Create storage spaces that grow with you
Whether you live in a sprawling estate, charming cottage, or downsized condo, one thing rings true: you always need more storage than you think!
It’s a natural thing for any of us to gather and accumulate “stuff” over the years - we keep sentimental things from our kids, our milestones, our travels, and our day-to-day as we live and grow. So why would our storage needs be standard or stay the same forever?
Our team specializes in interior design that goes beyond just aesthetics. We prioritize functionality, sustainability, and personal expression, and this is why many of our clients send out an SOS when the lack of or dysfunctional storage gets too much for them. It’s the final straw and they need help to make their home work for them again!
The Power of Customization
Every home (and client) has its unique quirks and needs. The key to seamless and efficient storage is customization. When our team dives into designing a storage space, we start by assessing what our clients currently have and ensuring that there is a place for everything - from the big items to the small trinkets that often make their way on top of every surface when they do not have a home.
Our Meadow Wood Project is the perfect example of customizing storage for your lifestyle and current needs. This 8000 sqft home was originally built in the 1980s and had spectacular high ceilings (and a tall homeowner) that permitted us to get vertically creative! Our fabulous clients were avid travelers with a love of clothes, hats, shoes, and jewelry, so we married form and function to create a walk-in closet that perfectly fit and displayed all of their belongings.
From velvet-lined drawers to shelves with different heights to accommodate hat boxes and our client’s various shoe heights, we customized every bit. On top of providing another layer of light to a windowless space, the elegant sconce lights were also purposely placed so our clients could hang their selected outfits as they packed for their travels.
Every element in this space lent itself to both style and function.
Create Streamlined Storage
When you’re faced with a multi-purpose space, designing storage with a place for everything is vital!
Our Wellsborough clients desperately needed well-organized storage and a lot of it! They’re a family of 5 and their mudroom/laundry space needed to serve multiple purposes without turning chaotic.
We created designated areas for each space, starting with a wall of closed storage to hide all of the unsightly items but still keep everything at arm's reach.
In the laundry area, we were able to give our clients additional closed storage along with an area to fold laundry so that every task could be done in this one space.
Lastly, we designed a beautiful mudroom area with a soft bench for comfort and style and hooks and cubbies that invite people to properly put away their outdoor gear as soon as they come in!
Optimize small spaces
Just because you have a small space doesn’t mean you can’t have organized storage!
Our Fountain Avenue project is the perfect example of the design solutions possible for small spaces. Our clients were well into their golden years and wanted their space to work for them as they aged in their home.
The mandate: create a laundry room within their small space that did not require our clients to bend!
We designed a crisp and clean laundry room complete with a Miele ventless washer and dryer that allowed us freedom in the configuration, a sink, a folding area, and additional storage for their laundry needs.
Every checkbox was complete!
Know that even in a small space, there are unique design and technical solutions that can make the space function just as well as if you had double the square footage!
Future-Proof your Storage
The beauty of designing customized storage is that it is tailored to accommodate both your current essentials and future purchases and needs. Because if you create with just the present in mind, you will quickly run into the same storage issues.
Project Linwood is a special one for us as we were able to help returning clients redesign their downsized home to fit their desire to age in place. We crafted a new custom walk-in closet and laundry room that will serve for years to come, well into their retirement.
The new closet space didn’t have the same vast height as their previous home (Project Meadow Wood), but we made it no less lavish. Their lifestyle changed and so did their storage needs.
The goal, as with any storage space, was to ensure that every item had a home. We added more drawers, all easily within reach, and created a sophisticated makeup table complete with a movable telescopic mirror and proper illumination.
Fun fact: We added that showstopper wallpaper to the ceiling to add in style, colour, and visual intrigue. It also was our creative solution to hide the attic access!
Another storage space we tackled at Project Linwood was the laundry room. As aging in their home was key to our clients, they requested that a laundry room be added to the main floor, so they wouldn’t have to deal with the basement stairs in the future.
Our solution was to repurpose one of the main floor bedrooms! We took the entire room and turned it into the walk-in closet for the principal bedroom and a laundry room in the kids’ wing.
It is often worth repurposing a space if you need it to serve a different function, so it can better suit your lifestyle and needs.
The real key to designing well-organized storage spaces is to think of the “now”, anticipate what’s to come and use quality elements that will allow the storage to evolve with your lifestyle, ensuring it remains functional and stylish for years to come.
We hope that got you thinking about storage spaces and the variety of ways these spaces can be designed to better fit your life and needs!
- Thornton Design Team