A big component of interior design is making sure everything fits. After furnishing your living room, you might let out a sigh of relief after seeing that your sofa and recliner adequately fit your space. You may also be pleased to know that your coffee table is an adequate height for your couch and that your television stand is at the perfect height to watch TV comfortably.

However, even when you think you have everything adequately settled in your interior design, it might hit you: you don’t have enough space for storage! This is one of the most frustrating aspects of designing your space because you don’t just want your space to look good, feel comfortable, be perceived as joyful, and appear relevant for the current era; you also want your interior design to have the right function.

We all know that part of having a functional space isn’t just how you plan to utilize your space but also how it is able to accommodate the things that you own when they are not in use: your clothing, toiletries, your child’s toys, cookware, the list goes on.

If you’re struggling to find the right storage solutions for your belongings, especially if your home is on the smaller side, consider the following tips:

1 - Buy a bed frame that features storage.

Small bedroom? Tiny closet? No problem! For many of us, the biggest piece of furniture in our bedrooms is the bed. While one solution to creating more space in your bedroom, and thus more storage, is to get a smaller bed, most of us don’t like this idea. Instead, a better and more convenient solution is to purchase a bed frame that features storage. One can find bed frames with storage for all sizes of mattresses from twin to king.

Bed frames with storage might feature pull-out drawers from the bottom of the bed or even a book shelf or cabinet at the headboard of the bed frame. Either way, find a functional and aesthetically-suitable bed frame with storage to meet your storage requirements. There are many bed frame options out there, so don’t bother settling for less than what you deserve, as surely, you’ll eventually come across the perfect fit.

2 - Turn your staircase into a bookcase.

Bookcases can take up a lot of space. While some bookcases don’t stick out too far or can even be built into the wall, bookcases still take up a lot of space considering they cannot be obstructed by other pieces of furniture the way other pieces of furniture may be able to. Otherwise, the bookcase may not be able to be used as it is intended: for displaying books, so people can adequately shift through them to find the novel they want to read.

If you happen to have stairs in your home, you might consider adding a place to store your books within each of the steps of your stairs. Storing your books this way will ensure there’s no need for a bulky bookcase. It also means you get to get a second use out of your stairs. If you don’t want to damage your stairs by turning the steps into bookshelves, you might instead install shelfs along the walls of your stairs as an alternative.

3 - Build a nightstand with a stack of vintage suitcases.

If you like vintage and are a fan of travel, a stack of vintage suitcases to use as your nightstand will be the perfect addition to your bedroom! You may fix each suitcase in place to create a stable nightstand, or you may simply stack them in place. However, our advice is to just stack them in place. That way, you can use each suitcase as a means of storage.

While regular nightstands usually contain storage in the form of drawers and/or shelves, the benefit of creating a nightstand with vintage suitcases is that you may be able to get deeper storage for items like blankets or extra pillows. Additionally, vintage suitcases come in a plethora of sizes and colors, making them highly flexible for many interior designs, especially if you’re wanting a burst of color in your interior design. Additionally, if you travel frequently, you can double up your vintage suitcase nightstand as functional luggage. With the latter statement said, you can kiss your other bulky suitcases goodbye, saving up on even more storage in your interior design!

4 - Hang jewelry on a bulletin board.

Have a lot of jewelry? Forget large jewelry boxes and other bulky means of jewelry storage, and instead keep your jewelry neatly displayed and untangled on a bulletin board. You may opt for a traditional cork board or something more fun or decorative. Either way, hanging your jewelry with tacks on your board or from thin rods is incredibly easy, and you can arrange your jewelry in any way that you’d like.

While surely, a bulletin board will take up more surface area in your space, the point is, most people have too much extra wall space and not enough table top space. Thus, in this scenario, a bulletin board to hang jewelry can be an excellent storage option. Plus, having your jewelry out in the open makes it easy to select the right necklace or bracelet to pair with your outfit and reminds you to put on jewelry before heading out to begin with.

5 - Use crown molding as a shoe rack.

For some of us, shoes are the most important accessory. Just looking at someone’s shoe collection, we can learn a lot about them: whether they dress for comfort or dress to impress, are simple or detail-oriented, are masculine or feminine, are more likely to hit the gym or the mall, or are reserved or more bold and outgoing.

Although some folks can comfortably store their shoes in a small closet or even line them up next to the door without causing a traffic jam, sometimes even a large shoe rack just doesn’t cut it for other folks.

In that case, we suggest installing rows of crown molding on the wall of your closet to create space to hang your shoes. Fortunately, if you select a color of crown molding that matches the colors of your walls, it will easy blend in. However, this shoe rack trick will only typically work for heels which can easily grip onto the edges of the crown molding and stay put.

Conclusion

While some people consider themselves masters of properly filling out and balancing objects and furniture in an interior design, making sure you still have plenty of storage space after the fact is not always an easy task. It’s easy to forget how much storage you truly require in your home until you already have everything situated in place.

On the bright side, there are several things one can do in any sized home create more storage in their design in ways that are convenient, functional, and even aesthetically pleasing. Buying a bed featuring storage space, doubling up a staircase as a bookcase, creating a nightstand with a stack of vintage suitcases, storing jewelry on a bulletin board, and creating a shoe rack with crown molding are all excellent considerations for space-saving methods of storage.

If you need more interior or exterior design-related tips and tricks, check out the rest of our blog posts.