I had neighbors who did that and it looked really nice. The only thing I would be concerned about is that you could never rearrange furniture and when & if you sell, the people who buy the house will have to have very little bedroom furniture. But I know what you mean about needing space. I wanted to get one of those storage drawer base for the bed. I just don't know how convenient that will be either.

Take a look at the IKEA catalog. They have LOTS of storage items and photos of them in use. How high up does your picture window go? Do you have drapes covering the window?

Both 30 and 32 inches are standard widths for furniture and for chests. I am using two similarly sized wicker chests now for bedside "tables." They both have 3 drawers, and are about 30" tall, about 18" deep. I have to estimate here, since DH is asleep and I cannot go measure at this moment. It is not important that they are the same.

Our bedroom is essentially 12x12 just like yours. We are going to get rid of the fullsize bed and get the Hudson platform queen size storage bed from Room & Board. With just six inches additional width in the queen, it will fit.

Our headboard backs up to double windows facing the street, and this is the view we get when we enter the door which is on the opposite wall. Our closet is on the wall with the door, and it is not a walk-in.

We took off the sliding mirrored closet doors, and installed two pairs of fixed louvered shutter doors, using wire shelving to optimize the use of hanging space. Getting rid of the sliding doors was a big improvement on use of the closet.

But in our dining room, we plan to put a window seat under that pair of windows, with ceiling height storage on either end, 24" wide x 24" deep just like the kitchen cabinets in size.Oh, it will be 88" high. A lot of non-clothing stuff now cluttering up our closet can be stored in the window seat.

Is there any spot near your bedroom, but not in it, which could be conveniently used for storage like that? Maybe make a cedar lined closet for your out of season clothing.

Also, how about making the wall with the entry door to your bedroom the storage wall. You might get more storage there, w/o limiting the choice of bed size, or detracting from the big focus on the window. Keep that really pretty, and then the storage will be a plus but if just 12-15" deep, will not take away too much walking space.

Check out this link from my favorite blog. My husband and I plan on doing this in our small bedroom just as soon as we finish doing our kids closets. I just LOVE what she has done with her master bedroom.

Here is a link that might be useful: master bedroom storage

Hmmmm, lots to think about. I would post some photos but I am soooo ashamed at how messy our room is w/clutter. Our room isn't even 12x12, it's 11 x 11 1/2 (DOH)! One wall is a floor-to-ceiling mirrored-door closet. The wall w/the entry door has two high-boy dressers on it and DH mounted the TV in the corner. Then there's the window wall, with our bed against it, and the other wall has my exercise bike.

Our bed is a queen platform bed w/storage drawers and attached side tables. It's wider than the window, so the cabs couldn't be floor-to-ceiling. I did a little photo mock-up for myself and I thought putting cabinets would look really weird, so now I'm not sure I want to do that any more.

The blog idea is interesting, but not sure it would work due to how our bed is. I LOVE the bed, for years and years we just had a boxspring/metal frame. But DH and I realized that everything in our home that doesn't have a spot ends up stashed in our bedroom and it's just not working. The bedroom is far from relaxing and peaceful :-( Sorry for the vent.

melle, I know exactly what you mean, our bedroom is the depository for junk too. I thought it would be better when the kids left but nothing has changed.

I remember seeing that blog and I like it for them, but I couldn't do it either.

I like the Ikea suggestion. You could get some pieces that look built in but really aren't.

I don't have the choice of waiting until the kids leave -- they are 5 and 10 months ;-)

One thing my DH is going to do is add a loooong shelf to the top of our closet. This will help. We added a closet organizer system several years ago and it made a huge difference, but there is about 2 feet at the very top that we could also use if he added a shelf. He recently added a shelf like that to my older son's closet and it is great so he's planning to do that in our closet as well. I hope he'll also add a shelf like that to the baby's closet!

So many of our things we rarely need to access, but they sit out on top of dressers or take up space in drawers b/c there is nowhere else to put them.

Another thing we've thought about is installing a shelf above the entry door to our room and painting it to match the wall. When you walk into the room, you're in a narrow hallway for a few feet, then you are in the room.

Maybe I'll re-evaluate the need for more storage after the closet shelf and door shelf are installed :-)

Melle,
At our last house I needed more storage. I hid a ton of canning things kettles and jars and stuff behind this curtain on top of the china cabinet in my laundry room. Was not all that deep. Maybe 16 inches. But the ceiling was fairly high and I added wire racks to make shelves. This might work in the area over your door. If you can hide it with a curtain on a tension rod it would hold down the clutter look.

