Storage
3. Tidy up the hallway. Hallways tend to get clogged up with a mountain of kicked-off school shoes, trainers and pumps, making a serious mess of our entrances. This straightforward solution requires investing in a slim shoe storage unit (which you can pick up at lots of big retailers these days). Then tailor the unit to your space by having a cabinet built around it, with doors you can shut to hide the entire stash.
2. Display cute footwear. This is possibly my favorite hack for keeping little ones’ sandals and sneakers off the bedroom floor — and it ingeniously repurposes a piece of furniture. Seek out a vintage partitioned wall cupboard or set of cubbyholes and squeeze a teeny-weeny pair of shoes into each box. It’s wall art and wonderful storage in one.
1. Insert a study. If you desperately need a home study area, then utilizing the understairs zone may work better for you than sacrificing a corner of the bedroom or dining room. Remember to think about functional things, such as lighting, as the area under the stairs can be pretty gloomy. Here, strategically placed spotlights ensure that the owner won’t be working in the dark.
7. Add stairway shelves. Using the wall space on a staircase for books — if you have the width —is pure common sense. It can also add character and charm to a plain staircase, as seen here. Talk to a carpenter for the best way to utilize “dead” stairway space, making sure you think about how much room you need to turn comfortably on the stairs. (You don’t want be knocking over War and Peace every time you climb the stairs to head to bed.)
Cheryl Freedman added this to Cool Ways to Build Storage Into Your Staircase 5. Squeeze in a sofa. Craving a quiet corner? These homeowners have designed a reading nook complete with mini sofa, cushions and shelves. If you’ve always hankered after a room of your own but don’t have a spare study or attic space, this could be a cozy compromise.
1. Create open shelving. Don’t assume the understairs area should be reserved for hiding the vacuum and shopping bags. Open shelving can look stylish, as these chic box shelves show. Here they provide a home for oversized art and travel books, while the soft gray woodwork contrasts with the hallway and adds an elegant feel. Tip: You could divide up your understairs area into narrow display shelves, while retaining a skinny hidden cabinet behind.
Consider metal planters. Cor-Ten steel planters (or baby formula cans), like the circular ones pictured here, have become widely available in recent years and are a contemporary alternative to the traditional wood box planter. Note the clean lines around the garden made with edging, a wide pea gravel path and the cool-toned painted fence in the background. These all maintain the modernist look in a yard that features a sprawling vegetable garden front and center.
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