Economical Interiors: Clever Home Storage Solutions

Buying – or customising – a new piece of furniture is not just an opportunity to splash out on an item that has caught your eye for its design aesthetics. It’s also the ideal opportunity to incorporate something that, however large the house, most of us never seem to have quite enough of: home storage solutions.

Clever Coffee Tables

Never underestimate the huge practical potential offered by the humble coffee table. Despite its often prominent position in the living room, a coffee table is the ideal way of introducing storage solutions, whatever your needs. Clever storage solutions such as tiered coffee tables with shelving underneath allow for rows of baskets or boxes to be filled with living room essentials.

Whilst this might be quite a traditional approach to the problem of home storage solutions (or lack thereof), fresh, new designs mean practical is anything but boring. For a break away from the norm, a round coffee table or hoop coffee table such as Zespoke’s Retro Hoop Coffee Table is a stunning statement piece that also incorporates clever storage solutions — without taking up masses of valuable floor space. A hoop coffee table by its very nature offers storage space within the curved form of the design, but the addition of a glass shelf – an option with Zespoke’s Hoop Coffee Table – just ups the storage possibilities. Those of you with a little more floor space to spare should take a look at the ZeStretch Hoop Table — offering all the eye-catching design features of the Hoop Coffee Table but with lots more storage space.

Coffee tables that feature drawers, or those with lift-up lids or pigeon-holes are also fabulous storage solutions.

Side tables, although usually smaller than coffee tables, should also be considered for their storage potential. Even very compact designs can provide somewhere for remote controls and reading material — and choosing one on wheels means they can be trundled out of the way when not needed.

Consider a Console

Both console cabinets and console tables are clever home storage solutions. In an open plan layout, a console cabinet featuring cupboards and drawers not only provides somewhere for neatly housing clutter, but also acts as a visual room divider — placing one ‘floating’ behind the sofa works brilliantly, offering a spot for lamps, drinks and anything else that needs a home. There are even those which are designed to wrap around the shape of your sofa.

A console table gives a very different look, but still offers storage solutions. Choose one with a shelf or small drawers, or use the space underneath to line up baskets or storage bins to organise magazines, blankets, throws and DVDs.

Armoires

In more formal spaces – or to add some country charm to your living room – armoires are ideal. These tall, substantial cabinets offer plenty of shelving internally, with either solid or glazed doors — or those with cut outs covered with chicken wire.

Space Saving Storage Solutions

Nesting tables, usually designed as two or three tables which stack together and can be pulled out for extra surfaces when needed, are a fabulous idea where space is tight — taking up minimal floor space while still serving as a nifty storage solution. There are also some pretty striking contemporary designs out there offering an updated twist on this clever concept.

Ottomans and lidded benches, window seats and chests all offer home storage solutions without stealing too much of your precious space— plus they double up as seating or somewhere to rest your feet after a hard day. The lids conceal roomy spaces within, perfect for stowing away all your bits and bobs.

And, finally, one of the simplest yet cleverest space-saving and thrifty storage solutions we’ve seen is the skirted table. In living rooms that double up as dining spaces, or to make use of an existing table, simply attach a curtain around the edge of the table to conceal storage beneath — this works with large tables and side tables.