I just added one four foot shelf to our pantry and was shocked at the added storage space it gave me. Why did I wait so long. Was super easy to do.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hidden storage.

Hi Chris :-) You must be laughing at me b/c my posts, ever-so-infrequent, are always about a new way that I'm trying to add storage space to my house!

I hadn't thought about hiding the stuff on the shelf w/a curtain, but it's a great idea. I was thinking we'd put a box of things like winter hats/gloves/scarves up there, so I didn't think it would look cluttered but you never know!

Your space is a very creative way to add storage w/o adding clutter :-)

Actually it is good to see you posting again Melle. For some reason my eyes go crazy with clutter. Maybe it is the trifocals and it is so hard for me to see and focus on things. So any reduction in clutter is a good thing for me. Also I want things to look pretty. I would much rather look at one curtain than a pile of canning kettles.

You certainly could use a nice box and paper it or paint it or a nice basket for the things. Whatever works for you.

Chris

Melle, you and I, and a few dozen other folks posting in this forum, bring the subject of storage to the forefront regularly.

In my case, I lived on a 43' houseboat for 10 years, and got in the habit of making every inch of space WORK. With a boat, you don't go adding rooms on with reckless abandon, you DO have to make the existing space function according to your needs.

You said you have sliding mirrored doors on your closet? More than two? We had TWO sliding glass doors, and it was a hassle, so we removed them and added two pairs of bifold wooden shutter doors by JeldWen. We did not put in tracks, which always hurt my toes. But we did put magnetic catches at the top to help support them when closed. Now we can access the entire closet at once.

Our bedroom is 12x12 just like yours. We have two pairs of windows, one pair on the west, one pair on the north. Right now our headboard is centered on the west wall in front of that pair of windows. However, I had the bed placed on the diagonal between the two walls, and that left a LOT of space behind the headboard for storage. The bed is only a full size, not a queen (yet), so it did work w/o sticking out too much. I've done this in the past with double beds and it worked nicely. I used to collect old fixed louvered shutters when folks were busy removing them from their closets and my local used door store sold them for $5/each.
I replaced every closet door in the house with them. I also used 6 panels standing behind the bed when I placed a single bed long ways on the diagonal so it would look like a day bed. I painted the shutters a soft turquoise, or lavender. And I hung a mosquito net canopy from the ceiling also. The space behind the shutters, in that corner, held hunting and fishing equipment, fly rods, deep sea rods, etc, and painting stuff.

I mention the diagonal bed idea so you will realize that there is another option to at least think about. Sometimes we get in a rut by not thinking outside the box.

Like the link to the bedroom with a small window over the headboard and the two cupboard/closet units built on the rest of the wall, we are going to do that too, but NOT in a bedroom. We will do it in the dining room, using wooden doors probably covered in beadboard wallpaper. That room has a pair of windows too, facing south. Under them DH will build in a window seat with storage. This room is w/in a few inches of 12' square also. At either end of the window seat will be 24x24x88"H cabinets. One will be all adjustable shelves floor to ceiling, and it will serve as a pantry to the adjacent kitchen. The other will be same size and have deep drawers on the lower portion but adjustable shelves above that. After looking at the way they created an "alcove" look (in the link above), I think a board on the ceiling all the way across the wall w/crown molding would be a great way to hide some lighting. I probably won't add any curtains to this room, maybe plantation shutters, who knows. But it looks out onto my New Orleans style patio courtyard behind our 7' privacy fence, so we can be a little more relaxed in this space.

Message is, everybody needs storage, in a small house think inside the room AND outside the room, depending on the people residing in your home, and sometimes that irritating little grain of sand sticking in your craw, will lead you to create a perfect little pearl, just like the oyster!

I got rid of my comforters and use bedpreads instead. Comforters take up a lot of space in a closet.
I also had the carpenter put some plywood in the attic to store my luggage. The attic is not tall enought to store furniture, etc, but it works well for small items that you use only occassionaly.

Loretta, during the 17 years I owned MoccasinLanding, I hefted up to its attic quite a LOT of items.

