Home organizers and hidden storage solutions are all the rage now, but not without reason. You can see a complete shift in your mood if you have everything tucked away neatly. Gives your visual and headspace a refreshing change. Living in clutter can simply drain your energy. Being clutter-free makes you less stressed, more productive, and a lot more energy in your home. It can even have a positive impact on the quality of your relationships with your family members.
If things look neat and streamlined at home after you declutter, your home can become a haven. This article will take you through unobtrusive storage solutions and creative ways you can easily design your space using home design software or build furniture yourself, that will help you in maximizing space and functionality at the same time.
Hidden Storage Solutions Hacks by Room
1. Stepped Tiered Rack Shelving
Make a modest investment in stepped-tiered rack shelving to minimize open shelving, and get clean, minimal lines from the outside. It gives you leeway to store multiple things and use them multi-functionally. Ensure to get one that has a shutter to close each individual cavity, to present a seamless facade to onlookers.
| Paul Radoy, the Manager of Design Services at Merillat says, “A low voltage ten-or-twenty watt light positioned behind the frame of these racks can illuminate the entire shelving.” |
2. Undercounter Appliances
Tuck away all your appliances under the counter, to give a uniform look, and allow for free movement without bumping into anything. It can also free up counter space that you can use for cooking. For example, get a sophisticated, multi-functional coffee brewer that whips up expressos instantly, but can be tucked away under the counter with no hassle whatsoever, so that even when you’re cooking an elaborate meal, people can come in, and drink coffee without disturbing your flow.
3. Bins, Tins, and Canisters for the Win
When placed on top of the refrigerator, these unique storage containers can make for stylish stowaways for unwieldy items like twist-ties, chip clips, etc., while remaining unnoticed by anyone who enters your kitchen. They give you a cover for all individual, differently-shaped items that can’t be grouped anywhere else.
4. Cabinet Built Into the Fireplace
Notice how the fireplace mantle and the surrounding walls are mostly blank, and occasionally populated with photos? What if you could use the wall space productively? Install a built-in shelving unit surrounding the hearth, and consider incorporating hidden door ideas. You can cover the shelves with transparent doors like glass, fluted glass, or explore opaque coverings like wood or laminate.
This way, you can create a seamless look while potentially concealing a hidden storage compartment or even a secret passage behind the shelving.
5. Use Unused Fireplaces
If there’s an unused hearth at home and collecting dust while being a dump yard, it’s time to put it to good use. Place large decorative baskets with designs that complement the ones in surrounding the hearth and the room, and they can serve as your new storage space.
6. Sloping Ceilings as Storage Space
If you have sloping ceilings at home, and you feel it won’t be an aesthetic feature, you may be mistaken. It can hold towels, files, or candles depending on where it is, and what use you want out of it. Simple, almost oblivious to the eye, and yet serves its purpose.
7. Wainscoting Covered Cabinets
If you have a lot to tuck away in the living room but have no space, you can bring in built-in storage cabinets in a wall, and cover it with wainscoting panels so it looks like a regular wall and can be your secret hidden storage solution. Ensure there’s enough room for you to open the panel when you need to retrieve items from there.
8. Hide Cabinets in Plain Sight
Have a monochromatic room and a color-drenched wall, and you’re worried about any other colored cabinet doors that would disturb the aesthetic? Paint the shelves, molding, and cabinetry the same color to provide a room with unobtrusive functional storage. Place items in the space above your home theatre, or TV stand without having to highlight the cabinet space and distract the onlooker’s eye.
9. Dual-purpose Entertainment Center
Get an entertainment center to fit in A-Z of your entertainment items, starting from remotes, chargers, wires, adapters, CDs, projectors, speakers, etc, spare wires, etc, in a concealed cabinet as part of the entertainment center without having to make the space look messy around the TV, where all guests focus their attention to.
10. Window Seat With Storage Space
Get a deep window alcove in the bedroom that can provide a good spot for out-of-the-way storage. Throw in some cushions, throw pillows, and a blanket and it can make for an excellent window seat, while you stash away unused items below. This is one of the ways to make furniture pieces work as hidden storage compartments.
