The IKEA Storage My Most Stylish Friend Swears By After Downsizing His Home

Downsizing from a three-bedroom house in Birmingham, Alabama, to a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, New York, has come with its fair share of challenges, according to my friend Costen King-Cortes and his husband, Forrest King-Cortes. But the biggest issue has been adjusting to life with far less built-in storage. “We were very sad to lose all of the storage that comes with living in a house,” says Costen. “We didn’t realize how much stuff we need but don’t want to look at every day.”

Like many small-space dwellers, Costen immediately took to the internet in search of a solution. He spent hours browsing budget-friendly furniture brands and searching Facebook Marketplace. The search, though, always led back to IKEA. “We had IKEA BILLY bookcases in our first apartment in Chicago then built them into the foyer in our house in Birmingham,” says Costen. But this time, the couple wouldn’t be able to take on a major DIY project. They needed an easy, chic, and ready-to-use piece, and they needed it fast. Enter: LÅDMAKARE, arguably the BILLY bookcase’s older (and more stylish) sister.

Although the BILLY bookcases were an excellent solution in the couple’s last home, they now needed a better mix of both open and closed storage to hide more unsightly essentials. They had lost their designated “junk closet,” which held things like cleaning products, tools, and cat food — but they also still had collectibles and memories that they wanted to display, as they had on their BILLY setup. Plus, they wanted a more aesthetically pleasing piece, given that it would become such a large part of their new space. Luckily, the couple found what they call the “perfect happy medium” in the LÅDMAKARE. 

Not only does the LÅDMAKARE storage system feature both open and closed shelving, but it can also be customized and adapted to fit your belongings however you choose. This appealed to the couple, as they knew their storage needs might change over time. If they moved back to a larger home, they could even add on more pieces to expand their system. The LÅDMAKARE comes in a luxurious warm oak-look finish, which subtly warms up any space and blends in nicely with other wooden furnishings. And as a bonus, Costen loves that the LÅDMAKARE has about “6 inches of open storage on the bottom,” which is perfect for sliding small items underneath.

Although the warm oak finish and sleek sliding doors made the LÅDMAKARE a standout, a few tiny tweaks made it ideal for their style and space. “With every IKEA piece we get, we always try to find a way to make it feel custom to our home,” says Costen. Although they couldn’t turn the piece into a built-in like they had with their BILLY bookcases, Costen added new bright blue ceramic doorknobs and a wooden wine rack to the setup, making it feel that much more special. The wine rack he chose has the same warm finish as the LÅDMAKARE, so it almost makes the unit look custom-made; Costen chose the light blue ceramic knobs specifically to match other elements in their dining room to help tie the whole space together. 

The moral of the story? Even if you don’t have built-ins, that doesn’t mean you can’t outfit your small space with a stylish, custom-looking storage solution — and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune, either. Costen found both the knobs and the wine rack on Amazon, making this an easy, inexpensive way to tailor an off-the-shelf piece of furniture to your aesthetic. And if you’re in the market for smart, tasteful storage solutions that are budget- and small space-friendly, don’t overlook some of IKEA’s less “popular” systems like the LÅDMAKARE. Now Costen and his husband can enjoy their new, clutter-free apartment in style, and they didn’t have to break the bank to do it.