Fast forward to the time I was selling it. A lot of years after I put things up there, I was 17 years older and not as able to take them down. My goodness, I used to be really really strong!! Big storage containers look good in the planning stage, but don't play out well for an aging resident. Now I don't supersize. LOL

Unfortunately, I can't angle our bed due to the length of the headboard. It's about 80" long! It's a low, queen-size platform bed, similar to one in the link :-)

I didn't consider whether or not we'd be able to re-orient the bed b/c I figured the layout we have was about as good as it gets. Over the years we've tried the bed in different spots and the way it is, now, worked the best for us. I can see how putting the bed on an angle would create an awesome space behind the headboard, I will remember that for if/when we're here and my boys need more storage in their rooms.

Yes the closet has two giant mirror sliding doors. I really didn't like them for the first 3-4 years we lived here, but now they've grown on me. We don't have accessibility issues with them, mostly I just thought they looked ugly and dated. Our budget doesn't really have room to replace something that's functional, so adding a shelf to the top of the closet to increase storage function -- that we can justify (but not taking out the doors). The doors do go all the way to the ceiling, which is nice!

Here is a link that might be useful: long headboard bed

OH Melle that is a lovely bed.

I do love the idea of storage behind the bed. GADS ML you have my brain a going again for my sewing room. Just when I thought I had it all figured out.

Chris

Beautiful bed! I used to keep stuff in the attic too until I almost fell down the pull down ladder trying to get a tub of Christm*s decor*tions up there. Dh doesn't understand why I want to keep them in a closet now.

I was going to suggest a round trash can with a wood top and table cloth, but with your built-in bedside tables, that won't work. What other f*rniture do you have in the room?

OMG, that is a gorgeous bed! And teak too. I am quite fond of teak, and walnut. The 4 teak armed dining chairs I bought about 20 years ago cost only a pittance then, but now they are extremely expensive and I think they will outlive me. None of the beds in my house have such an awesome headboard.

Shades, isn't it fun to get a new idea and take it for a spin in your own situation? So many options, so few places to use them! It is all a matter of what you like the best for your own purposes.

Other furniture in the bedroom: my exercise bike (there is no other spot for it and we actually do use it in there...), two highboy dresser*s -- wish we had room for a third! Small filing cabinet that is probably on it's way out, and a small sewing bureau w/sentimental value.

After I posted this thread, my DH and I decided we had room/time/$ to add a second pantry storage cabinet to our kitchen. We actually do have the space and had been using the space to store a set of tv trays, a 3' vertical fan, some folding chair*s, and three file boxes (not a pretty sight to see all that junk stashed in the corner). He's also going to put up some shelving. I'll post a before/after when it's done, but it might not be for a month or more :-)

The added storage in the kitchen should contain all our homeless office stuff (homeless since we had to convert our "office" to the baby's room), misc craft and project stuff, and, hopefully, with extra storage room as things come along. We're going to be living here at least another 5 years so it will be worth adding the extra cabinetry and shelving :-)

This is what I see every day, what a mess -- I didn't clean it at all for the photo. We remodeled about 2 1/2 years ago. The second pantry cabinet will go in the corner on the right of the buffet, symmetrical to the cabinet on the left. It actually will have a smaller footprint than what is currently sitting in the corner, yet will allow for more closed vertical storage. Most of what's sitting on the buffet is displaced office stuff (second printer, paper shredder, tax box).

I was also thinking to add two shelves to go across the top, connecting the two tall cabinets. If I put natural color storage baskets on them, do you think it will look too busy? (see cheesy mock-up).

Thoughts? Does it look too crowded w/the additional tall cabinet and the shelving?

current
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mock-up (the shelves would match the cabinets, also that light fixture has got to go)
{{gwi:2069330}}

This is kind of embarrassing b/c you saw how clean and organized it is under my sink, yet the area we sit and eat in every day is a mess (and this mess actually doesn't look too bad, I had re-homed many items to our bedroom last weekend). LOL!

Melanie, You do not have a mess there. I looked close and I see breakfast and children eating at the table. Minus faces but they were there. Mom might have even said SCAT I need to take a picture. Hehehehe

I think the cabinet to the right will be perfect and shelves between with things in baskets good too. Consider the shelves will be hiding some of the clutter visible now. You will have a place to put it.

Really nice looking pantry cabinets. Looks like they hold a lot. Maybe you will be able to keep the printer and tax things inside when the cabinet is installed.