11. Super-functional Walk-in Closets
A dreamy walk-in closet attached to a bedroom is a real dream come true. Even if you don’t have a lot of space for a massive walk-in closet, you can make do with what you have. The closet in itself can offer you several opportunities for storage – store baskets beneath the hanging clothes, hang hooks behind them, keep bins above the shelves, keep clear trays, conceal them with clothes, fold things up, and store them in the drawers, etc. Not only can you store clothing items, but you also have room for others that are lying around in the house.
12. Bunk Beds and the Massive Drawer Space
Bunk beds not only maximize floor space with the help of a floor plan creator, they’re excellent opportunities to create functional storage. By planning right, you can give the children two dressers worth of built-in drawers. The bottom of the bunk can hold deeper things and have extra space for more drawers, if necessary.
13. Reusing Toy Boxes
Toy boxes aren’t only for toddlers. Once your children grow up, you don’t have to transfer them to the attic or basement and have them collect dust there. Here’s how you can continue to use toy boxes as an ideal storage option:
Stage of life | Usage |
| Kid | Toys and games |
| Teen | Catchall and gear locker for sports equipment |
| Young adult | Handy storage that doubles as an accent table or coffee table |
Decorate the front and side plywood panels with wooden numbers or alphabets. Install optional swivel casters to make the unit mobile.
14. Under-bed Storage for Less-Used Items
Have precious, important things that need to be stored carefully without bumping into any other stored item? Here’s a secret area: under your bed. Get a pull-out drawer and place it under your bed. Don’t forget to attach 4 wooden wheels to it so it moves smoothly, regardless of whether you have hardwood, carpet, or concrete flooring.
15. Platform Bed and Its Plethora of Storage
A platform bed is more than just a great support for the mattress. It also serves as a convenient storage unit. Attach a piano hinge to move it easily, or attach the platform bed to a bedroom wall unit to get additional storage facility. You can bring in a multitude of drawers, shelves big enough to store extra bedding, linens, pillow covers etc, and cavities for baskets with a platform bed, let the comforter hang down a bit, and completely shut off the closets from your guests’ view.
16. Bedroom Wall Unit with Infinite Space
This is ideal for a master bedroom. Each bedside cabinet attached to the bed frame boasts roomy drawers and three spacious shelves, offering versatile storage solutions for a bedroom-cum-dressing room or bedroom-cum-home office. Two large bridge shelves span the headboard, creating additional bedroom shelves ideas and seamlessly connecting the two wings of cabinets.
17. Tambour Doors in a Breakfast Area
Tambour doors, often made from wood slats or metal, roll up seamlessly into the cabinetry, providing easy access to the contents of the cabinet without the need for swinging doors that can obstruct the flow of the space. This design is particularly useful in a breakfast area, which typically serves as a bustling hub for morning activities. Here, small appliances like toasters, coffee makers, blenders, and microwaves are often essential but can create visual clutter if left on the countertop.
18. Pullout Cabinets as Part of the Kitchen Island
Pullout cabinets hold often-used cookware, used in kitchen islands that have a lot of open storage and divide the space with valuable drawer space. You need as much space as you need to store items of varying sizes that are lying around in the kitchen and get them organized. Pullout cabinets, with their thoughtful kitchen cabinet design, can be of great help.
19. Built-in Refrigerator
A built-in refrigerator, as opposed to a freestanding model, is designed to sit flush with the surrounding cabinetry. This creates a smooth, uninterrupted line that contributes to a streamlined and elegant appearance. This arrangement ensures that the refrigerator does not protrude or disrupt the visual flow, offering a polished and sophisticated look.
20. Base Cabinets with Unique Doors
While designing your kitchen layout in kitchen design software, consider how base cabinets can truly complement large cabinets. By playing with the scale and arrangement, you can create a balanced and functional space.
