We firmly believe that it's not how much space you have that determines how efficiently and comfortably you live; but rather how you design and organize that space. We have seen so many tiny spaces that have more storage than homes three times their size! The key is using all the filler, or empty, spaces available— the gaps beneath the floor boards, the crawl space underneath the stairs. Here are a few of our favorite secret storage ideas:
"Now you see it, now you don't..."
TOP ROW
1 Store your clothes under the bed and even under the floorboards.
2 Matthew McGregor-Mento's home is an ode to ingenious small space storage ideas, like this rolling clothes closet.
3 This may be the best thing ever. A twist on the Murphy bed, the French company BedUp creates beds that lower from the ceiling.
4 This Small Cool 2008 finalist put his tiny fridge within a tall kitchen cabinet.
5 Small bathrooms are a pain. Get a little more space with this rolling bathroom sink. Just push it back in the wall when you need a little more space!
MIDDLE ROW
6 No extra room for an office? No problem. Turn a closet into an office.
7 You think it's just a shelf for cookbooks, but then it pulls out and it's a spice rack as well!
8 Matthew McGregor-Mento folds his bed away every morning to make room in his living room for his wife's massage practice.
9 "A place for everything and everything in its place" is the mantra of this small kitchen sink area.
10 Stairs-turned-storage drawers is a brilliant idea.
BOTTOM ROW
11 You'd be amazed at how much wasted space lies underneath a staircase. Make the most of it with these pull-out closets.
12 This storage headboard features hinged upholstered panels to allow for hidden storage behind the tufting.
13 Not so much underbed storage as within the bed storage.
14 You can't really hide it away, but you might not know it's there unless you look up!
15 Under cabinet pull-out options for things like trash cans can save you precious floor space.
Related Posts:
• 12 Small Space Solutions from the 2012 IKEA Catalog
• The Secrets Behind Great Small Spaces
• 13 Super Secret Stair Storage Ideas
• The 25 Best Small Space Living Tips and Inspirational Ideas
• Small Space Storage Inspiration: Floor to Ceiling Books
• Small Space Storage Inspiration: Curtained Closets
(Images: 1. Dwell; 2. Cambria Bold | Re-Nest; 3. BedUp; 4. TheKitchn; 5. Unclutterer; 6. Growers and Nomads; 7. This Old House; 8. Cambria Bold | Re-Nest; 9. Small Furnish; 10. A Thousand Great Ideas; 11. Small Furnish; 12. Seventh Avenue | Apartment Therapy; 13. Apartment Therapy; Robert Wright, used with permission; 15. Lauren Zerbey | Re-Nest. Originally published 4.5.2010)
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Can we get a how-to on turning a regular bed into a storage bed? I've seen plenty of how-tos for making a storage bed from scratch... but we already have a bed. I just want something nicer than plastic tubs underneath it.
Sagekitten85, that's a great suggestion. I'll take it to our editors.
The "office in a closet" gives me closet envy. One would first need an extra closet, which unfortunately is very rare in apartments.
Drawers in the stairs! Genius!!
I love the storage in the flower and the sink that pulls from the wall! The stair storage is cool too.
All great ideas. Having a small kitchen myself, I really like the kitchen sink. Is it commercially available? or was it a custom job?
is it bad feng shui to have storage under your bed?
I'm sure there are complicated ways to do it, but I'd just paint the cords the same color as the baseboard and tack them along it with a staple gun...carefully (c:
You could minimize the risk of ruining your electronics wires, or if you just wouldn't want to paint them, by "sacrificing" an extension cord. That way you could have just one cord running from an outlet to a plug strip and have all of your electronics plugged in in the closet.
There are also a lot of cord pipe solutions but I don't know if they'd interfere with the opening and closing of your closet door.
is there any additional information about the quilt in the first photo?
Does anyone know anything about the bed in the first picture? I love it. I need it.
@plumeria: I don't know, but I bet it's bad feng shui to have crap all over your place, driving you crazy all the time!
haha yes that's true..
Ah! Who makes the faucet in photo #9?! Need!
That bed is great, I've been trying to come up with a few ideas on how to make the ceiling into functional storage space.
I built a bed with storage drawers under it to match my bedroom set, but I rarely use it. I'll most likely use it more when I move out of my house and into an apartment.
In my garage, I hung 1/2" plywood strips on the insides of the studs. They each have two holes drilled every 1-1/4 inches. The holes are for shelf pegs, so all of my studs were adjustable shelving cabinets. They are great for things like spray-paint cans and cleaner bottles. Think of a recessed medecine cabinet without the door. It added a lot of storage without taking up any space.
For an apartment, you should be able to use medecine cabinets in interior walls without any insulation or utilities. Just be sure to check both sides of the wall. A custom cabinet manufacturer (I'm one: robnichols@cbn.bz) should be able to make them at any size, so you are not limited to standard sizes.
