Typical Tuesday: Riding the Rails (con-tain-it)

Had a fantastic, long and productive weekend, at the "Love Shack"organizing my closets, cabinets and hanging rails. When I say "rails" I'm referring to my recent inspiration/obsession with IKEA's showrooms and how they use "towel bars" and "picture rails" to virtually "hang"...just about anything on them...throughout the house...SO NOW I am referring to this organizing process as: "Riding the Rails".

In the above photo, IKEA is demonstrating their black iron bar/rail system in a showroom kitchen.

Then above, is a photo of their "hidden" rail system that hides the hooks and the mounting hardware and is in stainless steel for those who have kitchens that are more modern and streamlined. I also like the way IKEA shows off their under-cabinet lights and white "sub-way" tiles on the back-splash.

What really moves me about "Riding the Rails", is that everything is OFF THE COUNTER-TOPS (so much easier to keep them clean...yeah!) and that they put those items that you use most often WITHIN REACH (GREAT FOR THE MEN IN YOUR LIFE :}

AND seeing as how we have to maximize every "inch" at the "Love Shack", I couldn't wait to apply this system, first, in our kitchen. So here is a photo of the kitchen before...note, this was taken when the Love Birds were still living here...awwww :}

The "black iron" system really appealed to me...probably because of my love for black furniture...but, really, I think it was because of these sweet storage containers...lol Can you imagine these hung up in your "studio" filled with glitter...JUST LOVE THEM :}

So here's a photo of the rails all hung in my kitchen (the plate rack on the counter was one that I originally sold in my Black Lion shop):

On the sink/dishwasher side, I will have my teapot/coffee maker so, one of the hanging shelves will hold some flavored tea bags and condiments, like sugar and honey. While the second hanging shelf will hold my apothecary jars with our daily vitamins. Then, I purchased extra hooks so that I can hang coffee/tea mugs directly from the bars...got the inspiration from IKEA...of course:

Look closely and you can see the "fantastic" price for this bar...$1.99...and the hooks are just $.99 cents...that's the BONUS with all of these systems...they are so darn affordable. The black iron rails are $2.99 to $4.99 for each of the pieces, i.e., the 24" bar $3.99, six hooks $1.99; and the hanging shelves $4.99...how cool is that!

So for the area next to the stove (sorry this photo is so fuzzy), I've hung two more bars on this side of the kitchen to hold the spices and tools that we use on a daily basis. We also pushed the refrigerator right up to the counter so that I can hang magnetic hooks to hold pot holders and "To Do" lists.

On the other side of the stove I hung a bar on the outside wall where I will hang hot pads and cutting boards. I will not necessarily hang any utensils here because I have "a lot" of cooking utensils (and I use them all when I cook...I'm messy :} and I have always "corralled" them inside decorative, enamelware containers, set on my counters for easy access...again, I'm messy and I don't like digging inside of drawers when I'm cooking and my hands tend to be dirty :}

On the counter, to the right of the stove top, you can see a bunch of white "picture rails" that I will be using soon on this wall...on the opposite side of the kitchen...here:

AND I'm inspired by IKEA...again...to use them this way...

What a GREAT idea for using every inch of space! I'm not sure if I'm going to use the stainless steel or the black iron rails as yet...this I'm waiting on until we actually move in and find the artwork and such that I actually want to place in this space. I can see using these bars/rails for decorative plates, cookbooks and/or artwork. I just don't know why I've never thought about using towel bars and ledges this way before...but IKEA uses this concept all through-out their showrooms. Here's another photo of using these bars to hold lids for cooking pots:

Add a few hooks and you are "multi-purposing" this system again! Another point to consider when purchasing one of these "systems" is that these stainless steel bars are more expensive, but they actually use the maximum space in terms of "length in inches", because the mounting hardware is "inside" the bar. As compared to the black iron bars which have "outside" mounts and the thinner, round, aluminum bars with the "round" ends that also mount on the outside (see coffee cups above).

In the above photo, IKEA has added a "double" bar under a medicine chest in their showroom bathroom. I just loved this idea, because I have not had a "regular" medicine chest in a bathroom for over 15 years. The standard here in Charlotte, has been for building contractors to put in large mirrors over single/double sinks and to then (sometimes) place a small "louvered door" medicine cabinet on the side wall of the bathroom. SO TIRED of this look...so I was really excited when I saw this at IKEA because of the new medicine chest we had purchased for our bathroom...

I actually forgot what it was like to "reach" into a medicine chest for toiletries, in lieu of digging under the cabinets or in a drawer...yeah :} Here is a photo of the "single" towel bar that we hung under our new medicine chest...

I just love how this holds our hand towels and we no longer have to open a cabinet door to find a towel to dry off our hands...or turn around and get the walls/floor wet using the "contractors" towel ring on the wall...yeah! IKEA also sells soap dishes and cups to hang on this bar if you'd like to put your toothbrushes, etc. off the counters...AGAIN for easy clean-up. Note...we've got a lot of filling/patching still to do here on this walls...but I wanted to share this idea ASAP!

For those of you who do not have a medicine chest, IKEA also shows how you can combine these bars with shelving to maximize your space as well...here's a photo for inspiration:

Hope you all have enjoyed this post this week...over the next couple of weeks I've got so much more to share with you...it's so hard for me to wait! But I will, so that you can absorb it all and apply some of these great tips in your home.