Computer stuff is always a pain. I hooked up all my peripherals, printer, burner back up drive, to a hub in my studio. We use laptops in the living room. When I need to print something or burn a disk I carry the laptop into my studio and plug it into the USB hub and do whatever it is I need to do then back to the living room I go. all out of sight. Handy to get to.

May I pleas ask where those nice cabinets are from?

Chris

Hi Chris :-)

You are right, I took the picture after breakfast. Mainly the mess I was referring to was the junk on the buffet and in the corner (but, yeah, I hadn't cleared off the table, either). There used to also be piles of pictures my 5-year-old painted, misc. books, and additional computer stuff.

I'm really excited about adding more cabinetry, the one pantry cab holds tons of kitchen stuff and I think a second pantry cab will take care of the things we use at the table but aren't actually kitchen-related. It will be like an office and craft/sewing center-in-a-cabinet. (Yes I sew on the dining table LOL). I'm glad you think it will look good, and not like a two-and-a-half-years-later-afterthought!

The cabinets are from Ikea, actually. I've been very, very happy with them.

I am totally big on making your furniture/cabinets work for you. I am not afraid to make a hole for wiring if needed.I think it will be the perfect solution for your dinning room area. I sewed on our kitchen table when we still had one. Had to use it for something. LOL

Chris

Mel, I don't see it as a mess either. It's just life when you have kids and not enough space. While it would be nice to have our houses 'show ready', in reality I don't live like that. After all, we have to put our 'stuff' someplace, right?
The cabinet idea is a good one. I think the shelves will not only add storage, but visually connect the two. I love the color of the wood.

Melle, how great that they are from IKEA. Do you live close enough to a store that you picked them up? Or do you order by mail or online? I planned to get the same setup for our dining room, with a windowseat in between, but basically the same sort of plan. All the way to the ceiling. But DH nixed the IKEA plan since he likes his stuff built to withstand bombings and earthquakes, and so I did not get to order their cabs. They also sell the rollouts to fit the tall cabs which are on p.78 of their 2010 catalog. Akurum I think they are. They come in 80" and 88" heights, as well as 12" and 24" depths. I was going for the 88" x 24" units and put beadboard style doors and side panels on them. Which is what the home-made units will look like too, only probably built like a tank.

Personally, I did not notice any mess. All I see is LIFE.
And having the buffet with flanking shelving units, it will really be balanced.

About the high shelves across the middle. Make sure the a/c or heating duct that is up there is in the clear, and you will be home free. I think you could put some of those small recessed lights in that area. IKEA sells them, you know, and they would really draw out the buffet area. At least three of them, odd number, would work. Keep the wall art fairly heavy but not cluttered, a unified group well lighted, fantastic emphasis.

You are all *very* kind ;-) I think I have a bit of a complex when it comes to household clutter -- the home I grew up in was very, very cluttered and now it approaches the level of homes on that show called "Hoarders" (although my parents probably would disagree w/me). Anyway, so I really don't care much for the printer and paper shredder next to the dining table LOL. If adding another pantry cabinet allows them to be stored away from view it would be WONDERFUL!

Yes we are about 15 miles from I'KEA -- I don't shop there a lot, but occasionally I see enough items on their website that it's worth making a trip. Given the budget we had for our kitchen remodel, I'KEA was an awesome choice. They definitely won't withstand bombings and earthquakes ;-) but the rest of our home wouldn't either, hee hee.

ML --> thanks so much for the suggestion about lighting!!! My DH recently removed the dimmer switch from our dining table light b/c he wanted to use CFL lights in it. Now we no longer have the option for "mood lighting". Accent lighting on the shelves is a gre*t idea and will solve the "mood lighting" issue as well.

Gosh I'm so happy I posted about wanting to add storage to our bedroom. I don't think I would have given it as much thought as I did and I don't think DH and I would have realized we had the space in our kitchen to add the second cabinet unit. I've really hated that "dead" corner but if it weren't for this thread and your helpful comments I don't think I ever would have thought about trying to find a storage solution somewhere else in the house.

Melle, do you have an update on the bedroom? Or is it too soon yet? Keep us up to date, please.

Melle, I totally overlooked your comment about the dining room light not having a dimmer now. I think the CFL means florescent compact?

Well, they DO MAKE A DIMMABLE COMPACT FLORESCENT BULB NOW.
So you may yet have your mood lighting in the dining room.

