Space-Saving Ideas
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Written by Worawit Pit
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Friday, 15 February 2008 |
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- Visualize bookshelves running right up and over a doorway and down the other side so that they frame the door. It is surprising how attractive this can look and how much can be stored.
- Where normal-sized doors would be cumbersome and get in the way of other doors, furniture or people coming in and out, ‘bi-folding’ doors (hinged in two halves) take up half the space when opened. Sliding doors can save space too, but they must be well built or they will cause endless problems in opening and closing and will not be soundproof.
- -In the bathroom or the kitchen, if you have enough height, you can fix a traditional four-rail drier on a pulley. This gets all the drying out of the way and is very efficient in allowing clothes to air and dry quickly.
- If there is space at the end of the bath, you can install the washing machine and drier in purpose-built housing where they are convenient yet out of the way.
- A small oval bath will fit into a narrow bathroom at an angle. This will immediately release space in the rest of the room for shelves, towel rails, etc.
- Don’t take shelves right up to the ceiling because it will make the room feel smaller.
- Move the boiler out of the kitchen and put it in a cupboard in the hall or on a top landing.
- Turn the landing at the top of the stairs onto a library space with bookshelves, a comfortable chair and adequate lighting to read by.
- Use the landing as wardrobe space for extra clothes.
- Make a narrow window seem wider by fixing a curtain rod wider that the window. Draw back the curtains only as far as the window frame so that the edges of the window are concealed, suggesting that it extends farther than it really does.
- Make a short, squat in the center seem taller by fixing the curtain rod higher than the frame. Fill the space between with a cornice.
- In the kitchen, if you have an alcove created by the removal of a large object such as a stove or gas fire, it may be cheaper and more convenient to ignore it completely and to simply run shelves or cupboards right across it. This will give the whole wall a co-ordinated look rather than dividing it.
- Don’t necessarily site radiators right in the middle of a wall. Provided the heat is directed towards the room, they can be high or low. They don’t need to be a conventional shape either; the only thing wrong with some of the sculptural and beautifully colored radiators available is that they are so expensive.
- Radiators in the form of towel rails are more expensive but may be worth the extra cost because of their dual function.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 25 February 2008 )
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