Tour of the Pizzazzerie Prop Room

Welcome to THE PROP ROOM! This is where alllllll the cake stands, napkins, plates, glasses, confetti, and cupcake liners live. I’ve shared snippits of the prop room on my instagram and lots of people wanted to see more so here you go! It’s pretty much my favorite place ever to be honest. It’s still a work in progress (in fact, I just left The Container Store this morning where I had to get more shelving). So it might have some changes but for now, here is a peak inside life in the Pizzazzerie prop room!

Now I didn’t always have a space designated to props. They were coming out of every closet, under the beds, tucked behind furniture, you name it! Being in my 6th year of business, 3 books and a full-time styling client business has finally grown the need for it. Albeit a crazy fun one, this is indeed a full time job! I also have styling jobs for clients that aren’t ever showcased here on the blog, so this prop room is always a flutter with activity.

If you missed the blog office, you can see that reveal here!

This room is meant to be a creative place where everything has a place but we can pull items out, see if colors match, get creative, etc. So some shelves are messy and others are neat and organized. Lots of items were pulled this day (for upcoming shoots) and many extra props live in an attic too. So there’s my disclaimer, but meanwhile, here is what it looks like now!

The shelves are mainly pushed against the sides of the walls to give us room to put table ideas down the center of the room. So that’s why you see a card table opened out. This is where lots of ideas “come to life”. The back two closets each hold dishes and glasses. But they need a lot of organization!

This is my favorite wall (below). This are my commonly used items. I like the open shelving because it allows a quick visual to know what I have (so I don’t repeat buy which was happening a lot before we had space for a prop room). It was way too hard to remember what I had so now I can visually see it all! Hooray!

Below is the ribbon wall, my solution to the MASSIVE amounts of ribbon that I owned. I still need to organize it better by spool but at least it’s all in one place instead of shoved into every drawer and closet! I clearly never need to buy ribbon ever again…but I know I probably will. Weekly. 

The items (above) are the “messy” ones. We use them a fair amount but they are sort of “hodge podge”. This is also where we put seasonal items (tailgating, Halloween, etc) as the seasons come along. Below is a big idea board where I can pin magazine clippings or printables I’ve made. We simply took two cork boards from the office store and spray painted them white.  Behind one closet door (above), I have a hanging shoe rack that I actually use for various tools like scissors, chalk, thumbtacks, glue, etc. This is SO handy and one of my favorite tips! The other door is actually getting a larger shoe rack to hold napkins by color. 

A few questions + answers…

• How is The Prop Room organized? Great question! It’s kind of random organization right now but I have plans for the prop room (see below). Mainly, I have my most used items on one wall including basic colored plates and stands followed by cocktail napkins, birthday party items (hats, confetti, party horns), buckets, boxes, etc. It’s not color coordinated but “sort of” grouped by color (we try). There are many items that are only used once a year (seasonal/holiday) so those are pulled out by holiday from the attic. Some items are bulky and awkward and most of those are grouped together on the opposite wall (the not so pretty wall – haha).
• How in the world do you have so many items? Well this is an accumulation of years and years of collecting fun party items, not just by me! My Mom (who has been styling party tablescapes for magazines and tv segments for years) also has her items here. She works for me now so we now have everything merged! Many of the items are from former client shoots or blog shoots (we rarely throw things away) and many are purchased because we LOVE it and know we’ll use it in the future.
• Where did all the items come from? A million different places. Truly. Some are antiques or owned by my grandmother while many are from Target, HomeGoods, etc…it’s a mix!
• What is the white shelving you use? I LOVE THIS SHELVING! It’s the InterMetro line at The Container Store. I have a mix of some shelves + some baskets. They even custom cut for free it to fit in the room (the ceiling is angled so it was tricky). The rolling aqua carts are from Ikea! I’m eyeing this one from Amazon too because it’s so inexpensive!

PLANS FOR THE PROP ROOM

• I just got hanging racks to try to bring more of my fabrics/tablecloths from the attic into the prop room so I can see them (if I don’t see it regularly, I forget that I have it, and it never gets used).
• I want to get a computer or laptop in this space so I can pull up photos if I’m not at home in my office.
• The back two closets need a major clean-out. I need to go through plates and glasses and purge what I don’t want and organize what I do.

So that’s it, guys! Basically, a whole lot of party and food related items all thrown onto shelves. But I hope you liked seeing a little peak behind the scenes of life at Pizzazzerie! If you have questions, leave a comment below + I’ll do my best to answer them.

xoxo