Unusual storage space

The days of the utility cupboard are gone. Modern storage is fun, yet func­tional-everything still has a place. With the help of imaginative ideas, a well-planned storage unit can become a major feature of a room, rather than something which has to be hidden.

You can treat storage in one of two ways. Either it can be so unobtrusive that it doesn't look like a storage unit, or it can make a big splash with everything on show. A neat cup­board fitted into an alcove can house ample hidden storage space, or open shelves can display small objects like glasses or books to become part of one large piece of furniture.

When you move into a new house, don't tailor yourself to suit what storage exists; it should be designed for you and for your needs. For instance, open shelves are best for tidy people, while the untidy ones are probably happier if they can shove all their junk away behind closed doors. So tidy people can remove doors from fitted cupboards and liven up the shelves inside, while the untidy ones can hide any open shelving units with the help of bright ideas for using blinds and doors.

You can find a variety of storage units in the shops, ranging from reasonably priced white­wood shelves and matching cupboards, through units in acrylic, glass, wood or fibreglass, to expensive modular units, superbly made and created by some of the world's top designers. The trick is to take a good look at what there is, particularly in the more exclusive furnishing shops, then to adapt the ideas that interest you according to your budget. Cheap mass-produced whitewood shelves can easily be made to look quite different with cunning treatment. Cover them with wallpaper to match the walls behind-fiddly work but worth it; or paint them in a colour such as shocking pink to make a feature of them.

Storage towers

The Continental idea of a living tower is a good example of a capacious unit which does not take up.a lot of space. This is a floor-to­ceiling storage unit which stands in the middle of a room, good to look at from all angles, decorative and functional. The supports can be anything from wooden planks to slim chromed pipes, and the shelves can be glass, acrylic or wood.
Storage towers are usually square, but they can be round, and often have one or two small cupboards let into them to house drinks, records or correspondence. They can be given a stark modern treatment and used as a display point for models or special ornaments, or can be crammed with everything from a record player, TV set and books, to drinks, glasses and china.

Make your own storage

You can emphasize the width or the height of a room and give it a totally different feel by clever use of the horizontals or verticals on a floor-to-ceiling shelving unit for books and ornaments. Make a low room seem higher by fixing the vertical supports as little as 1ft apart, making extra lines from floor to ceiling, then give them more emphasis by picking them out in a contrasting colour or even covering them in a bold striped wallpaper.
If you want to make a room feel wider, emphasize the horizontal lines instead. Don't have a group of short shelves all different sizes; instead, keep the horizontal lines as long as possible, so that the room looks wider. Instead of breaking up these lines with vertical supports, mount the shelves on tough brackets or battens. If you are trying to achieve this effect with an existing unit, paint the vertical supports in - colour that matches or merges with the walls behind, then pick out the shelves in a bright colour, or cover them with a gay felt or hessian.

A small trolley, designed for carting meals from kitchen to living or dining room, could easily be turned into a storage place for the television set or record player and records. Fix slatted racks to the lower tray, making an ideal place for storing records, and the trolley takes on quite a different personality. The advantage of keeping a television set or a record player on a trolley is that it can be wheeled away into an unobtrusive corner when it is not in use.You can make your own modular storage units by adapting cheap household items; try some of these simple suggestions.
Orange boxes and tea chests. Choose only sturdy boxes, and pile them together. Storage can be hidden away behind discreet doors or put proudly on display. Here a whole wall of segmented shelves holds books, ornaments and oddments to great effect as a strong focal point.
dren's bricks to form a unit. Use a group of six or nine, piled on top of each other, glued and screwed together. Cover each box with lining paper and paint it, or use patterned wallpaper or sticky-backed plastic to hide the rough wood finish. You can use these boxes for any kind of storage from books and toys to kitchen things or even jumpers and heavier clothes.

Oil drums or beer barrels. The circular shapes of these containers will make an unusual storage unit. Cut in half, they can be put on their sides, piled one on top of the other and held firmly inside a frame made from planks. Try four bolted together then set into a frame, or make them into a tall pillar with six, one on top of the other. A triangular unit with three on the bottom, two next and one on top inside a frame, painted in a bright colour, is an original idea. Brick andplank units. You can make attractive but cheap bookshelves using smart planks supported at each end by three or four bricks. Use cheaper wood for a unit in the kitchen, and cover the shelves with sticky-backed plastic.

Plastic and acrylic. Ideas for making storage units out of plastic bowls and buckets are given. Another unusual idea is to make storage cubes out of sheets of acrylic. HOME DECORATOR 21 gives instructions for how to work with acrylic, but remember that it scratches easily, so these cubes are best if used in a purely decorative way or for storing some­thing soft like sheets and towels.

Storage pyramid. Another eye-catching idea is to make a storage pyramid, using two ladders as supports. The ladders should be fixed firmly into a pyramid shape, joined at the top by slotting them together after cutting out grooves, and bound for a firm join. Fix them securely against the wall with a strut or bar so that they remain steady, then add shelves using the rungs as supports. The length of the shelves must keep to the shape of the pyramid, and be screwed to the rungs for safety. The final touch is a coat of polyurethane seal or paint in fresh-looking white or a bright colour like yellow or blue. In the kitchen the pyramid can be used for casseroles, pots and pans, or elsewhere as a gay display unit for toys, books or ornaments.

