![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
More storage ideas
Apr. 9th, 2006 09:44 amThere are lots of storage solutions (in addition to paring down) in John's Timeless Brownstone.
In-floor storage. My favorite is the storage area under the floorboards in the living room. I've heard of office buildings where the entire floor is raised a foot and made of removable tiles so you can easily get to the wiring and plumbing below at any time. That would be so cool.
I don't think it would work in my house, though. I've got a concrete slab foundation. Well, I suppose I could bring a jackhammer into the closet and have a go (and hope there aren't any pipes in there).
Extra cabinets. Another cool idea is putting large cabinets over the bathtub with, I'm guessing, doors that flip up (they look sort of like drawers, but that would be useless!). And then he's got another set parallel to it on the other side of the bathroom.
A similar trick I've seen is adding a shelf over doorways and windows for display and for things you don't need to get to often. Hmm, food processor.
In-wall storage. John has also added storage between studs in the wall. There's an alcove in the tub area for shampoo and stuff--I love those, especially when they're not located right where the water hits like so many bar soap alcoves are. Then he's got a couple more outside the tub with a door to hold extra toiletries and such. And he's got an open one in the living room with glass shelves on which to display things.
I've thought of building a large one of these on a kitchen wall where we're storing spices so that the spices could be behind doors and out of the dust and light. I've also thought of making one right next to the front door to hold a fire extinguisher and keys. We have the kind of door locks that you need keys to get out of, and usually we leave some keys in the front door while we're home, but sometimes the person whose keys those were leaves to go pick something up without putting the other person's keys in there, so it would be a safety feature in a fire. And I like having fire extinguishers near doors because then if you fail to extinguish the fire, you're probably between the fire and the door and can still escape.
Rails. John's got a pedestal sink that has a towel bar attached--good for small spaces. We thought of that when we replaced our sink, but went with something much, much less expensive. I hadn't seen one with a rail going all around the perimeter like his, just the kind with bars on the side. So his is cooler, and even if you don't hang anything in the front, the presence of the bar alerts you to check the sides for a towel.
A similar idea is those Shaker rails with the little posts coming out. I've seen them in several magazine pictures, but could never figure out what to use them for. In the pictures they're either empty or have something cutesy like a drawstring bag hanging from them, so it's just for decoration. One use the Shakers had was hanging their chairs on them to get them out of the way. We have a place for one of these in our bathroom over the top of the tile, and it seems like it would be a good place to hang towels, but I don't think they stay on those flat posts very well. Also, in the shower you could hang soap-on-a-rope off a post, and maybe one of those scrubbies, but not much else.
Hooks. John's got one of those over-the-door hooks, for I guess a bathrobe or towel. I've been resisting those because I'm afraid they'll put too much weight on the door and make it sag so much that it won't close any more. I've lived in too many places with doors that won't close, and I especially don't like it when the bathroom door won't close. I really don't want to know which of my friends don't care and which try over and over and over to get the door to close. (Fortunately I've managed to forget those things about my friends by now.)
However, Robin's making a case for an over-the-door ironing board that can fold down. In my ideal world, you always have your ironing board out, and its legs are painted a nice color and the pad is a beautiful fabric, so it's just part of the decor. But we don't quite have the space for that now.
Microwave oven. John's got a built-in spot for a microwave to keep it up off the counter, which is an idea I really like except that when you replace the microwave, you've got to find another one that will fit into that space. My sister installed a shelf below her cabinets for her microwave, and that worked pretty well; she could move the shelf pretty easily to fit the next microwave. Our microwave is in the corner, a generally hard-to-reach area, and it's set on four matching upside-down mugs so that you can have a plate in front of the microwave and still open and close the door. So, It's not quite as good a solution as the microwave shelf except that our cabinets go down pretty far so there's not much space under them anyway. There's only just enough space over the microwave the way it is now to display our shot glasses that say, respectively, "THEY," "MIGHT," "BE," and "GIANTS."
Spatulas. John's got the bucket of spatulas thing going on. I like that. We actually have two of them: one for implements with obscenely large handles and one for everything else. It's very handy having this right next to the stove. John's looks like a fancy metal can; ours are ceramic pitchers. Vases and large mugs would probably also work.
Extra counters. John's got basically half a galley kitchen--he could use a fold-down counter on the other side that's normally out of the way but which can be folded down for extra work space when kneading dough or whatever. I've fantasized about a little cart next to the stove with a wing on the side that lifts up, blocking the doorway, on which one could fill cookie sheets or cupcake pans, but I haven't yet perfected the design.
Another entrant who had one of those half kitchens that face into the room just put a long cart between the kitchen and the rest of the room for more work and storage space. I thought all the commenters would say that it was an unsightly thing to do to block the doorway like that, but they actually liked that idea.