Use a different door style rather than the overly framed and raised panel door. Pairing base cabinets with unique door styles can create a striking contrast with larger cabinets, offering both aesthetic appeal and enhanced functionality.
21. Walk-In Pantries
These are usually used to store canned food, dry goods, and staples of all kinds. Depending on the size of your family, and the type of goods you’re planning on storing there, you might need extra room, sometimes room enough to move around, heat things, tuck away a mini cooler, etc. When you plan to bring in a walk-in pantry, you open up a whole new dimension for extra storage for items that aren’t used daily.
22. Door-Mounted Shelving
Wherever cabinet doors have no shelves behind them, or have shelves that lie at least four inches from the door, you can add shallow shelving to the door. Door-mounted shelves are perfect for under-sink cabinets in kitchens, bathrooms, and utility rooms to store soaps, cleansers, and cleaning equipment.
23. Compartment Below the Cutting Board
Beneath the hefty hardwood cutting board, there’s a compartment that holds a drawer for storing your cutlery. Maple is great for the board, but birch, cherry, and myrtlewood are great too.
24. Double-Sided Medicine Cabinet
Bring in a medicine cabinet that opens from both sides and divides a double-lav vanity. Wood slat shelving matches the decor and allows for air circulation. You can also add a mirror on either side to make it super functional.
25. The Versatile Vanity
You can choose to buy or build a vanity section in your bathroom. When you build, you can make for several pockets of secret storage. Get a spacious countertop, and plenty of storage in 6 drawers and behind the three cabinet doors. Leave ample space behind the bank of drawers to slide in a trash can.
26. Clothes Hamper to Simplify Disposal
The best way to store dirty clothes instead of letting them lay around is to get a clothes hamper. This is a double-bin design to separate clothes into lights and darks with a self-closing door. Install kitchen-size trash receptacles in the hamper.
27. Fold-Down Desk
You need a desk for occasional paperwork, or a work bench for building models or crafts in your home office. You can install a pegboard above the desk to give you unlimited space for storage. If you can’t install shelves in the small room, this is your best shot. The desk is easy to build, attached to a wall, and folds up when not in use. Secure it with a hasp and padlock for the hook and eye. Fold it in when you don’t use the desk and hide the drawers all at once. This helps in using limited space in your home office efficiently.
28. Swivel Iron Table
Is your space too cramped? Get a foldable, swivel iron board and attach it to the bottom of the vanity table. It’s space-saving, functional, and easy to access even if it’s installed in a nook. A freestanding table can take up valuable space, but a swivel table doesn’t.
29. Mudroom Island with More Storage You Need
Don’t have to take the washed clothes in bags up to your room to fold them. Get an island, or a peninsula in the mudroom – it gives you an excellent surface to fold clothes neatly and makes for an excellent mudroom storage idea. You can put away cleaning materials, toiletries, less used clothes, linens, sewing equipment, etc on the island, and use them for a lot more, given that it’s unobtrusive.
30. In-Built Sewing Centre
This unit comprises cabinets and a workstation all in one. The cabinet stores all sewing tools. Reserve one cabinet door and fold down a handy platform where your machine can be permanently installed. Right of the sewing machine compartment is a convenient space divided by shelves. The fold-down platform is a work surface to set up the machine when needed.
31. Pull-down Shelves
These make wall cabinets more user-friendly by bringing all the contents down to eye level. Not recommended for narrow cabinets. Check the capacity of the mechanism you’re purchasing matches the items you will be storing on the shelf.
32. Under-Joist Shelving
Shelving units wall-mounted under steps or secured between ceiling joists provide perfect storage for reference books, small tools, cleaning supplies, etc. If you have an unfinished ceiling somewhere in the house, or garage, think of how you can bring in a joist shelving there. Folds directly between unfinished joists allowing you to store utility items until you need them.
33. Entryway Storage
An entryway storage box gives you handy storage in busy parts of your home. Equipped with a spacious pivoting bin at the top (for mittens, gloves, hats, and scarves). Bring in a hinged lid below which also functions as a shelf.