A new look for existing storage

Give some sensible basic storage rules to help you make the most of what you have got. It is easy to give a different look to old storage shelves and units, without going to the expense of replacing them with something new.
Louvred doors always look smart, so hide a deep storage alcove by fixing louvred doors across the front. The inside of the cupboard should look as good as the outside, so fix a light inside to show up a bright wallpaper, or paint it in a warm red or a cheerful green. Red is a particularly good colour in a hall, so if you are building a cupboard unit for coats and out­door things, give this a different look by painting it red.

Deep storage cupboards are invaluable, as they can be turned into anything from a bar to a mini-sewing room with a flap-down worktop and fold-up chair. Hang the iron and ironing board on the wall, add shelves and a spotlight, and there you have a compact sewing corner
that is easy to tidy away when necessary by flapping everything flat and closing the doors.

You can make a study corner in the same way, fitting a shelf deep enough to hold a typewriter, a strong light for working by, and more shelves or drawers for filing and paper. You can brighten up the inside of the cupboard by covering the door panels with sticky-backed plastic, on which you can stick important reminders which would otherwise spoil the paint.
Another good way of dealing with a very deep cupboard is to make a shelving unit on the back of the door. Make sure that the door is strong enough to support the extra weight of full shelves, and that you fit heavy duty hinges. This method can double the storage space of a deep wardrobe or a kitchen cupboard.

In the wardrobe, hanging clothes can be at the back, with shelves above and below; then a shallow shelving unit can be built on to the back of the door for the rest of the clothes or sheets and towels. In the kitchen, the back of a deep cupboard could be used for bulk-bought items and heavy tins, and the door storage could house lighter groceries like spaghetti and packet soups and sauces. Alternatively, racks could be fitted inside the door to hold baking equipment or small storage jars.
Industrial easy-to-assemble shelving units, though often associated only with offices, can look splendid in the home. They can be used in any room and painted to match the colour scheme, so that they blend with the wall behind. They can be unobtrusive if treated properly, and they are not expensive.

Decorative treatments

Here are some quick ideas for brightening shelves and cupboard doors. They will quickly add afresh look to any piece of storage furniture.
Pop art shapes. You can transform the plain doors of a large fitted unit by painting bold pop art designs on them such as a huge circle in a gay colour. Decide how large you want the circle to be and where it is to go, then measure a piece of string half the required diameter. Attach one end of the string to a pencil and tack the other end lightly to the cupboard door. Simply draw the pencil round in a circle, then paint away using the hints given in for painting neat lines. Use any colour you like-an orange circle on a white background, or a bright white circle on a deep purple cupboard door and so on.
Friezes and borders. Either buy a paper frieze or a wallpaper border print, or paint your own border with wide stripes of paint. These can be used on door panels in a large fitted cupboard, or to give a framed effect outside the door frame.
Felt, hessian and tweed. A successful idea for an old kitchen dresser is to line all the shelves with felt or other material. It adds a touch of colour, makes the dresser look different, and prevents china from chipping.
Pelmets and scallops. For an old fashioned, cottagey look, make scallops from oilcloth or gathered pelmets out of fresh-looking gingham, then tack these onto the front of plain shelves in the kitchen. Any plastic-coated material is a practical choice, because it can be wiped down easily, and the pelmets do not have to be removed for cleaning.

Space under the stairs

More often than not the space under the stairs tends to be a glory hole, where awkward things are thrown because they have no other home. With a little thought, this space can be put to good use, and become an organized storage area, particularly if it is closed in.
The inside of the door is an ideal place for storing tools, where they are out of sight, but within easy reach. Cover the back of the door entirely with pegboard; work out where each tool is to be hung, then paint its shape on to the pegboard before fixing up hooks to hold each' tool in place. This ensures that each tool gets put back in the right place, and you can see at a glance if one is missing.

Another way of using open space under the stairs is to make a narrow storage cupboard. This is a neat idea if you want to add a feeling of width to a passage. Make the highest part of the space under the stairs into a cupboard or telephone corner. Cut out a sheet of block­board the same shape as the sloping part and, using a power saw cut in it two doors with rounded corners. These doors should follow the sloping angle of the stairs. Fix the cupboard front in place against a frame, then cover it with a patterned wallpaper matching that used on the stairs and in the hall. Add brass knobs on the cupboard doors, and there you have a storage unit that saves as well as gives space.

Fashion Living rooms

You can create an impressive effect with books by constructing a shelving unit which covers one complete wall. If you can't spare a whole wall, fill the alcoves on each side of the chimney breast with fitted shelves cut to exactly the same length and depth as the recesses. If you paint the shelves to match the walls behind, the books or ornaments will provide all the necessary colour and pattern.
Fitted seating units are ideal places for con­cealed storage space. Build a low seating unit 1ft or 1ft 6in. above the ground, cover it with foam cushions, and either fit drawers under­neath, or make flap-up lids to the base so as to make full use of the space. A seating unit which runs along one whole wall, or is built in an alcove, can be livened up by creating a 'curvy' shelf effect above it. Either fit a sheet of hard­board, or paint a wide stripe on the wall above the unit in tne shape of an arc. This should start low on one side, curving up to leave enough headroom for people sitting down, then run down again on the other side. The interesting shapes left above the arc on each side can be filled in with shallow horizontal shelves, giving a contoured effect.
Shelves don't all have to be joined together. You can make separate cubes or boxes from planks of wood, then hang them individually on the wall in strategic places for a stunning arrangement.

