One of my most favourite things to design in an interior has to be storage. Ok, I understand most people aren’t as excited as me about this topic, although the importance of storage in the modern world is obvious, I have seen many people dismiss this and not see the actual value in how it can transform any room.
Step 2 to designing your dream home office space was about fighting the functional, where we try to imagine first, then make it work second – that’s the way to get the best result when designing.
For step 3, I am going to share one of my biggest design secrets with you. It’s not that much of a secret, but I use it as my go-to tool for storage every time. Hide what you don’t want to see and show off the rest!
My personal tips to help you design your storage are:
- Think about the whole space and know what you will be storing in this room. Are you storing files, books, stationary, electrics, painting equipment, canvases or audios. List the items you want to store in your home study area.
- Now decide on what you want to see and what you don’t want to see? In architecture and design, I find I have loads of gorgeous coffee table books and beautiful magazines, so I like to show these off. I tend to hide files, but that is a personal choice, because I want the feel of my own study to be bright, inspiring, professional and focussed. What items do you want to display and what items do you want to hide?
- Storage can be expensive! When on a budget, it usually means you have to become more creative. If mid century or shabby chic are your styles, you can use free or low cost reclaimed items creatively. For the rest of us, and those with expensive taste and who are not at the stage where they are able to invest in gorgeous hand made one off joinery pieces, my trick is to invest in the cheaper items such as folders & use these to either match the colour of the walls or shelving around to contrast or compliment the whole wall surface. This usually gives you a dramatic and fantastic result!
- If you already have existing joinery or storage in the room, try to repurpose it rather than replace it unless you have the funds to do so. Shelving, joinery and storage can be really expensive, so try to see if you can make what you have work for you, especially if money is tight. When money is tight, invest in smaller things that make big impact.
I hope this has inspired you to think outside of the box when it comes to storage for your home office space. Ask yourself “what can I display in a creative way?” What ordinary item can you make magnifique? Share your beautiful ideas with me, I would love to see them.