I will mention more about a product I bought at Lowes. It is a little thingy you plug into a wall outlet, then plug into it a lamp or maybe (like I did) some rope lights strung around the room for 24 feet. Then over on the wall someplace convenient, the sensor switch is stuck up (it comes with double faced tape) so you can turn it on/off, and dim it very nicely too. I'm going to use these units when we make our dining room window seat flanked by two cabinets (similar in concept to your bedroom project), and then I can stick up the light switch at any spot I like.

i don't see your DR as a mess either! looks normal to me...

how about putting doors on the top shelf between the side cabs? or even 2 or 3 lift up/slide up/over doors? then use the shelf below for display or baskets?

could the new side cab have a slide out shelf for the printer? how about for your sewing machine? then you could slide it out, pull a chair over to sew and then slide it back in when done? other slide out drawers would be great for sewing / craft stuff too.

in the bedroom with those lovely side table attached... could dh make cabs to match that would start about half way up the wall to the ceiling with shelves in them? allowing plenty of room for use of your side tables, lamps etc. if can't make to match, maybe to accent the bed/tables?

and how about a shelf along the bottom of your closet? that'd give you the floor under the shelf and the shelf to stack small plastic bins/boxes (labeled - not like me with tons of them not labeled-lol!)
hopefully, you don't have lots of long formal gowns, coats etc -lol! of course, you might already have the lower part sectioned off for a lower hanging rack...

" product I bought at L*owes. It is a little thingy you plug into a wall outlet, then plug into it a lamp"

dang, I need that! i'm so tired of climbing up on my bed and leaning over the pr*inter (yeah, it's in my bdrm) to the cabinet behind it to turn on the lamp. and off.

will look this next week for one of those!

---"could dh make cabs to match that would start about half way up the wall to the ceiling with shelves in them?"---

I saw something similiar on tv, but I could not find pics to explain it. That sounds like a good idea.

I think it'd be a great way to add storage for her. They wouldn't need to come out as far as the bed side tables - probably look better if they don't and not overwhelm the area as much either. one could glue/decoupage a print on the front of the door with edging around it like a frame so when closed it looks like a framed print too.

It would depend on what they have to store that would fit on shelves that deep (or that shallow). but a box of kleenex, p*aperback books, CDs/DVDs, bottle of lotion, meds, etc should be able to be stored in them w/o a lot of weight or depth needed. I'm sure they could come up with lots of stuff to put in upper cabs there. I know I'd have them filled up in no time flat!

Wow you guys, I don't have any progress photos. The most that's happened is that I did some de-cluttering in the bedroom of things we don't have a use for, and planned w/DH to add the additional pantry cabinet/shelves to the kitchen. We don't move too fast around here, much of our time is spent just doing day-to-day chores and taking care of our kids. Plus the past 2-3 weeks a cold has been circulating in our family, and I am just getting over it the last few days (I was the last to get sick).

This past weekend we took a trip to Ikea for a few items, including shelving for a different wall in the kitchen. However, DH has made it pretty clear that there will not be more work done in the kitchen until I finish painting it (from almost two years ago...DOH). :-) So we aren't moving forward very much until I finish the painting. My plan is to work on it for 1 hour/night until I'm done, but I haven't even started yet. I know once I finish painting he can install the shelves/second cabinet.

And then, on top of it all, I've started sewing a lot more and have a bunch of sewing projects to do...I am so terrible, I start a lot of things and take forever to finish.

He can't really build stuff from scratch, doesn't have the tools, the time, the desire...but I'm still very happy b/c DH is so helpful in many other ways. We're hoping that the added storage in the kitchen will take pressure off the bedroom, b/c the stuff that was stashed in our bedroom didn't even belong there.

This is a great idea, I will have to take a look at our closet to see if it would work for us. Would help out a lot!

Melle, wish we had an IKEA store close by. It is great that your DH goes with you and you discuss what to do together.
Getting an hour a night for the painting will be a good routine.

One of the biggest hold backs to getting started painting is preparation and then clean up. If you are doing a latex paint, you know of course that you do not have to clean your brush every night? You can wrap it in saran or foil and stick it in the fridge until next night. Since you have little kids, I'd suggest some part of the fridge they do not dig into a lot. Oh boy would that be a mess.

And I got a box of those latex surgical gloves from the drug store. Probably cheaper if I'd gotten them at Lowes or Home Depot, but I do things when I am thinking about it. With those, if you are painting and the phone rings, you just yank one off and answer the phone. No big loss, you know. Anything to make the job easier, is my thought.

