Keeping your home neat and organised can be a challenge sometimes, especially if you live in a compact apartment with little room to store household essentials. Planning ahead to ensure that you have sufficient storage solutions is important. This does not mean that you’d have to sacrifice style for practicality. Here are some hidden storage solutions that will hide clutter all while maximising a small living space.
Feature wall
When you need plenty of storage compartments, make your TV feature wall serve double duty as a storage area too. These floor-to-ceiling cabinets house the TV and provide storage space for the homeowners’ household items, appliances, and even shoes! In addition, with a TV niche, there is more walking space compared to a protruding TV console, allowing the living room to feel more spacious.
Design by Bowerman Space Planners
Height advantage
For items that you do not need often, store them above eye level. In this living room, a line of storage compartments stretches across above the TV and extends over the corridor, freeing up room for the family to move about. Since the cabinets are built at that height, their contents are now out of reach of curious children, making this an option to consider for kid-friendly design as well.
Image credit: Dan’s Workshop
Along the way
If you prefer your cabinets to stay out of sight, consider incorporating them as part of the wall away from the TV, which is commonly the focal point in a typical home. A floating TV console helps to maintain the spacious feel of this living room, while cabinets are built along the side of the room and clad with the same laminate panels that make up the TV feature wall. This same laminate is used all the way along the entryway to the main entrance of the home. This not only creates a smooth design flow, but also conceals the cabinets as part of the walkway.
Image credit: KDOT Associates
Double duty furniture
A coffee table with hidden storage is the perfect piece of furniture to have in a small living room. It stores your current reads and your kids’ favourite toys while also providing a place for paper clutter and other knick-knacks to be quickly stashed away when guests pop by.
Image credit: Kuhl Home
Wheel power
In a small living room, it can be a struggle to create more space for your kids to play or a place to exercise without having to forgo cabinets or the coffee table. This TV console is cleverly designed with a detachable cabinet-on-wheels that can be pulled out to double up as a coffee table in the living room, if and whenever you need one. Simply push it back into the cabinets and you have the entire room for your kids or to yourself.
Image credit: Dan’s Workshop
Bay watch
Transform your bay window seat from an ordinary bench into one with hidden storage compartments using drawers or flip tops. Throw on some cushions and you have a lovely sitting area which functions as a hidden storage and as extra seats when guests come over.
Image credit: Z L Construction
Display & distract
Serving more than just a storage and display function, this shoe cabinet with display shelves actually conceals the DB box and a protruding column. The result is a visually pleasing profile that is flush with the wall.
Image credit: Eightytwo
Bin it
Baskets and bins are your best friends when it comes to hiding things fast. Everyday clutter like toys and paper can be easily corralled in a basket and tucked away in a corner. Choose a design that complements the look and colour scheme of your room, so that your baskets and bins blend in as part of the overall decor.
Image credit: IKEA
This was adapted from an article originally written by Jasmine Goh published in the July 2018 issue of SquareRooms
