So many halls have wall mounted coat racks or hooks, which are fine except for when they are home to 17 coats and the depth of them stands a metre from the wall! Put away the ‘out of season’ coats and jackets or the little-used ones into a spare bedroom if you can.

Some of the best storage space in a hall can be found under the stairs and if that space isn’t being used for a downstairs loo, there are plenty of ways of making the most of that space, from using it as a home office (I did that in 5 Lower Road, Salisbury many moons ago) or install slideable drawers to utilise every spare inch.

One Irish company making these slideable drawers is Smart Storage and as understairs storage goes, these are brilliant for items such as children’s schoolbags, boots, shoes, hurleys, footballs – all those items that you use on a daily basis but if they haven’t got anywhere to go, you end up falling over them half a dozen times a day, plus it is all about making your hallway look presentable and welcoming.

One of the key themes with children’s bedrooms has to be storage.  Apart from storage for clothing, children will require storage for toys and books.  The better the storage is, the easier it will be for the child to tidy up! – well, that’s the parental intention!

Ikea supply a wide variety of shelving options which are all budget friendly. You can never have enough shelves. However, ensure that wide shelves are split along with dividers as it will make it easier for children to replace books if they aren’t all about to fall on them.  Ensure that the shelves aren’t too tightly packed so the child will see spaces to put their possessions.

Make a bookcase more interesting and personal by making one out of the child’s initials. (Source: Tove Lisa)

I also love this idea for shelves – perfect for making books more accessible and having them on display, even one shelf will be perfect as the favourite books (why do young children always prefer one book that you have to read millions of times) can be displayed there.

Isn’t this fabulous? It makes a great feature wall as well as creating a perfect spot for having time out with a book. (Elizabeth Sullivan)

Beds with storage underneath are a great idea for smaller bedrooms – whether you opt for a bed with drawer storage or a bed that can be raised so that there is space to play or study underneath.

This set of bunk beds is great – apart from the under bed drawer storage, I love the quite sophisticated stairs to the top bunk and with the side drawers, every inch of space can be used for storage. (Source: Bunk Beds A2Z)

And here’s a more feminine version of a set of bunk beds with storage. (source: Fit in House)

And this is one of the most gorgeous examples I’ve seen of beds with a play area underneath – Imagine having your own VW campervan equivalent in your bedroom! (Source: The Lettered Cottage via pinterest)

• Assess your furniture layouts. Re-arranging/re-allocating furniture can have a profound effect on how you experience and use each room.
• Assess your colour schemes. Lighter, unified colour strategies will maximise the sense of space as well as light.
• Assess and address your storage needs. Reduced visible clutter will enhance your enjoyment of the space available.
• Explore if rooms are best matched to their use: assess the use to which each room is put. Re-allocating room uses can be refreshing and transforming.
• Re-locating a door is a minor alteration which may have a huge impact on a problem space. Simply changing the side on which a door is hinged can also be effective in many instances.
• Where extending, explore the opportunity, to provide an enhanced quality of space, not to just replicate the existing, with taller/profiled ceilings or rooflights.

• Assess your furniture layouts. Keeping furniture – and kitchen units – away from windows, or placing smaller pieces at windows, will enhance the flow of both space and of light.
• Assess your windows and window dressing. Painting window frames a light colour internally will increase the amount of reflected light. Keep window dressings light in both colour and feel.
• Assess your colour scheme including all furniture and all finishes and  all accessories, not just walls.
• Don’t be afraid to take a brush to natural timber where this will improve light reflection.
• Assess where it might be possible to provide rooflighting. If located correctly, a rooflight can transform a dark room still further by allowing direct sunlight in also.
• Explore whether some day time uses might be facilitated at first floor level. Spaces at an upper level will be naturally brighter all year round. This can be especially welcome in Winter when daylight levels are low.

• Identify what is to be stored and provide appropriate, conveniently located storage in each case. Your home will still get messy from time to time but at least each item will have a “home”.
• Adjustable shelving will maximise the usefulness of most general-purpose shelved areas.
• Hot Press/linen storage shelves work well with shelves 30cm apart in height. Shelves 45cm deep are useful here.
• 30cm is a useful depth for bookshelving, while 34cm is a good height between shelves vertically.
• Coats and jackets are more usefully stored on hanging rails, not hooks, where overload occurs easily. A rail needs to be placed in a space 60cm deep.
• Smaller children naturally gravitate towards adults, so provide at least some toy storage and play space in or close to the kitchen, preferably open shelving with loose items in tubs and baskets.

Drawings for Eva’s own open plan house

The photographers are Tony Gavin, Kate Horgan, Philip Lauterbach and Paul Sherwood.  I’m loving these tips about shelf height and as for that large larder type built in storage, I’m in love!  You can check out more tips and photos over at Eva’s Houseology website and she’s on facebook too.