Melle I am almost ashamed to admit I had brushes and paint pans wrapped in saran wrap in my pantry for over 6 months. Was painting the inside of the whole house the same color so I just kept the process going as I had time.

Here it took me three months to paint our k!tchen. I used a 2 inch brush and a jam pot for the paint so I could do a little at a time. Was almost relaxing to drag out the paint pot and brush and do a section of wall in an hour or so.

I really think you are on to something to get the room painted a little at a time. When I did my sEwing r00m all at one time I hurt so bad when I was finished it took me days to recover from all of it.

ML great idea on the gloves.

DH and I just celebrated our 8th anniversary together, and it has taken us almost all of those 8 years to learn how to work together! Part of why our projects never got finished, at least my theory anyway, is that we couldn't work together b/c we'd end up fighting about something, and then we'd been feeling so sore about the project that we didn't want to work on it individually either!

Going to Ike*a together and making joint decisions, this took a couple years of marriage counseling to figure out how to do (communication was our problem -- we didn't communicate well with each other)! I agree, though, that it's nice now that we can work together :-) I appreciate it so much b/c I remember how awful it used to be. He and I still do not see eye to eye on most things, unfortunately, but now we know how to deal with it. Before we were just frustrated that our tastes and ideas were so opposite. We are planning a small cosmetic bathroom remodel, too, and we've basically figured out how many things need to be chosen (eight-ish decisions) and we're each choosing four things. Hopefully it all comes together (I think I'm picking things like light fixture, counter, tile, and towel rack or something like that, it's written down on some list somewhere).

I've heard the saran wrap idea but never tried it! My 5 year old is always opening the fridge so I will have to find a high, hidden spot for the brush. I don't mind cleaning up every night though, it's just one brush and one small roller. I like the closure I get from cleaning up, and the lack of pressure just in case I can't do my hour for some reason. I was really amazed, last night, at how much painting I finished in an hour! It gave me the momentum I need to keep going and I'm looking forward to my hour tonight :-) Plus, once the painting is done, DH will put up the pantry cab and shelves so the anticipation of additional storage is quite the incentive!

Chris--I think painting one room all at once by yourself is quite a task! It's impressive that you did it, but I know myself and I don't have the drive at all. In fact, I get overwhelmed by stuff. I'm learning to apply "bit by bit" to all parts of my life. I was always able to deal w/school projects and work projects "bit by bit", and then I learned to do gardening projects "bit by bit", and now I'm training myself to apply it to house and organization projects as well. Seems silly that it's not straightforward that I apply it to everything in my life, but for some reason it's not.

Melle that tiny room of 9 by 13 took four days to do. Had to work around the furniture I could not move out. Was a real pain. This is why I painted my studio before we moved in. I did not want to have to move a few hundred pounds of glass and china over and over.

I am having to go slow on the yard as my body will not take it like it used to. Makes me so furious. My brain wants to do my body refuses.Gads I am only 60 1/2 . It is not like I have one foot in the grave or something. Sheese.

Chris

Hi melle_sacto, I don't have anything to add, but wanted to welcome you! You've found a really nice place with some very helpful and kind folks! :o)
~Missy

