Mr Charlie Marlow's bedroom wall offered a blank canvas, a bare section waiting to be transformed by an inventive and affordable $50 DIY project which would add a graphic and personalized touch to his room. Where once there was nothing, now there was...

Lightbracket
• $150.00
• Alex Allen

Alex Allen's design was amongst our favorites we previewed at ICFF just a month ago, a storage and lighting solution which kills two birds with one LED illuminated stone. The Lightbracket handily supports wall shelfs while also illuminating anything underneath utilizing an LED light strip, an ideal over-the-desk home office storage and lighting solution. The powder coated steel construction should hold up most any normal width/weight shelf, while the selection of eight cord colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white and black) lends a little style wherever installed.

Making the leap from IKEA flat-pack to grown-up, solid wood furniture seems daunting when you're on the earlier side of the transition. But if you've ever put together a MALM dresser with a cordless screwdriver, you can probably handle one of these wood projects for your living room. 

Whether or not you are spatially challenged or are living it up in a mansion, you need places to hide the stuff. We've found the prettiest storage around. I'm talking about the kind of bins that will easily make the transition from kid's room to family room, and back again. Follow us on the hunt for aesthetic pleasers that hold that hoard...

Oval Storage Ottoman

• $199.99
• Cost Plus World Market

This ottoman has a few things going for it for families with young kids: it has storage, it's round and soft and it's on casters and can be moved around as needed.

In my apartment with just one small closet, shoe storage is my biggest challenge. This is compounded by the fact that I have a definite shoe shopping problem. (Why must there be so many great looking shoes!) To help the other space challenged shoe collectors out there, here's a handy shopping guide with storage pieces and ways to use them. 

Small Cool 2013 is well underway, and we've seen some really innovative space solutions so far. I've been so inspired by all these small homes that I've even begun visiting the archive to get more ideas. Here are some of my favorite small space tricks, drawn from last year's Small Cool entries. 

Advances in technology are making excessive wires and cables slowly go the way of the buffalo but, the remote? It looks like we may be stuck with that one for a while. So if you can’t beat it, hide it! (Along with those goofy 3D glasses that seem to come along with every new TV.)