IDEAS TO CREATE EXTRA STORAGE
Look to the tiny home builders for inspiration when it comes to creating extra storage space, writes Gill South.
Your ability to incorporate useful storage in your home might be the difference between deciding to move to a larger house in a few years’ time, or staying put.
When you’re doing your next renovation or thinking about an addition, it’s a good idea to talk to your architect, builder or designer about what storage can be included in the new space and see what creative ideas they come up with.
Architects and designers, particularly those who specialise in smaller homes, will have a whole range of innovative solutions on where you can sneak in some storage space.
Look for the possibilities
Nick Officer is director of First Light Studio. The firm has designed several small and tiny homes, and designs prefabricated 10-square-metre studios with its Nook Home Studios division.
He’s a big believer in built-in storage. One Nook Home Studio design has a fold down bed in a built-in window seat, for instance.
Officer says custom-built joinery can be used to divide rooms and to provide extra storage. At a house in Ngaio, Wellington, joinery has been used to split an open-plan room, one side providing storage, art, a fireplace and audio equipment, and on the other side is the kitchen and a big dining table for a home business.
Hallways are a good place to find storage possibilities, says Officer.
For so long they’ve been empty spaces, yet they take up a surprising amount of room in the overall square meterage of a house.
They can be designed more as a multi- purpose space, as somewhere to put the laundry, for instance, as well as extra cupboards.
With new homes, the architecture firm will often create higher ceilings, and include accessible storage options high up. One New Plymouth home has a mezzanine floor built into the high ceiling, providing valuable storage space above the living space.
You can get some good ideas from baches which often have smart storage, adds Officer.
One 70sqm bach he and a team designed managed to sleep six people, because of the double up function of seating and beds, including storage beneath.
Entrances into homes can also provide storage opportunities, says Officer.
One house in Southgate, Wellington, had a covered mudroom entry and a laundry at the end hidden behind closed plywood doors.
Think of doing more with your attic
Auckland architectural designer Richard Furze agrees the difference between staying in a home or leaving, can be about spending an extra $10,000 or $20,000 on creating well-designed storage space.
‘‘If you design it well, maximise everything, it’s way better than an extra bedroom,’’ he says.
He sees lots of missed opportunities for extra storage with renovations. If you spend another half a day designing, you can find all sorts of nooks and crannies.
Furze is a strong advocate of making more out of attic trusses. If you get it designed right, you can create gaps in there to be a nice open space. ‘‘It just takes a bit of extra thinking, says Furze.
One client has created 4sqm to 5sqm of extra space in their attic and the lined area is used as a play area for the grandkids, but could equally be used for storage.
This kind of area can also be carved out of older houses like state homes, where you have a reasonable pitch to work with.
Another good opportunity for extra storage, can be found in split level homes, says the architectural designer. Between the upper and lower floors, you can hollow out the framing to get some storage space.
You might find a metre high
space in there, which could be a storage cabinet for games or other items.
Learn the tricks of tiny home builders
Of course, people who know every trick in the book about finding storage nooks in a home are tiny home specialists.
MiHaus director Ken Warner says everything must have two or three purposes. For instance, a stairway to a mezzanine loft will always have cupboards and drawers.
‘‘As a small space building company, we’re always looking for ideas,’’ he says.
There’s European-made hardware which fits slide-out tables from under benches. It’s useful to have things that can get put away when you’re not using them, he says.
Warner is a big fan of mezzanine floors as another living space. Lofts in a tiny house are typically 1 metre or 1.5m high, so they’re a great
place for getting a tree-top view and for adding shelving and cube bins, says Warner.
Hallways are a good place to find storage possibilities . . . For so long they’ve been empty spaces, yet they take up a surprising amount of room.
Filling dead spaces
Another place MiHaus has added shelving before is on doors. He does a sliding door, in a barn door style with shelving on one side.
Podlife’s Ahna Brownlee’s first tip is to put drawers under beds. ‘‘It’s dead space,’’ she says.
You can buy beds with builtin storage – Ikea does it well, and the retailer also does beds with shelving around them, which you can import from Australia.
People are also always looking for more storage options in kitchens, she adds.
An easy idea is to have your kitchen cupboards built right up to the ceiling if you can, even if you need a chair to reach the top ones.
‘‘We’ve just put in a kitchen with overhead storage and space above that for extra,’’ says Brownlee.