Hello, I am Chris from ND, and I have been reading both Chris, and Melle,s posting regarding more room in their bedrooms. I too moved from WA state from a 2000+ house to ND to a 1200 foot house, and have stuff stacked up all over the house. No storage here except for the standard sliding door closet in each of the three bedrooms. We are retired, 68/71 but have family coming and going. Our guest bedroom has boxes, and tubs stacked in it against the wall across from the foot of the bed. Boxes stacked in the closet too. The middle bedroom we turned into an office, and my hubby built me floor to ceiling bookcases to store all my books, and DVD's/Videos. This room too is crammed full of STUFF! Now our master bedroom. It too is only 11' wide from the outside wall to the front of the sliding door closet. It is 12' long. There is a little space at the end of the room at the end of the closet where the door opens into the room. We have a king sized bed, two night stands sitting under the east window, and at the foot of the bed against the west end of the room there is a double dresser, and a single taller dresser. Also in the closet is another three drawer dresser. All these are overflowing, plus stuff stacked on top of them. I have gone through things over and over, but don't seem to make a dent. I am so frustrated. I looked on this site to see if anyone had done a bumpout on their room? If we could make a three or four foot by 11 foot closet bump out along that east wall, we could tear out the exsisting closet, and the room would then be 16'x12'. There is a second window in our north wall. This may be beyond or expertiese, and finances, but I am at my wits end. We have two sons here who maybe could help if we knew how to do it? I too could put some floor to ceiling cabinets where my night stands are I guess, and noticed someone had built floor to celing cabinets in place of their dressers. We still would only have a walk way around our bed, but at least we could maybe have room to put stuff away? This house has no storage other then those three little closets which are overflowing. I could not see the pictures you posted of your rooms, could you send them to me so I can see? Any ideas for me what to do. My hubby does not want to get rid of the king sized bed. We have an unfinished full basement, full of junk, and I was told there is a floor in our attic too, but the opening is tiny, and above the basement stairs so not easy to get to, or in and out of. Just a small hole covered with a board? We also would like to install a 11' x 4' bumpout in the dining room end of our kitchen. Make a walk out bay so more room for our round oak table. This is a load bearing wall so not sure how hard that would be. Also thought about tearing out this middle bedroom and incorporating it into our master, but then what do do with all this stuff in here? Also we live out on an 80 acre farm, and someday if we sell would most likely need to have three bedrooms? I just want to cry everytime I look around at all the clutter. Not normally me, but I have become so frustrated, I have just given up.

Dakotarose_2010....
What you need to do FIRST is create yourself a thread of your own. When you do that, you check the little box below your original post, that you WANT TO RECEIVE ANY REPLIES VIA EMAIL to this post, and then you click to PREVIEW MESSAGE and then SUBMIT MESSAGE.

After that, any time your post gets a response, you will be notified via email, and can come on down and reply to it from Gardenweb. I note you did not give your email addy to accept notes from other members, so I hope you will be able to find my response to your plea for help.

I've just finished a bumpout on a bedroom and a bath to create a master suite from our back bedroom which was the same dimension as your bedroom. 11 x 12 foot.

I did not optimize the closet for hanging storage, but to really add space and light. I also realized that I could make it deeper than originally envisioned, because the property line was far enough away.

If you are in a city, make sure you are LEGAL with your property lines before you start any expansions. Our bumpout wound up being 19 feet long and 5 feet deep or wide. Our roofline could not be continued out five more feet and give us head room all the way, so we had to modify the roofline.
If you can make a SHED ROOFLINE separate from your house roofline, then you can maybe be able to use the entire amount of closet space. We also wanted WINDOWS for light in our closet, because the closet had to be located on a window wall, and those two windows came out and the holes became closet doorways. If I wanted to maximize storage space as YOU do, I would have hanging racks on all walls and double layers, and then storage drawers (NOT BOXES). But piling things in the closet was not a main objective. I wanted the room to look a little bigger, and I wanted LIGHT.

And part of our expansion gave us an alcove to add a tub in the bathroom.

I'm sure you will find many different threads on here with lots of discussion about maximizing storage in bedrooms. Read them all. Every one of us has a small home with storage issues. I never met a small home dweller who did not have MORE STORAGE as a mantra.

You've come to the right place. Don't be discouraged. You'll be able to restore peace and tranquility little by little, and that will be a really happy day when you realize it.

"My hubby does not want to get rid of the king sized bed."

OH WAAAHHHHH Was my first thought. King size is a huge bed in a small space. WE went from king to full size and have no trouble sleeping. BUT we just got a new mattress well several months ago and it is a dream to sleep on and we never disturb each other because I can get in and out of bed and the foam does not giggle or is that jiggle?? Hummmmmmmmmmm Either way you get the idea. Will try to email you for pictures. Hope you start your own thread.

Chris

There is no way to email you through GW you have not added an email. So click on my page and email me and I will get back to you.

Chris

Shades, YOUR mattress may GIGGLE, but mine groans.

And we went from a full size to a queen size storage bed, and I dearly love love love it. It is a foam mattress also, with a feather bed topper, and it rests my weary bones.

If you do not have ROOM for a king size bed, for heaven sake, get rid of it. And regardless of what bed you have, there is all that SPACE BENEATH IT which can be used for storage.

I hope DakotaRose returns, but she might not be able to find the thread she posted to.

Hmmmm, how do we deal with this?

Well there is no way to email so we just wait to see.

I remember upper storage in my house as a teenager. Every house seemed to have it. Built in cabinets above the closets. Thinking about this, it could be done since that area is wasted space to get to.