Whether you live in a cozy city apartment or a spacious house in the suburbs, home storage shouldn’t mean compromising on style. An important element of Scandinavian design, storage solutions focus on simple, yet functional pieces designed to minimize room clutter. Read on to discover top tips on choosing the right storage for your home and custom furniture ideas to banish ugly plastic storage crates from your house forever.
Choosing the right storage for your living room
Considered one of the most important rooms in the home, the living room doubles up as a space to welcome and entertain friends and family, as well as a relaxation area to chill out in at the end of a long day. Good living room storage solutions can also become affordable statement pieces if considered carefully in advance, whilst stylish closed storage units are handy for keeping clutter out of view.
A simple piece of furniture such as a bookshelf or bookcase can have a transformational effect on your living room. For example, an ordinary IKEA Billy bookcase can be customized to become an epic floor-to-ceiling storage unit functioning as a beautiful library to display book collections. Even the style of shelving you choose can have a notable impact on the overall room design. For example, floating shelves give an impression of a more refined atmosphere whilst asymmetric and geometrically shaped shelves work well in a living room following a Scandinavian design theme.
You can also try your hand at upcycling affordable furniture into pieces fit for a designer showroom. Retrofit an IKEA Besta TV stand and create a beautiful piece of sustainable furniture with the Norse Interiors range of customized doors designed to fit on existing IKEA pieces. Choose the Rosa or Astrid for sleek, minimalist rooms, or opt for the Marie for a more nostalgic feel.
Marie doors, side and top panels in Silver Sage, with Black Sara and Ilse legs from Norse Interiors.
Other top tips for stylish living room storage are to purchase an ottoman with built-in storage space that doubles up as additional seating or footstool when required or buy an end table that lives next to a sofa with storage for magazines, books and unsightly items such as remote controls.
Choosing the right storage for your dining space
Whether you are fortunate enough to have a dedicated dining room in your house or simply a dining table within an existing living space, dining room storage can be used to store tableware and additional kitchen equipment.
Whilst a display cabinet, sideboard or credenza functions primarily as useful storage space, the design details of these pieces will determine the impact it has on the room’s overall environment. If you’d like to create an opulent atmosphere, choose a cabinet with curvaceous lines and ornate doors and handles. A mirrored cabinet will give the illusion of more space, whilst the addition of gold handles are associated with an antique look. Knobs with a brass finish such as the Norse Interiors Elisabeth can add a touch of luxury to your sideboard even if you are on a strict budget. A cabinet or sideboard can also easily be transformed into a focal point by simply adding a stylish lamp and hanging a piece of art above it.
The cabinet doors by Norse Interiors enables design enthusiasts to create personalized furniture from popular IKEA Besta cabinets and transform them into statement storage pieces with a durable finish. For a glamourous Gatsby-inspired design evocative of the 1920s, consider adding our feminine Eva doors to your cabinet. If clean lines and minimalist pieces are your preferred style, check out the Amelia doors paired with sleek black Sara legs.
Amelia doors in White Lace, with black Sara and Ilse legs, black Marlen knobs, and a warm Ambrosia Maple wood top.
Choosing the right storage for your bedroom
One of the most obvious solutions for storage when it comes to the bedroom is to install fitted wardrobes to utilize every spare inch of space. If your budget doesn’t quite stretch to this then the Pax wardrobe range by IKEA is ideal to experiment with IKEA hacks by customizing doors and handles to make them look more expensive. With a little online research, you’ll find inspirational DIY wardrobe projects and upcycled furniture to include Pax doors customized with hand-painted murals, moldings, wallpaper, and mirrored panels.
Dressers and nightstands are also easily customizable bedroom storage pieces. Dramatically increase the appeal of the humble IKEA Malm nightstand or dresser by adding elegant custom drawers finished with bespoke knobs and pulls in brass, chrome, or black. For Malm dressers, the Astrid drawer front by Norse Interiors is available in a selection of five colors and is the ideal addition to a minimalist designed bedroom with its clean, simple lines.
Astrid drawer fronts on a Malm dresser from IKEA in oak, with Kristina chrome pulls.
Another idea for customized IKEA furniture in the bedroom is to create a platform bed with built-in storage. These beds look particularly attractive in studio apartments where the raised platform helps to create the impression of separate bedroom space and room divider. Alternatively, try adding a custom headboard to your bed that incorporates additional shelving into the design to increase storage space. Popular IKEA hacks for headboards include adding open shelves to a Mandel headboard or using Trones shoe cabinets as a headboard with ample storage.
Bonus storage tips for small spaces
If you’re short on space, consider purchasing multi-functional pieces with built-in drawers to create additional storage. For example, you can use coffee table drawers to store paperwork or keep spare sheets and pillows in built-in storage spaces underneath the bed.
In large cities, architects often build upwards to save on space. The same concept can be applied when arranging furniture in small apartments. Go vertical and buy tall, slim storage pieces rather than furniture that takes up space outwards.
Finally, a little creative thinking can turn awkward nooks and corners into beautifully decorated storage spaces. Corner shelving can be used as a place to display book collections, vases, and plants, or build some DIY triangular shelves in a small nook by the front door as a handy place to keep keys.
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Author: Tanja Warwick