34. Mini Breakfast Table in the Kitchen
A compact breakfast table can be stored in a wall cabinet that opens downward when you need to save space in a kitchen with small space. Bring in a cavity beneath it to accommodate a small chair or mini ottoman.
35. Cupboard for Your Lazy Susan
The corner of your cupboard doesn’t have to be empty, owing to its cramped space. It can have a lazy Susan that lets you pack in items stored deep in the back of an otherwise inaccessible corner space.
36. Secluded Space Under the Stairs
Just like the boy who lived under the stairs, there’s a lot of unused space under the stairs that can be put to great use. Get a door and inside the vertical space, you can have wire drawers, storage bins, shelves, and hooks that can convert any small area beneath the stairs in your hall, entryway, and basement into a well-organized storage space for toys and sports equipment.
37. Treasure Chest to Store Precious Collectibles
Build a treasure chest, as a DIY project out of pine and beaded pine paneling and this chest will incorporate simple construction designs that give the appearance of more complicated counterparts. The lid is kept open by a lid support. Accentuate it with decorative trunk hardware.
38. Closed Portable Closets
It’s great for rooms without adequate closet space or for storage of your out-of-season clothing because they are lightweight and oftentimes on wheels. They make moving feel breezy – you’ll hardly need to unpack.
39. Desktop Console
A desktop console goes well in your home office. Keep your office essentials organized and ready to use by including these 4 features in the console – a covered pencil holder, 2 side compartments, and pull-out drawers for notepads, stationery, or address books.
40. Wall Dividers As Screen and Storage
Image credits: All images featured in this blog are AI-generated or created using Foyr Neo, an advanced interior designing software.
If you want a room separator without a bulky wall, you can get a lattice bookshelf that adds visual variety, offers ample open shelving space, and gives you room to store all your favorite decor items. It gives you a chance to exhibit your most prestigious decor pieces, and books all while smartly delineating the living room. In small homes with small living spaces, this is a godsend.
How Can Foyr Neo Help You Design the Right Storage Solution?
Hidden storage solutions blend in perfectly with your design style, save you money otherwise spent on buying stylish standalone storage solutions, and movement disruptions, and give you opportunities to maximize space and functionality no matter what the size of your home is. As your family grows and your storage needs grow, you won’t have to keep building extra shelves or buying closets. Building a home with stylish storage compartments that are concealed, yet practical will keep serving you for years to come.
Given that your home’s floor plan is unique, how do you know which of the above storage solutions will work in your space and which won’t? You figure it out by visualizing your home with your favorite items and ruling out the ones that don’t fit in to save valuable floor space.
How can you visualize every space of the home without leaving anything to chance? With an advanced tool like Foyr Neo.
Here’s what you can do:
Step 1: Sign up for Foyr Neo’s 14-day trial.
Step 2: Go on to the Neo mood board and curate everything you’d love to have in your home.
Step 3: Create the floor plan of your home on Neo.
Step 4: Choose from 60,000+ 3D decor materials and simply drag and drop them into the interior design.
Step 5: Get any material in any color scheme, texture, shape, or pattern and truly customize your home.
Step 6: View the makeover in 2D and 3D, from all possible angles and lighting conditions.
Step 7: Render your design in a few minutes and witness your home in all its glory.
That’s all it takes! With 24/7 support and live chat, we’re here to help you if you ever get stuck anywhere. You can find tutorials on how to design on Neo all over the internet, so you’re never truly alone when you design using Neo.
What are you waiting for? Start curating your mood board for your home, sign up for Foyr Neo’s 14-day free trial today.
FAQs
Use hidden safes behind wall art or built into the floor.
Use deck boxes or benches with storage compartments.
Use furniture like ottomans or coffee tables with built-in compartments for discreet storage.
Use a bench with storage underneath and wall hooks with hidden cubbies.
Use pull-out racks, pegboards inside cabinets, and ceiling-mounted pot racks.