Indy Total Construction

In many small homes, the height of the rooms is scarcely used but could almost double both the storage and the living potential. For example, it might be possible to create a balcony area in a living room which could be used as workspace, play space or for visitors to stat overnight.

If there is not enough height for that, a built-up platform could provide storage underneath, at the same time giving the room an added dimension.

In a small bedroom, build the bed on top of a 1.2m (4ft) high cupboard. This is just the right height for being able to see out of the window from the bed, an enormous bonus if you have a pretty view. The cupboard underneath will provide useful storage space for quite large objects, anything from clothes to small pieces of furniture, pictures and pieces of equipment which you may not want to throw away but do not need at present It is also useful for duvets and pillows for guests. A more primitive version would be a bed base resting on two chests-of-drawers.

Make the bed base out of slats with a good 12mm between them; if you are using solid pieces of board, drill holes to allow the mattress to air. For a 1m (3ft) high bed you won’t need a stepladder but you will need a step of some kind. A box-step can hold lightweight objects so that you have no difficulty raising it when you want to get into the cupboard. A chest-of-drawers next to the bed, at about the same height, acts as a bedside table.

A tall bed can be curtained off with muslin or pretty cotton print fabric to give the enclosed and private feeling of a four-poster.

No amount of pre-planned storage is going to solve all your storage problems. There are always little items like drawing pins, elastic bands, corks, postage stamps, pens and pencils and computer disks, and medium-sized things like calculators, cameras, film and so on which don’t fall into any convenient storage category.

It is important to find places for all these, otherwise they become the very things you can’t find when you need them most. There are also bulky items—extra blankets, sleeping bags, duvets and pillows for visitors, and the inevitable stepladders, bicycles and pushchairs.

Let’s look at the bulky items first. Drawers that pull out from under beds are practical for extra bedclothes. If the bed is tall enough drawers from an old chest-of-drawers will do, but if you are buying a new bed or divan choose one with drawers specially designed to go under it. Large but comparatively narrow items such as bicycles can be hung on a wall.

In modern, minimalist homes they can be a decorative element in a living room, but they take up potential storage space which could be used for other items and this idea would not suit everybody’s taste. Items which fold up into narrow shapes take up less space when hung than when simply leaned against a wall.

When it comes to the medium-sized items such as calculators and cameras, you can allocate a drawer to a particular type of storage so that cameras, film and boxes of slides will all be found together.

For the little items which are so difficult to organize, mini chests-of-drawers intended for carpenters’ nails and screws are excellent for home office use and will take labels, paperclips and other small items which need to be separate and available. Other drawers can hold buttons, thimbles, hooks and eyes, and other sewing equipment.

Filing can be a problem. Paper never looks tidy and gets lost so easily. Specially designed chunky ‘household’ files with categorized compartments are theoretically the answer, but the pre-ordained categories seldom correspond to those one actually needs and the files usually end up being too small. It may be better to buy box files or even to use shoeboxes for filing.

A low filing cabinet may be the answer, where you can store writing paper, envelopes and other office paraphernalia as well as letters. In a room which has to double as an office and a guest room, files can act as low room-dividers and there’s a choice of colors to make them less industrial-looking.

Many bits and pieces can be organized into albums. Photographs take up far too much drawer space and are largely wasted because of the trouble of sorting through them. Albums can be lined up in a bookcase, where they look orderly, take up less space and are easy to find. If you keep Christmas cards, postcards, children’s paintings and letters, they will be better preserved by being kept in scrapbooks rather than scattered about in cupboards and chests.

One of the cheapest ways to redecorate a bedroom is to change the pillowcases or bedcover, which can revive a room quite surprisingly. The choice of bedcovers and pillowcases in bedding departments often makes one forget the opportunities for making them at home. Some pillowcases are made with a different pattern on each side so you can ring the changes by mixing and matching them. This is another idea that would be easy and cheap to do yourself.

Two Indian bedspreads can become an unusual duvet cover and there are many other interesting fabrics to use, perhaps to get away from the idea that bedrooms should be flowery and feminine. The important thing is to choose cotton which is fine and soft; you don’t want anything scratchy in bed.

Quilted comforters, which are not as bulky as duvets or eiderdowns, add extra warmth in winter without adding much weight. They fold away into next to nothing for storage and if the fabric is chosen carefully, will provide a different winter color for the room.

Traditional patchwork quilts were made of old pieces of fabric and clothes so that nothing was ever wasted. Modern quilts may be in traditional designs or very carefully chosen fabrics in modern designs. They are often works of art which are better hung on the wall than spread over a bed.

A canopy over the bed can be in almost any fabric because it will not suffer from wear and tear. Lace, voile, muslin, sprigged cotton or Indonesian batik will create a summery effect and brocade, velvet or woven fabrics will make you feel warm in winter.