In-floor storage. My favorite is the storage area under the floorboards in the living room. I've heard of office buildings where the entire floor is raised a foot and made of removable tiles so you can easily get to the wiring and plumbing below at any time. That would be so cool.
I don't think it would work in my house, though. I've got a concrete slab foundation. Well, I suppose I could bring a jackhammer into the closet and have a go (and hope there aren't any pipes in there).
Extra cabinets. Another cool idea is putting large cabinets over the bathtub with, I'm guessing, doors that flip up (they look sort of like drawers, but that would be useless!). And then he's got another set parallel to it on the other side of the bathroom.
A similar trick I've seen is adding a shelf over doorways and windows for display and for things you don't need to get to often. Hmm, food processor.
In-wall storage. John has also added storage between studs in the wall. There's an alcove in the tub area for shampoo and stuff--I love those, especially when they're not located right where the water hits like so many bar soap alcoves are. Then he's got a couple more outside the tub with a door to hold extra toiletries and such. And he's got an open one in the living room with glass shelves on which to display things.
I've thought of building a large one of these on a kitchen wall where we're storing spices so that the spices could be behind doors and out of the dust and light. I've also thought of making one right next to the front door to hold a fire extinguisher and keys. We have the kind of door locks that you need keys to get out of, and usually we leave some keys in the front door while we're home, but sometimes the person whose keys those were leaves to go pick something up without putting the other person's keys in there, so it would be a safety feature in a fire. And I like having fire extinguishers near doors because then if you fail to extinguish the fire, you're probably between the fire and the door and can still escape.
Rails. John's got a pedestal sink that has a towel bar attached--good for small spaces. We thought of that when we replaced our sink, but went with something much, much less expensive. I hadn't seen one with a rail going all around the perimeter like his, just the kind with bars on the side. So his is cooler, and even if you don't hang anything in the front, the presence of the bar alerts you to check the sides for a towel.
A similar idea is those Shaker rails with the little posts coming out. I've seen them in several magazine pictures, but could never figure out what to use them for. In the pictures they're either empty or have something cutesy like a drawstring bag hanging from them, so it's just for decoration. One use the Shakers had was hanging their chairs on them to get them out of the way. We have a place for one of these in our bathroom over the top of the tile, and it seems like it would be a good place to hang towels, but I don't think they stay on those flat posts very well. Also, in the shower you could hang soap-on-a-rope off a post, and maybe one of those scrubbies, but not much else.
Hooks. John's got one of those over-the-door hooks, for I guess a bathrobe or towel. I've been resisting those because I'm afraid they'll put too much weight on the door and make it sag so much that it won't close any more. I've lived in too many places with doors that won't close, and I especially don't like it when the bathroom door won't close. I really don't want to know which of my friends don't care and which try over and over and over to get the door to close. (Fortunately I've managed to forget those things about my friends by now.)
However, Robin's making a case for an over-the-door ironing board that can fold down. In my ideal world, you always have your ironing board out, and its legs are painted a nice color and the pad is a beautiful fabric, so it's just part of the decor. But we don't quite have the space for that now.
Microwave oven. John's got a built-in spot for a microwave to keep it up off the counter, which is an idea I really like except that when you replace the microwave, you've got to find another one that will fit into that space. My sister installed a shelf below her cabinets for her microwave, and that worked pretty well; she could move the shelf pretty easily to fit the next microwave. Our microwave is in the corner, a generally hard-to-reach area, and it's set on four matching upside-down mugs so that you can have a plate in front of the microwave and still open and close the door. So, It's not quite as good a solution as the microwave shelf except that our cabinets go down pretty far so there's not much space under them anyway. There's only just enough space over the microwave the way it is now to display our shot glasses that say, respectively, "THEY," "MIGHT," "BE," and "GIANTS."
Spatulas. John's got the bucket of spatulas thing going on. I like that. We actually have two of them: one for implements with obscenely large handles and one for everything else. It's very handy having this right next to the stove. John's looks like a fancy metal can; ours are ceramic pitchers. Vases and large mugs would probably also work.
Extra counters. John's got basically half a galley kitchen--he could use a fold-down counter on the other side that's normally out of the way but which can be folded down for extra work space when kneading dough or whatever. I've fantasized about a little cart next to the stove with a wing on the side that lifts up, blocking the doorway, on which one could fill cookie sheets or cupcake pans, but I haven't yet perfected the design.
Another entrant who had one of those half kitchens that face into the room just put a long cart between the kitchen and the rest of the room for more work and storage space. I thought all the commenters would say that it was an unsightly thing to do to block the doorway like that, but they actually liked that idea.