My temporary "apartment" will be a converted 720 square foot garage. I'm going to raise the kitchen and bathroom so that I can run my utilities without destroying the concrete. This will leave a lot of room for under-floor storage. I'm planning on using this as an experiment on hidden/clever storage
Plumeria,
>is it bad feng shui to have storage under your bed?
A fair question! I have a storage bed with six drawers, and I love it. However, I am thoughtful about what goes in the drawers. For example, it seems entirely right and natural to store my sheets and pjs.
But I also keep handbags in one drawer. These I store in a special way because they've been outside. I make sure each handbag is wrapped in a storage bag, and I often launder my storage bags. I don't follow feng shui but I use intuition about where I place things, and I don't let the drawers become chaotic.
Everything under my bed is carefully arranged to my liking. It seems wrong to let a storage bed become a catchall for disordered stuff from the outside world.
However, Shanalulu has a point. If the stuff in your home is driving you crazy, you could do a lot worse than stash it under your bed!!
@Plumeria, I think that Omnidora's answer is very appropriate.
While traditional feng shui and strict practicioners are very much against the idea of storing anything under the bed, I think that when using feng shui concepts for small spaces, you have to read a little bit into the intent. Storing "junk" under your bed would be negative energy, but storing stuff like spare pillows and sheets, which are natural extensions of your bed itself, would be I think a very smart use of your under-bed storage space.
It looks like they took to sagekitten85's request immediately! There are a few great ideas in there, too:
http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/bedroom/5-ways-to-store-more-than-monsters-under-your-bed-113563
Several of these ideas look like they came straight out of this gem of a book I got from my public library:
Small Spaces: Stylish Ideas for Making More of Less in the Home by Azby Brown.
The quilt in the first picture was made by the owners mother.
For more pictures of that apartment, see the Dwell magazine article:
http://www.dwell.com/articles/a-narrow-victory.html
Can you please provide any information regarding the pull-out trash/recycling drawers and apparatus pictured? Thanks.
Great post!
@ratherbbaking, if you click on the photo credit for that post, you can read all about it! Here it is.
Am I the only one here who saw that sink and immediately thought of the toilet on "Firefly?" The one that flips out from the wall, and mounts directly below the sink? When are we going to see THAT technology?!
Some of the best ideas I've seen!
@bodicegoddess: YES!!!
Great ideas, but a lot of this customization isn't possible for people who rent (and are most likely to have very small apartments).
Interesting post but most of these ideas are not really applicable unless your home is undergoing a major overhaul! Who can store things in floorboards, under a regular bed, under a staircase, or build a roll out cabinet unless they are in the process of changing their home? I don't think most people could. Still, enjoyed this even if it doesn't show anything I could do myself.
The bathroom sink is interesting, but seems more aesthetic than some of the other ideas (perfectly fair). I mean, I don't think most ppl have walls that thick, so it's not a "natural" solution at all.
To this day I still regret not buying a bed similar to the one in image #13 (lifts up to reveal storage underneath). I fell in love with a modern bali canopy and got that instead. I could really use that extra space for my linens in my small space, much better than cleaning the dust bunnies of a bunch of plastic bags kept under the bed. There are still quite a few ideas for renters here including the bed and headboard idea. Or if we are unable to do as much custom carpentry due to renting or monetary resources, this post is still very inspiring for us to relook at our spaces and perception of how much room we really need in a whole new way.
Very cool. However, I would love for AT to do a post on storage ideas for small spaces and SMALL BUDGETS. It looks like a lot of these are expensive projects, since most of these are custom, built-in furniture pieces. More often than not, if you are in a small space, you probably have a smaller budget (except for us New Yorkers who all live in shoeboxes).
Just a thought, AT folks :)
Love these ideas.. love the storage in the stairs and the pull of sink..
I agree with TheGingerPennyPincher. Although it's nice to see great ideas like this, all of them look to be custom, pricey, or involve significant renovation. It would be nice to see some ideas that are a little easier or cheaper to implement.
I loved the under the bed storage, the pull out drawers, the stairs turned drawers and the under the stairs storage. I have 4 kids and we live in a small ranch (style) house in Indiana. Lots of things needed,but budget-wise... not much surplus for what's needed. I am wondering though, where we can get the blueprints or a rough idea of how to build these things...
I feel like I my basement is the catch all.. I need some direction and Ideas!
I would be really careful about the "stairs as drawers" idea. Any stairs that serve as a primary egress should not have highly flammable items stored underneath. Safety first!
Yes, but its worse to have no other space to store things.
The bookshelves in the rafters and stairs as pullout drawers are absolutely genius.