Kitchen Storage Tins

Pretty tins such as Greengate’s tin box containers are ideal for storing items such as tea, coffee and sugar or as they are made of tin and are sealable, they are perfect as little biscuit tins or cake tins.

Greengate Pretty Storage Tins at Garrendenny Lane

Shelves

Open shelves are lovely in a kitchen and are perfect for displaying items such as antique bottles or any kitchen curiousities you have picked up on ebay, garage sales or antique shops. Inject some personality into your kitchen with a display of your favourite items, just don’t over do it. One set of shelves with your collection is plenty for most kitchens. Pretty tins make great storage canisters and jugs make great vases for spring flowers.

And I spotted these shelves over at Living Etc, it is simply created from a CD storage unit from Heal’s, together with an elaborate painted frame.  Isn’t it perfect for your favourite mugs and pretty bowls?

Use an open dresser or shelving unit for your kitchen storage – you can keep it tidy by using wicker baskets, metal boxes, tin boxes and similar items to hold everything. Leave the occasional space bare with one single pretty item such as a jug or a vase and this prevents it all taking up too much visual space in the kitchen. By creating space around a couple of single items so the eye can be drawn to the back of the shelf, it really creates an illusion of much more space.

Hang it on the Wall or from the Ceiling

Rather than having a magazine rack that takes up floor space or having them piled onto a shelf or scattered, the Black and Blum Ring Ring wall mounted magazine racks fit snugly against the wall and your favourite magazines will be on display and to hand when you want to relax with a cup of tea.

Ring Ring at Garrendenny Lane

I also love seeing copper saucepans hanging from a rack, even a simple metal pole and some hooks is all you need. Spotted this over at Living Etc too.

Multi purpose

Use a peg or notice board to hold all those important notices. The Black and Blum Time Square clock is great as it doubles as a clock, a Magnet board and a blackboard. It even has a little ledge along its upper edge to keep the enclosed chalk handy to hand.

Let your personality shine by choosing your favourite items to be on display while hiding those not so pretty essentials. You spend a lot of time in your kitchen so make it as pleasant a place to be as you can.

Image: Living Etc

I like this idea for showing off a very stylish pair – not only are they a decorative feature but this cloche also keeps them dust free and you can admire them every day. I have one pair of very very high heels that I love but don’t wear very often (since I ended up crumpled on the pavement in them one night but hush, no bones broken!)

Image: Living Etc

Or some stylish card boxes with leather handles – if you are very organised you could take a photo of the special shoes and then you know exactly which pair are in which box:

Image: Living Etc

Or check out these shoe suitcases from here at Garrendenny Lane - perfect for shoes or other items.

This one is for someone who has a new office or indeed an office which needs some smart storage as well as a bit of style.

A Black and Blum Ring Ring which is wallmounted and ideal for holding papers and magazines; a smart Black and Blum desk tidy as well as a Jimmy keyring and bottle opener; and a very smart business card holder – This hamper has all this for €66 with free gift wrap – now what could be easier?

The hamper below is perfect for a stylish gardener - it contains 4 gardening mugs in a lovely gift box, a gardening journal and a lantern for the patio, deck or conservatory.

I have to admit that I have just brought out the sticker charts again so that if they are really good and get lots of stickers, Santa will see them when he comes and maybe give them an extra surprise present.  So, there’s a sticker if they hang up their coats, if they eat breakfast when I’ve told them once, when they brush their teeth, brush hair etc etc. Amazing how it motivates them to get all of the normal activity things done and hopefully it will make brushing Kate’s hair less of a battle!

This is something I totally empathise with.  When Brian was doing his PhD (yes, my farmer husband has a PhD is microbiology – the cows really appreciate it and are always nice to him in the milking parlour as a result!) and I was doing my MA, we had two desks (side by side – v romantic!) in our spare bedroom that was often used by guests.  I can also understand the ‘spreading’ of papers – I much preferred to lay flat the box files.  I also had the terrible habit of dropping library books around my chair when I was finishing off essays and once the essay was handed in, I would come home to a messy study with papers all over the place and at least 15 books in a messy circle on the floor around my chair!

Regarding the bed first of all – it is a good idea to either have a single bed that extends into a double and can be used as a day bed, a comfortable sofa bed or else a bed with either divan drawers or room underneath for storage.

It’s a good idea to leave spaces between the books and box files and intersperse them with some ornaments to create a relaxed atmosphere and create an impression of spaciousness.  Strong box files won’t fall over. I always liked shelves right above my desk and these boxes mean that books won’t fall off the edge!  If the desk is positioned in an alcove, it is easy enough to just use shelves above the desk. See the contrast below.

The shelving units below show wall to wall shelving with an interesting mix of ornaments, files, wicker baskets, books which creates interest and creates feeling of space. Ensure there is a few inches of space above the tallest items on each shelf so they can be removed easily as well as preventing clutter.

