from here and you can bet that I’ll keep stopping by to peep for props :B
In addition to these acrylic drawers, The Container Store also has these acrylic risers. I actually have a few mini ones that I use inside of my bathroom cabinet. When the cabinet has shelves that are extremely spaced out, it means there is a lot of wasted space. These risers allow you to put jars of moisturizers/masks underneath and still have a little shelf on top to stack more products. I even have one large shelf that was supposed to be for my desktop but caved under the weight of my iMac, so I ended up using it over a few of my Muji drawers for one fluid shelf to place products on top of. The next acrylic piece I have my eye on is this 3-Tier shelf system which would be great for putting all my serums out on display.
Recently I’ve fallen in love with crystal (or faux crystal?) dishware and love using them to throw little trinkets and knicnacks in. I picked some up at a local secondhand store that happened to be near my eyelash extension salon. Killing time before an appointment was always dangerous here on the weekends and usually long lines would deter me - but I was happy to snag some pieces up. To be honest I’ve never been a huge fan of thrifting or antique shopping, but I’m definitely very into it these days and now that we have the space I definitely want to try and pick up more vintage-esque furniture. I’m definitely on the hunt for some sort of French bistro styled chair to use in my office or bedroom (chairdrobes are my favorite).
I’ve been loving the mix of modern and vintage styles, so I’ve also picked up some of these semi bronze brushed vanity organizers and shadow boxes from a variety of places. I usually sift through Target’s clearance shelves for some of their little trays. I recently bought one from The Container Store which was also on clearance but it seems like they’ve discontinued the line, so I found an alternative version on Target which also is on sale right now! You can also usually find some vanity organizers like these at Target on sale or marked down - I highly recommend not buying these full price and waiting it out.
I also have a few marble trays which I pick up when/where I can. I’ve found some over the years and have gotten them in many areas, including World Market, Williams Sonoma, and more. Caudalie was recently so kind to send me this marble lazy susan* which will be so perfect once the holidays roll around for serving on as well!
I hope you guys enjoyed this little snippet into my beauty room and storage! Let me know where you tend to go to pick up all your beauty storage needs :)
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