apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Ikea has all kinds of bookshelves of different heights that you can buy drawers for. This area looks just wide enough to fit one, but I can't exactly tell. Do you have any dimensions?

I have the same thing in my bathroom. I use baskets and fabric boxes to keep everything organized. Since there's no door, paint the shelves the same color as the wall so it looks like a complete built-in.

I have an open closet in my bathroom as well (well, it was open after I ripped the ugly doors off!). My solution was a tension rod and a simple rod pocket curtain, floor-length. It's a great way to add color or to lighten the space by going stark white (what we did).

Find a tall storage cabinet with doors that will fit into the space. Even if it's not the perfect width, you could hang towels to the side or just add a wood panel to cover up the extra space and make it look like it fits perfectly. Might need to look in office furniture rather than bathroom to find one.

I wouldn't fight it by trying to create closed storage, I would use the shelving for beautiful open storage.

Since the bathroom is staying this colour (for now), I would paint out the shelves the same colour in order to start.

Then I would stage the shelves -- small make-up containers can go inside attractive (lidded) baskets, while other can be on display. Towels can be rolled (or folded) attractively, and even toilet paper can look good stacked (or hidden in a basket if not).

We just got back from a Danish hotel (more b&b) run by two designers, and the (shared) bathrooms had no closed storage -- it was beautiful! Of course, it was all white, but the lessons still work. A couple of blocks of Savon de Marseilles on a high shelf/ledge, along with the toilet paper; ledges for simple supplies.

funny, when I first saw this I thought it looked great - I like the strong color on the walls through the recessed area and the trim contrasting with the simple birch shelves. I also like open storage, and tend to keep my batroom items tidy and in nice containers, so I guess I'd recommend getting some nice jars (for q-tips, cotton balls, etc..) cups (toothbrushes, etc...) and baskets of various sizes. Some rolled towels in one section, I think it would look great.

i'm not a huge fan of the color... however i also saw it and thought it looked great, in terms of space! i would KILL to have that open shelving in my bathroom... i don't have a closet at all. buy some pretty towels and roll them up neatly on a shelf or two. get baskets, glass jars, whathaveyou to store things. i totally agree with amt230... that's all you need. check out the post about repurposing kitchen stuff for storage... just get a bunch of matching or beautifully different bins/bowls/boxes/baskets and it will look great!

oh, and get some contact paper for the shelves if you keep those, or just have new ones of any style cut to fit!

You need some half shelves. Put them in on every other run. You'll be amazed at what you can put in there when you have half shelves. I did this in my pantry. Made a HUGE difference.

Check out this post on thisyounghouse.com - they have a similar closet set-up (although they chose to remove their closet door) and spruced it up quite nicely with woven baskets and neat piles of folded white towels

http://www.thisyounghouse.com/2008/07/open-wide/

Remove the lower shelves and put in a dresser.

Pretty baskets and containers. We have a medium sized basket on the floor where we keep some of our rolled up towels when they're not in use. It saves shelf space in our not-so-large closets.

i love my my open bathroom shelves. my bathroom is a light blue-gray, and i painted the shelves one shade darker. Everything on the shelves is white. Folded towels, stacked soap and toilet paper. Q-tips in a clear glass jar. White painted bins (from the craft store) to hide the messy things. a few white decorative items. i get a lot of compliments on it.

Call me jealous, but you're lucky to have all that storage! I took out the medicine cabinet in my bathroom because our contractor was terrible at cutting holes (which is why we fired him...) but we also put in a sink that's simply a vessel bowl on top of an upside down L shaped wood. Literally NO storage, because there's no room left in the bathroom for it.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3283/2767449495_9e97e81d96.jpg

That's what I did with the linen closet. It's been a few months since I've tried to tidy it up again or find more storage bins to hold the rest of the odds and ends, but you get the idea. If it didn't have mirror on there, I would take the door down just to gaze at all the wonderful organization :) You could hang a shower curtain to match whichever one you have on your shower to hide it if you must. I think having open shelving is wonderful, it makes you really want to keep your stuff organized because it's in plain view.

Just neatly arranging things on the existing shelves is a pretty good suggestion. So are IKEA or similar cabinets - one thing I would caution though - just make sure your bathroom is well ventilated enough that any sort of fiberboard won't get all yucky from the humidity. Metal could be a good option.

Now THIS is an AT post!

I've got pretty much the same situation in my bath.

You are one step ahead of me because your shelves are solid--mine are those terrible rubbermaid wire things.

So, as other posters have mentioned you could paint them or replace them with half shelves or 3/4 shelves. In my case I may be replacing my shelves with bamboo ply with a little 2" horizontal strip on the front to make them appear as if they are 2" thick. In the meantime, all of the toiletries are neatly stacked in those white wooden boxes that you put together from Ikea.

You are not limited to an open closet here. If your shelves do not come all the way flush with the door jamb you could put in bi-fold type doors that swing open rather than the accordian style. If you keep the shelves flush you could put in an overhead track for a sliding door if the other wall dimensions allow you to.

Good luck!

Wish I was so lucky to have this kind of storage in my bathroom.
I too really like the look of open storage shelves, as long as they are kept tidy. I think keeping the shelves the way they are and adding a interesting wallpaper behind the shelves could look wonderful. If you really want some closed storage, a tension rod and curtain could be your way to go. You could have that covering the bottom two shelves, and keep the rest open too. The world is your oyster!

i have the same thing in my apartment! i thought it was great when i moved in but now i hate it. i ended up purchasing baskets from the container store in bright blue/yellow.. it makes everything easy to access without having to do too much.

In January, Elfa has a 25 or 30% of sale - it depends where you are. They make these great drawer units that you can fill with the drawers you want. I use the narrowest one most of the time. While not super cheap, they're very affordable on sale and you can remove some shelves and put it at the bottom of your closet. You'll gain tons of room.

Have you thought of making the shelves not quite as deep? Depending on how they're mounted this might be an easy fix.

The shelves in our kitchen pantry are incredibly shallow (just enough for a box of cereal) but we never have any trouble finding anything.

Hey all - thanks so much for all your comments. Very helpful.

To clarify (I wrote this question badly), yes, there is plenty of space in this closet, but it's an awkward bathroom because there's just very little surface area. Our sink is a nice but tiny pedestal model, with barely enough room for a bar of soap let alone a toothbrush. I realized that I have never lived in a bathroom without cupboards or at least a vanity box on the wall!

We're just not crazy about leaving our toothbrushes out in the open, and I don't really want to take out my contacts on the back of the toilet. Heh.

So! JUST back from an IKEA run; after running ragged around the kitchen AND bath AND storage departments we decided to move a shelf to waist level and put the small Aneboda chest below so we can have a few private drawers.

It's a small and awkward space but hopefully it will let us have a little "countertop" for bathroom necessities.

And if a few brain cells died at IKEA trying to find something just the right size, oh well! Oh the challenges of possibilities and constraints!!

Oh, and we're removing all but three of the shelves (obviously) - with two very high up and just one at waist level.

On a recommendation from Sara Kate we bought the fabulous LIDAN and KOMPLEMENT soft woven baskets from IKEA. These are really lovely and we'll use one on the floor to hold extra TP and such.

And thanks for the suggestion to roll towels for the upper shelves. Looks so much nicer than folding. And I really would never have thought of it!

Faith, can you post a picture? I always wish there were more before & after pictures with the Good Questions!

Sure - when it's all done I will!