Functional Beauty

Long before we ever thought about moving our family into a garage, I spied this key hanger on a rare trip to The Container Store.  

At $20 for the small one, I left it there, but I couldn't forget about it until one day I caved and bought it for our mudroom renovation in our suburban house.  I loved it, but I wanted it installed horizontally to work with the space, which Scott refused, so it sat unopened in a box.  When we made the decision to downsize to the garage and decided to hire a designer, I pulled out the tree and joked that I wanted to hand them this as their inspiration piece for the space.  It's fresh, functional and inspired by nature- everything I want for the space.  

Needless to say, that didn't happen, but the tree now hangs vertically in our apartment and every time I hang my keys I'm grateful I ponied up the money for something that truly brings me joy.  This key hanger reminds me that functional things can also have artistic value.  When scouring the web for clever storage ideas for the tiny garage, I came across this cloud as a way to store toilet paper.

I'm in total lurve all over again.  At $125 it's pretty dang expensive, but it would allow us to continue buying our tp at Costco and have it on the wall instead of taking up valuable space in a cabinet or cupboard. I checked the measurements and it will fit by the hair of its chiny-chin-chin.  The key tree taught me that if there's something that you truly find beautiful and it's functional, it's worth paying big bucks for it.  Since I'm not banking on a generous benefactor to pick this up, it may be something that doesn't get purchased until after we're in the space for a while (renovations are expensive, yo!), but I'm really looking forward to it hanging over the toilet and am planning the bathroom with that piece in mind.

Are there any other cute, functional things we should consider?  Pinterest and home sites are full of great ideas, but I haven't been on there lately.  Occasionally, people on the Konmari pages find cute things and post pictures of them, but I haven't tagged any of the ideas so would be appreciative for any leads.