5 IKEA Must-Haves You Need For Ideal Organization, According To This Mom Of 3

Home. It’s one of the few concepts whose definition shapeshifts from person to person. For some, it’s a place; a location on a map. For others, it’s memories, scents, or people. For Armelis Dorville, a Dominican-American content creator and mother of three, home is a feeling. “Home is warmth,” she says. “Home is feeling good sitting on the floor — I'm comfortable if I’m on the floor at your house.”

Over the years, Dorville’s abodes and aesthetics have evolved with every move. Like many New Yorkers, she shuffled from one tiny place to another — a basement space and then, a small studio, both shared with her first daughter — before settling into her current 1,250-square-foot apartment in Ridgewood, Queens, in 2021, which gave her the breathing room to bring her most authentic home vision to life.

As a young mother, she worked as a photographer, and her home, however small, doubled as a photography studio — a plant-filled, white-and-beige space that she described as “simple, but with flavor,” which worked well for shoots. But when life and her priorities shifted, so did her interior design style. “I met my husband, we got married, and I got pregnant again,” she explains. “I started sharing my pregnancy journey online and became an ‘accidental’ content creator…then along came this spacious new apartment that I’m so grateful for.”

With a whole new space to craft to her liking, she felt called to her Latina roots, pulling in colors (earth tones, like blues, browns, greens, and oranges) and textures (cozy mixed woods and finishes) commonly found in Dominican Republic homes, which allowed her to feel grounded and more connected to her culture. “My life got more colorful, and everything around me reflected that,” she says. “I identify with my family and upbringing now more than ever. The seasonings in our foods, eating together at dinnertime, the colors and textures we brought into our home — they remind me of my mom, my grandma, my country.”

Like any thoughtfully curated home, Dorville’s is a work in progress; the process never truly complete. Bit by bit, she had adorned her space with items she loved, and now that she’s approaching her third move-in anniversary, she felt it was time to make some updates to her favorite room: her open-concept living and dining area.

She began by tackling the display corner nestled behind her dining room table. By playfully stacking a colorful variety of the IKEA EKET Cabinets, she created a modular floating gallery wall. “I loved the colors because they bring warmth and vibrance, a brightness without overpowering the rest of the room,” she says.

This wall is now a space dedicated to showcasing the family’s sentimental knick-knacks. You’ll find a vintage ‘70s rotary phone — a first-anniversary gift from her husband — alongside a photo of her grandmother and the plants she loved, among other items. It’s a nostalgic focal point that lives close to the family during dinnertime — older memories that serve as a backdrop to new ones. 

“Eating at the table is a big deal,” Dorville says. “When I make dinner, I want everyone to come sit down. I love that I can create these new, beautiful memories. I’m doing what my mother did, cooking and having us all sit down together as a family.”

Of course, a home can’t be all beauty and no function — we’re talking about a party of five here, so functional organization is a must. As a mother to toddler twins, it’s not easy to keep toys, arts and crafts, and other bits and bobs organized. The solution: IKEA FLISAT Children’s Table, a practical arts and crafts table cleverly designed with under-tabletop storage that allows everything — from crayons to clay — to stay organized and hidden, complete with two accompanying IKEA SUNDVIK Chairs. She also fitted the interior with IKEA TROFAST Storage Bins to further sort and organize.

“I wanted them to have the space and ability to do what they want; they’re two-and-a-half, so keeping them occupied is a huge part of my everyday life,” she says. “They’re always home with me, so having a table they can color, eat, and play at is convenient.” 

Larger toys present a bigger challenge — they have a way of trickling out from the bedroom. But the IKEA FLISAT Toy Storage — a wheeled bin that seamlessly rolls into different areas of the room — has proven to be the game-changing answer to easy clean-up. “They’re ideal for when I need to clean up quickly,” she says. “At night, we reset the living room so it’s an inviting, clutter-free space the next day.” 

She knows her new living room organization methods are working, too, which is reflected in the ways her family is drawn to the space. “My daughter has her own room, but she’ll bring her stuff out and do her hair in the living room instead,” Dorville says. “I love that my kids feel comfortable doing something like that. This has become the room where we spend the most time together.”

Watching her family find comfort and grow in this home has given Dorville a chance to reflect on her early journey, too. “When I was younger, I was hustling, and [my first child and I] were alone. I wasn’t grounded,” she says. “Now my home is the most important thing to me, not only in how it makes me feel, but also in how it makes my family feel.”