WIT mama Friday: bespoke storage solutions

 

When we refurbished our flat last Spring and turned our two bedroom garden flat into a three bedroom maisonette with a rear extension in the garden, I was determined to make the very most of every little bit of space that we had available. I am lucky to have an architect husband that thinks this way by default, so the way he divided the spaces and per-thought about things like utility cupboard and under stairs storage was pretty spot on, nevertheless there were still a few corners and nooks that, once we finished the house, we thought we could utilise to the max. Sometimes you can make do with the likes of Ikea and sometimes, to really really use up every centimeter at your disposal, you have to enlist the help of bespoke made furniture. I was recommended a friend of a friend (Richard Cullinan Joinery www.rcjoinery.co.uk- ask of Katie she is super helpful and will come to your house to measure all spaces and give you sound advice), and with the help of her and my husbands designs (who literally measured how many Vogues I had to store - bless!), we came up with three storage units, from big to small to fit the left over bits and bobs that were in need of a home. Now that these are all finished an installed, I asked my friend Eva to come around and take a few pics for me as I'm sure that like me, many WIT mama Friday readers will be trying to create storage there where there is none!

UNDER WINDOW CUPBOARD

The storage bench under the bow window in my study holds all 20+ Muji files, stationery and bits and bobs

We have a bay window in my study, it could have looked lovely with a chair and a little table next to it as a reading corner, but my goal was storage maximasation so I decided I wanted a filing cabinet with shelves to put all my Muji files, stationery and more. It's an enormous space that neatly keeps all my office stuff in one place - no matter how hard you try paperwork and files never look pretty and always a bit messy, so I found this  this was such a good call! I shove in there everything, it's still tidy and organised (I'm a neat freak) but you can't see it!

CORNER UNIT

Our corner unit holds a bit of everything from dinner wear to magazines and even our DIY drawer

I remember sitting on my sofa and looking at this empty corner of our sitting room and literally mentally building storage space to store all the bits and bobs that we still had lying around. We had finished unpacking months before but I still had odd, oversize things like plates, serving dishes, and then books, magazines and photo frames that I simply didn't know where to put. We looked for ages for an antique cupboard but I knew that if we wanted to make the most of that corner it had to be bespoke. So one day my husband and I sat down and literally went as far as measuring my magazines and counting all the books we had left and designed this unit (which Katie and her team will happily do for you by the way, + send you CAD drawings to pre-approve, I just happened to have my personal designer!). What I love about it is that it has space for everything: opened shelved areas for the pretty things, a really large closed door cupboard form my formal dinner wear, a handy and spacious drawer for other bits and a side shelve for my magazines that I like to look at.

BATHROOM SHELVES

This tiny corner could have only been decked up with bespoke shelves

This tiny corner between the bathroom door and my sink could have only been decked up with bespoke shelving - aside from giving my bathroom some extra space to display my perfumes, it also added a bit of interest to an otherwise pretty bland space. I spent ages arranging the perfumes and candles, and I love the cacti in mini vases that add a little colour to my grey and white walls.

 

For more info  

Richard Cullinan Joinery www.rcjoinery.co.uk