As a long-standing reader of and writer for House & Garden, you’d have thought that when it came to doing a house for myself, I’d have remembered sufficient storage. It’s something every single interior designer agrees is at the heart of a well-functioning home, and the lack of it means that my house isn’t quite as slickly organised as it could be. Coats are piled over the banisters, the broom is constantly on view in the kitchen (there is no cupboard tall enough to keep it in), and a guest bedroom hosts not only puffy piles of skiwear, assorted empty suitcases, and the ironing board - but two ladders, a couple of surf boards, and boxes of left over tiles. Comfort comes in the fact that I’m not entirely alone. Among others who share the predicament is Henriette von Stockhausen of VSP Interiors, who confesses that although she’s created perfect laundry cupboards and pantries in projects for clients, in her own home, her hoover lurks in an upstairs corridor.
The challenges of creating sufficient storage are many and varied. Hattie Hansard, Associate Director at Joanna Wood, identifies newbuilds as being tricky due to a frequent dearth of nooks and crannies. But at the other end, notes Tiffany Duggan of Studio Duggan, the existing architecture of a period home, such as sloping ceilings and large chimney breasts, can make it near impossible to place helpful furniture. (We had to take out the skirting boards in the recesses in a couple of bedrooms, so we could fit in chests of drawers.)
Philip Hooper, joint Managing Director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, points out that even if you’ve got cupboards, ‘it can be a constant battle tailoring them to specific needs; there is nothing worse than a cupboard that ends up being a kind of junk store.’ And that relates to another issue, raised by Henriette, which is that our storage needs tend to evolve in unexpected ways. Pets come with assorted paraphernalia, from tack to travel baskets to wire-framed dog cages that can compete in size with kitchen islands. Alongside, our children keep getting older, bigger, and developing unexpected passions which require bulky kit – whether that’s golfing, camping, guitar-playing (necessitating multiple instruments as ‘they all sound different,’ my 15-year-old son explained) or something else entirely. Fast forward to when they’re at university, and the likelihood is that they’ll return home every summer accompanied by boxes of kitchen equipment, as well their duvet, pillows, books, and clothes.
The first things to do, says Henriette, is to assess what there is to store – and plan backwards, for it is vital that the storage space that is created fits what needs to go in it (a consideration that is overlooked more often than you might think). For items like skiwear, Christmas decorations, sleeping bags, and clothes that children have grown out of (but another series of children might soon grow into), Henriette recommends using clear boxes or bags that are well-labelled, so that they can be easily located. Things that are being put away for years rather than months could be contenders for being vacuum packed, which saves space. Alongside, we want to think about where we want to store something: keeping outdoor chair cushions in an upstairs bedroom is inconvenient if garden access is two floors below.
Next is to ensure that the existing cupboards and free-standing furniture are being used wisely. Ideally, a kitchen would have been designed with a dedicated space for every piece of equipment. Window seats could have storage beneath them, the same goes for ottomans and beds (though to note: if the below-bed storage requires lifting the mattress, it’s more suited to occasional access.) Philip reminds us that ‘a commode or chest of drawers is not unique to a bedroom, but can be used for extra storage in reception rooms; they’re perfect for table linens, games, toys – and give you space for a lamp or sculpture.’ And Tiffany remarks that a wardrobe in a hall can be a handy solution for shoes and coats, and introduces the concept of having it decoratively painted. Hattie Hansard moots the merits of hampers and baskets – she keeps her cleaning kit in such a receptacle under a bench – and the opportunities presented by the insides of cupboard doors. ‘Put a hook on them, and a bag, and then you’ve got somewhere to keep reusable carrier bags, hats, gloves, and anything else.’
In parallel, we need to assess the potential of every spare inch of our homes. Even if we’ve extended up into the attic, there are still the eaves, ‘but they don’t work if they’re just a hole you shove stuff into,’ Henriette states, suggesting that we plasterboard them out, make the opening bigger, and install lighting. Under the stairs is another area – and upon examination, it transpires that while I’ve got the beginning of a cupboard there, there’s an apparent void behind it which suggests I’m not maximising the space. There are the dead areas – beneath the windows either side of the front door, for instance - that could easily be turned into shoe cupboards or a place to keep skateboards. And this idea can be extended, says Henriette, into further built-in furniture of varying scope: ‘a wall with hidden cupboards can be created by making another room smaller; you only need 50cm of depth.’ Philip Hooper reinforces the appeal of discreetness: ‘we love to use secret doors and panels - you are often unaware of where cupboards might be.’
But there still might be a need for more. ‘If there’s an outbuilding that you can waterproof, or you can fit a shed into your garden, that is another solution,’ points out Henriette. Alternatively, she continues, ‘perhaps there’s a room in the house that can go from being a dumping ground to a dedicated storage room, properly arranged and shelved’ - which is the moment to pivot back to my own plight. The suggestions above have solved the coats and the skiwear, but there’s still everything else. And loathe though I am to lose a guest bedroom, it occurs to me that it is over a year since it was last used as such, because the effort involved in clearing it to get it ready for somebody to sleep in seems so overwhelming that we simply haven’t. Though it’s also, I realise slightly shamefully, a similar amount of time since I used the ironing board.
And that brings us to Henriette’s final point – which is that, once we have established a system, we need to adhere to it as well as we can and avoid purchasing an industrial hoover which doesn’t fit anywhere. In a similar vein, there exist brooms with folding handles. Storage is vital – but we can make it easier for ourselves.
