Frugal Meters: 12 Storage Spaces You Should've Ignored -

Маленькая квартира: Действительно новые идеи ее «увеличения»

Where to store and where to put is a question that often visits even owners of spacious housing. What can we say about the inhabitants of compact standard apartments! It is clear that, ideally, you need to foresee in advance places for storing all the necessary things, not to buy too much and regularly get rid of trash. But reality sometimes dictates its own terms.

We study the ideas of convenient storage of things in the projects of interior designers.

Nadja Endler | Photography

1. Above the door
There is enough space between the door and the ceiling to hang a small, narrow shelf, or even a couple, on top of each other. Massive and heavy objects should be placed here only in one case – you are sure that they will not fall from an accidental hit by a door (for example, in a draft).

ART-ALIBI author’s design studio

Fact: Usually, something light and decorative is placed on a shelf above the door above the door. This can be a collection of cups, souvenirs, dishes (if we are talking about the door to the kitchen or dining room). If space is available, you can plan a shelf of sufficient depth to fit your empty suitcases.

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Antonio Martins Interior Design

The shelf can be hung both above the entrance and above the interior doors. And above the opening without a door, too. You can place such a structure even in the hallway, even in the bathroom: store out-of-season shoes or bath towels.

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Lorin Hill, Architect

2. On the sides of the door
Take a look at the free walls on either side of the door. If there is not enough space for a full-fledged closet, then narrow shelves are quite capable of accommodating. If desired, the shelves around the door can be closed with blind or glazed doors.

Pause Designs

Idea for storage with a photo: In this project, the shelving hides a niche for opening the door. Please note that the shelf was not brought to the ceiling (although it could). So the books are more realistic to get and put away for storage.

3. Above the window
The same principle works with windows as with doors. A small window-to-ceiling space will serve as a haven for books and posters in the living room and bedroom, or mugs and pots in the kitchen.

See also Articles about kitchens

Advice: Use narrow shelves above the window so as not to visually overload the interior and not deprive the room of daylight. Extend nthe tree located above the window and enter it on the adjacent wall. By keeping the bottom of the wall free, the room will not look overwhelmed. But the useful space for storing things in the apartment will increase.

Kate nelson interiors

4. Between windows
Another place for a shelf with books or decorative items.

In this case, you should consider opening the curtains – if the shelf is deep and recedes strongly from the wall surface, ordinary curtains do not fit (the contents of the shelf will simply bulge out from under the curtains). It is more convenient to hang roller blinds.

Design studio of Ekaterina Popova

An option in which you don’t have to give up curtains – shelves or narrow racks located on the sides of the window right next to the walls. Of course, it is better to install them before hanging the curtain rod. But in extreme cases, you can simply not bring the curtains close to the walls.

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Himera estudio

5. In the corners
Of course, you should not fill every free corner in the room with things, but if there is not enough space, why not use this solution?

Sezam Disseny d’Interiors

Place the shelves between the ready-made cabinet module and the wall – literally “complete” the shelves on the disappearing centimeters.

If the shelves are short and deep, containers or boxes will help you organize your storage.

Viktor Chernyshov

Idea for storage with a photo: frame the corner of the sofa with a shelf. Due to the inconvenient joint, no one usually sits in the corner of the sofa itself, so a small shelf is unlikely to interfere with anyone there. But this is a great place to store magazines, TV remote control and other necessary little things. And you can put a glass or a cup here.

ArchMenu

In this project, the wardrobe turned out to be wider than the wall, the missing section was “completed” along the outer corner

Uliana Grishina | Photography

In this project, the shelf along the wall duplicates the mezzanine one – above the door

cecilia avogadro

by the way: the idea works not only with the inner, but also with the outer corner

Project association Unicum.Gorproekt

6. Under the windowsill
Sometimes it is worth adding depth to the window sill and bringing it out of the window frames – on the walls. Such a design will take up little space, but you will have an additional shelf for the necessary little things, decorative knick-knacks and more.

FLATS DESIGN / Evgeniya Matveenko

Idea for storage with a photo: after installing a new window, the previous window sill was kept, the lower part of the window was closed with an additional bar. The result is a shelf where the owner stores dog food. The countertop of the headset was continued with a bar table (it just covers the vitamins).

PUUSTELLI MOSCOW

7. Under the kitchen unit (basement drawer)
Usually, the plinth covers the air and the technical legs of the kitchen unit. In their place, you can install several shallow boxes or options with increased depth.

Official showroom Nolte Moscow

The model, as in the photo, will include large enough pots. An important limitation is that the drawer needs the full depth of the kitchen box to roll it up. In other words, there should be no power outlets on the wall for connecting appliances, connecting a water supply system or dishwasher drain hoses.

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Urban Habitats

8. Under the washing machine
With the help of reinforced furniture, you can install the device at the height of several drawers (it is convenient to store a basin and household chemicals in them).

Timur Sharipov

Or you don’t have to store anything – you can buy a place under the washing machine for a technical sink, for example, with a paw wash for a dog.

NIDO interiors

9. At the end of the bath
A modest row of shelves or an entire shelving unit can be installed directly at the head of the bathtub. What to store here depends on the parameters of the shelves: their height and depth. But in any case, there is a place for shampoos and towels.

Architectural studio MOPS

Advice: Carefully measure the height at which the bottom shelf will hang. There should be enough free space so that you don’t bump your head while taking a bath. Please note that the furniture board must be moisture resistant, and the edges (even securely closed) will not hurt to additionally process the edges with transparent silicone at the points of attachment to the wall.

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Andrew Snow Photography

10. Under the bathroom
The space under the bathroom is also discounted by many, and in vain – a bucket and a rag may not just be stored here: it is easy to place a six-month supply of detergents around the perimeter of the bath.

Krasyuk Sergey

11 Above the toilet
Even in a cramped bathroom, there is usually a little free space between the wall and the toilet – a narrow shelving unit can fit here.

Don’t discount the ceiling space. Especially if there is no plumbing hatch above the tank – you are free to use the wall as you see fit.

12. All unnecessary – under the table
Only very carefully. We stack books in a pile, thick magazines in neat stacks. And everything that cannot be structured and ordered – we send it to a suitcase or a couple of closed boxes. And yes, we push them under the table.

► This is archival material. First published in 2016. Updated in 2020

YOUR TURN…
What ideas for storing things at home do you have? Share your stories and photos in the comments section below the article!

Frugal Meters: 12 Storage Spaces You Should’ve Ignored

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