Saving Space
Elsewhere
| Entry | Child's Room |
The "space saver", as furniture marketers would call it (that would be the toilet cabinet for the rest of us), is a very handy way to quickly add storage space over an awkward area.
A dilemma occurs, however, when a bathroom is remodeled, and space "saved" over the toilet is no longer necessary. What do you do with this odd duck of the cabinet persuasion? We have a couple of creative (if not slightly misguided) ideas.
Enter the Space Saver
The main object of repurposing this particular cabinet is to make use of the weird gap where the toilet used to be. That's why we thought it would be perfect at the entry of the house.
We painted our so-so, white space saver a durable, bright red color. We added a bracing bar in the back to bolt it to the wall for safety.
On the front of the bracing bar, we screwed in large cup hooks. These are used for backpacks, purses, lunch boxes, or any other storage item with a handle that almost always ends up forgotten on a counter or left on the closet floor. Underneath the bags on the floor, that extra inset makes a great spot to put a rag rug and leave boots, galoshes, or shoes, so you don't track outside dirt in.
The open shelf works as a catch all for keys, mail, and library books. Finally, we painted the front of the cupboard doors with black chalk board paint to make a handy message board for those last minute reminders before you head out of the house.
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Space Saving Slumber Party
Sometimes, the hardest space to find fun storage for is a child's room.
Here, we left the cabinet white to coordinate with the accompaning dresser. Again, a bracing bar was added to the back, and the space saver is bolted to a stud in the wall for safety. With a polyester foam cushion, we made a pint-sized murphy bed.
First, the foam is cut into three equal pieces, and stacked, side by side. Then the top of the first two pieces, and the bottom of the last two pieces are re-attached with carpet tape. This enables the foam to be folded like an accordion and stored in the open space in the bottom.
Coordinating curtains are placed on the front of the bottom of the cabinet and hung with a tension rod. With children being the active beasts that they are, we recommend storing only soft things in the shelves and cupboards, like sheets & blankets for the foam mattress, and comforting stuffed animals for the friend sleeping over.
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