Most homes do not offer enough closet space, so we are always looking for storage solutions that are not too big or too small, compliments our home’s overall design and that blends in with my decorating style.
This was never truer than when we purchased our co-op. It was a beautiful building that was built in 1915. The style was Beaux Arts, which means high ceilings, fancy trim and big windows. Closets were rarely built-in those days. Their storage consisted of furniture that was made for that purpose. They had armoires for their clothes, free standing cabinets, such as hutches for their kitchen needs and trunks for linens.
Now fast forward to 2014, when we purchased our 1400 square foot, 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, 2 story apartment.
There was a small clothes closet in the main bedroom and no closets in the other bedrooms. They had turned one bedroom into a storage closet, but that had to go to make room for Dudley’s study.
Where to begin.
I cannot stand to see space waisted, especially when you only have 1400 square feet. So I started by assessing each room to determine what the purpose of the room was to be, the needs I would have for storage and the space that would be available once all the furniture was in place. Whatever was left in the room was mine to use in my design process. Sometimes I would have to rearrange furniture to get the maximum space at my disposal.
Then the fun begins.
I first draw out the entire room on graph paper. Yep, no fancy computer program for me, just graph paper, a pencil and, most importantly, a very big eraser!!
The Kitchen
The kitchen had no windows, no counter space, an old rusty exhaust fan that needed to be plugged in each time you needed to use it and no dishwasher.
After some careful planning…
My favorite kitchen ever! It included a spice cabinet, a wine rack, a cookie sheets/tray cabinet, storage for cookware seldomly used, a pots and pans cabinet with a drawer and room for all of my glassware and dishes.
To learn more about this amazing kitchen makeover, click here.
When I am designing, I have a mantra, “what if”. What if I…move the refrigerator, take out a wall, move a wall 7 inches or move or remove a door. Sometimes the answer is no, but mostly it isn’t and that is when creativity begins. Don’t be afraid to ask the question.
The Main Bedroom
There was a closet there, but the depth barely allowed for a hanger and had sliding doors with no track on the bottom. Not my favorite look.
Although we had no extra room to make it wider, Dudley had the idea to make it deeper. This was a game changer. He ran the closet to the ceiling adding doors above for easy access. I was able to store all of my out of season clothes and bedding in this area.
Adding additional depth also gave me room in the closet to hang hooks inside the doors so that I could put outfits together for upcoming days and on the side walls, there was enough room to add hooks for all of my necklaces. Dudley was also able to add a stack of built-in cubbies for my purses.
We were fortunate enough to find old doors that worked for this purpose that blended with the home, but if you don’t have access to a salvage warehouse and can’t find old doors, try getting new flat doors and adding trim around the edge and check eBay for antique knobs.
Reading Nook with Storage
I still had room left in the main bedroom to create a reading nook. This was a lifelong dream. We had a small area with a window, between the corner of the room and a chimney.
We centered a window seat and built a bookcase on both sides and a small closet on one side using old doors that match the original doors in the house. We added shelves in the closet to hold all of my shoes.
The base of the window seat is an antique buffet that we found at our favorite salvage warehouse, Second Chance in Baltimore, that was missing a leg. Dudley cut them all off and it created the perfect seat with additional storage.
The Guest Room
Due to the size of closets in old houses, I usually get the primary closet, and Dudley gets the guest closet, so it was important to have as much storage space as we could fit into a small guest bedroom.
Again, I looked to see what space was left over after all the necessary furniture was in the room. Now, keep in mind that I am not a minimalist, so necessary furniture does not mean a bed and a dresser. And I do not like my spaces to feel cluttered. I design to make small rooms feel larger.
This room offered a couple of unique options, so I put them both on paper and one was the clear winner. There were 2 chimneys on one wall and the wall that was shared with the bathroom adjoined that wall making a L shaped closet the ideal choice.
So, I drew up a floorplan for 3 closets. The design allowed for 2 of those closets to be on one wall and the other nestled in between the chimney and the new closet. One was a standard sized closet, one was shallow and perfect for shoes, then we divided the depth of the third closet in half. Dudley prefers to hang his most used clothes on hooks for easy access, so this space was perfect for that and with the depth on the other side of this closet we were able to open it up to the bathroom for a linen closet.
Don’t just look at how you can add storage in one room. See if you can steal storage space from an adjoining room also. This bathroom was way too small to build a closet in it, so accessing storage from the bedroom was key.
Here is the finished guest bedroom closet. We were lucky to find the antique doors that worked perfectly. Especially matching mirrored doors! If you can’t find mirrored doors like these, just buy flat doors, new mirrors and add trim for a beautiful closet.
The Living Room
We knew we wanted bookcases on either side of the fireplace, but we needed storage for firewood and TV equipment. We also wanted to add more seating if possible.
TVs always pose a visual concern in any room, but this wall is the first thing you see when entering the apartment. So, how do you create storage in a very small space and get room for a TV, all of the equipment, the wires, and your books??
The TV is still front and center but building it in to fit the exact size of the bookshelf actually helped to blend it in. People have stood right in front of the bookcase and ask where we put the TV.
Below the TV you will notice a bench with a solid back. The back opens to hide the equipment and wires. It was very easy to access when needed.
The benches on both sides of the fireplace created more seating for entertaining in a small room. One side held firewood, and the other side had paint and small tools that we needed the most.
The Living Room Coat Closet
From the dining room you can see that there are 2 doors. The small one on the left goes to the same place as the large one on the right. Every apartment with our floorplan had the same layout and no one could figure out why,
You will notice that the front door is next to the small opening on the left.
So, we decided to use it to our advantage and built a drywalled closet on the dining room side, to match the plaster walls and trim and have it open on the living room side.
Can you believe it? It looks like it was always there. We had a party for residents in our building and numerous people were upset when they saw it wanting to know why they didn’t have one in their apartment. That was a huge compliment.
Now there is a lovely and useful coat closet at the front door.
We made it as shallow as possible, but we were still able to fit the vacuum, our market bags and our coats.
In Conclusion
This home was only 1400 square feet. It was 2 stories and had a kitchen, living room, dining room, sun porch and a half bath on the first floor and 3 bedrooms and 1 full bath upstairs. It felt huge to us because everything had a place. There was no clutter, and we made sure that all built ins were as small as possible, but with the largest capacity possible.
If you don’t have room to build out, go up. If you can’t go up, go wider. Look at every possibility and you will find solutions that that have been hidden
I hope that you have gained some ideas that you may be able to use in your home.
If you enjoyed our city home storage ideas, look for part 2 where you will find more storage ideas in our Eastern Shore Victorian home.