Cool Kitchens

Even everyday items like vegetables can be made to look exciting if they are stored in an unusual way. A bright treatment for a vegetable rack soon turns it into something special that is a pleasure to look at. The treatment can be a simple coat of spray-on paint, or it could be sticky-backed plastic in a gay pattern stuck on to strips of hardboard which are then fixed to the sides of the rack. Remember not to cover the whole rack up, as air circulation is important.
Kitchen storage is rapidly being accepted as something which doesn't have to be hidden away, and hanging arrangements of pots and pans, and even fruit and vegetables, combine to give a kitchen a cheerful appearance. For something different, try hanging baskets of fruit and vegetables above an eating corner, or suspend a shelf on chains from the ceiling and use it for storing pots and pans. If you don't want to display storage jars on open shelves, keep them all in one or two deep drawers, then write their contents on the lids, so you know what's inside.

Children's things

Children should have plenty of low open shelves on which to store all their possessions. Under the bed you can keep a row of wooden boxes, all on wheels, which can easily be pulled out when it's time to put things away. These can also double as play things, because, so long as they are stable, they can be used as toy cars and trains. If you are making boxes for this purpose, make sure they are tough enough to withstand rough handling.
If you make it fun for a child to put his things away, he will automatically be tidy, and enjoy it. For instance, make a teddy bear storage cup­board. First draw a gently rounded bear about 3ft high on a sheet of blockboard. Cut out the bear shape with a circular saw and a jigsaw, and make his tummy into a door. Fit the block­board on to an open cupboard, and finally paint it in a bright colour.
A simple toy box can be transformed into a climbing frame by cutting round holes in all four sides. Fix castors on the bottom and weight the base for stability. Then, when the child has finished playing and climbing, his toys are placed in the box, which can be easily wheeled into a corner for neatness.
You can gain storage space in a childrens' room by giving it a 'cabin' treatment. Build a bunk above low cupboards which hold clothes and toys, and fix a stable ladder for access at bedtime.

Mobile storage

Storage doesn't have to be static. One of the most versatile ideas is to have mobile units. These could be as simple as a small kitchen cupboard on wheels with a chopping block fixed on top and vegetable racks inside, making vegetable preparation easy in the kitchen.
Open shelf units on wheels or castors can be used to hold radios, television sets or record players in the living room. A trolley with an electric ring incorporated in the top can be used to transport food from the kitchen to the dining room for dinner parties.

Different shapes

You can choose other shapes than verticals and horizontals when planning storage units. Shelving units look more exciting in triangular shapes, and books stored on diagonal shelves add a completely new angle to a room.
You can make a real splash with this kind of storage so that it takes up an entire wall, a treatment which is particularly effective in a dark kitchen. If you are making a right-angled group of shelves, then fixing them up at an odd angle, it is best to draw a sketch to scale of what you want before you begin. Then you can get the shelves just right. When they are firmly fixed together, the unit can be fixed on the wall at its odd angle.
Before you begin designing any shelf unit which relies on odd angles for its effectiveness, remember angled shelves are successful visually only if all the angles are regular. So measure rhPm extra carefully with the help of a T square.

More different ideas

Ugly shelving units which seem to have no redeeming features other than the storage space ~ provided can easily and effectively be hidden Z behind blinds or folding doors. The cheapest o method is probably to fit a roller blind over the ~ front of an open unit. Blend it with the rest of the decorations by making it up in a fabric that matches the curtains or covers in the rest of the - room.
If you have no linen cupboard, but need somewhere to store your clean linen, construct a an open shelving unit in the bathroom or on a landing. Place a wicker basket on each shelf, line the baskets with cotton to protect the contents from dust, then fill them with linen. Put towels in one basket, pillowcases in another and so on, choosing colours which look good next to each other. Integrate the whole unit by spray painting the baskets for a stunning effect.

The space by a passage window can be put to good use by fitting a bench for flower arranging just under the window sill. Cover the shelf with sticky-backed plastic and fit plastic pull-out tray drawers under the worktop. Keep a plastic rubbish bin underneath for debris, and flower arranging need no longer mess up the kitchen.

Colourful plastic canisters can be strung together to form an attractive storage unit for magazines and newspapers. Make your own canisters cheaply out of cardboard tubes, covered with felt or sticky-backed plastic, then knot them together like a rope ladder.
A neat idea for tools is to gouge out holes in blocks of polystyrene, and store hammers and screwdrivers handle end down inside them.
Why not go through your house with some of these ideas in mind? Take a fresh look at existing storage and try to work out what can be done to improve it.

Unusual storage space