Given Cyril’s penchant for ‘spreading’ his papers in a horizontal fashion rather than vertically, I thought these storage boxes on shelves were a good idea – just have loads of shelves with a maximum of 2 storage boxes high on each one.  To minimise the appearance of clutter, use storage boxes that are the same colour or a similar hue to the wall colour so they blend in and are barely there.  Just use small labels for each box.  I would tend to use different coloured labels for different subject matters.

I’m sure the new Dublin Ikea will have a plethora of different types of storage boxes, I like the ones by a company called Bigso Box that I came across at Maison.

Now, if it is the case that there are just too many books and files and you just wish to hide them as best as possible, then I suggest either creating fitted cupboards/wardrobes like below:

Alternatively create fabric panels in front of either shelving in alcoves or shelving along one whole wall.  If the fabric in the panels matches the wallpaper, it will act extremely well as a camouflage and the panels can easily be swung aside to access files.  This solution also saves space in that the panels move sideways rather than having to have room in front of units to allow for the opening of doors.

Maura also stated that they needed units on which to place printers and copiers.  The modular units below may be too shallow but the idea is there and they can be used for storage inside the unit as well as on the surface.  Ikea, as usual, has a plethora of storage units, files, shelves etc and now that Ikea is open in Dublin, I’m sure there will be plenty of storage solutions available to purchase there.

My last suggestion is to incorporate an armchair with a small table and lamp beside it if there is room – creates a really nice relaxed atmosphere and sometimes it is nice to leave the desk and read while sitting in a comfortable armchair.

There’s quite a few different suggestions here for storage – depending on the storage requirements, size of room, and how ‘tidy’ a person tends to be but I hope these suggestions are useful.  Please feel free to add any suggestions or comments.

Next week: Decor for a study

Images from Ideal Home, Living Etc and House to Home

One of the things I loved about living in Victorian houses were all the cubby holes and fabulous storage under stairs where one could stash away almost anything and I think it is important to use every inch of space under places such as the stairs or as shown below, build in shelves to optimise the space available.

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Image: Ideal Homes

Storage is so important in the hallway – to make it seem welcoming, prevent clutter and just to ensure that important items such as keys are close by as you rush out the door.

Image: Ideal Homes

Here a mirror with hooks below it is ideal for checking your appearance, hanging your bag and keys etc.  The narrow built in storage is great for stashing away items such as shoes and the couple of cushions suggest comfort and relaxation, even if you never actually sit on it!  A built in window-seat with a hinged lid are also great if you have a bay window in the living room.  Staying with the living room, ottomans are wonderful items of furniture being triple purpose: footstool, extra seating and great for storing items such as magazines and newspapers.  If the living room is quite small,  rather than an ottoman, low baskets that fit in under the sofa are convenient for storing magazines too and items such as the remote controls.  You can get sofas with drawers under them too. When choosing coffee tables or side tables, on the one hand, ones that have open space below them and have elegant legs, create more sense of space but ones with drawers will provide plenty of storage.

Open shelving maintains the sense of space, especially if a variety of objects (in terms of form, size and shape) are placed on them with some ‘white space’ between them.  You just have to ensure that they are kept tidy or the whole effect is lost.

Image: Ideal Homes

Black & Blum are one of my favourite companies that I stock, partly because so many of their items are great for being sleek and perfect for storage. Their ‘ring ring’ is wall-mounted and each one takes quite a few magazines and papers.  Once they start to fall out, you know it is time to bring some to the recycling!

The Black & Blum Flow is brilliant for storing wine, taking up some space on the wall but worth every inch as it looks so sleek and attractive, imitating the flow of liquid in its shape.

In the bedroom, the obvious points are ideas such as purchasing a bed with drawers within the divan or purchase storage tubs (with wheels) that will fit under the bed – ideal for out of season clothes, sports equipment, shoes, holiday decorations etc.  Add hooks to the inside of the wardrobe doors for items such as belts.  Remember to use your walls for storage too – shelves placed 30-50 cm below the ceiling will be ideal for displaying collectibles/ storing books / hats / decorative items / attractive box files – admittedly items placed on a high shelf will be more for items you love to look at but don’t use so often.  If getting a bookcase made, measure the height of your books, for example, if the space between the shelves are 34 cm and some books are only 12 cm high, you are effectively wasting almost 20 cm of space so have differently spaced shelves for the different sized books.

Strong, deep drawers in the kitchen mean that it is easier to access items that would ordinarily be stuck at the back of the cupboard as the drawers can pull out fully.  Simple items such as a Lazy susan plate to hold all your dried herbs etc means that a simple twirl of the plate will make each little container easily accessible. Pull-out larders and corner cupboards with pull-out shelves ensure that every inch of space is used.

I guess the ideal is ‘ a place for everything and everything in its place’, that is, to have attractive items on display and other items placed out of sight where you can find them easily. Now, this Fix-it Friday is going to turn into Saturday’s post if I don’t end now but please add more ideas in the comment box if you think of any.

Next Week: Window Treatments for a bathroom window – to maximise light yet ensure privacy