Living Room -- How to Better Use + Optimize Closets & Other Storage Space

The living room may or may not actually be “lived in.” The formal living room is used only for entertaining guests; homes with formal living rooms often have family rooms, and that’s where the family congregates to watch television, play games, and spend time together. Homes without family rooms must use the living room for both everyday family activities and for entertaining, so the space must be more versatile and organized. Studio apartments really put the “living” room concept to the test. Since the studio has basically only one room (plus the bath and kitchen), everything needs to be accommodated in this area, from sleeping to everyday living to formal entertaining needs. For those living rooms that are used every day, storage facilities can be integrated into the overall decor to add function to the room and/or provide that additional space needed to hold items that won’t fit into the storage facilities in other rooms in the house.

Before you consider your storage options, take a good hard look at the furniture in the room. Great Grandma’s Victorian settee, two more lamps than are necessary, and itty-bitty antique tables may have nostalgia value, but they leave you shortchanged on function. Credenzas, buffets, trunks, bookshelves, and end tables with drawers and cabinet space can serve you much better — doing double duty as furniture and storage space simultaneously.

A buffet, for instance, doesn’t have to be in the dining room — it can be placed along a wall in the living room and used to store video tapes, records, books, or games. Even a coffee table can be functional. A table with a shelf on the bottom can hold magazines, knickknacks, newspapers, and the TV Guide, doubling the space of the table and eliminating clutter on the top of the table by providing storage underneath. Or a piece of glass on top of a wicker or antique trunk turns into a coffee table or end table that can also be used to store any number of infrequently used things—from games to blankets or memorabilia. If you are going to use tables at the end of the sofa, end tables with drawers or shelves are just as attractive as those without the extra storage features.

In the studio apartment, convertible sofas and futons, Murphy Wall-beds, and single beds dressed with a tailored cover and bolster will save space or do double duty—as the sofa by day and bed by night. Captain’s beds with built-in storage drawers provide the bed and space to hold the linens all in one unit.

Cabinetry and Shelving

Cabinetry and shelving can be incorporated into the living room in a number of ways.

Photo: This heavy-duly modular storage system can be assembled in less than ten minutes and can be a simple solution for storing books, entertainment equipment, and decorative items in the living room.

Floor-to-ceiling wall units that include cabinets at the bottom and open shelves at the top can hold lots of different things. Closed cabinetry at the bottom of the wall unit can grace fully store things like games, tapes, slides, and even knitting supplies behind closed doors, while shelves provide the open space needed to display sculptures, books, small antiques, mementos, photos, and knickknacks. If the sofa is floated in the room, it can be backed with a bookcase that stands as tall as the couch. Used rather than end tables, this can give you a surface immediately adjacent to the seating area for a lamp, magazines, or attractive decorative items. Since the back of the bookcase is against the sofa, the shelves can be used for books or other decorative items. Studio apartment dwellers can use a wall unit — from a freestanding two-shelf bookcase to a floor-to-ceiling unit—to separate the living area into functions, i.e., living and dining, living and sleeping, or living and study/office areas.

You can even design a custom do-it-your self wall unit that incorporates a chest of drawers or a trunk. The trunk can hold out-of-sea son sweaters or blankets, while the chest of drawers holds underwear, stockings, or any other miscellaneous items that might not fit in the closet. You might profit from a table that folds down to a narrow width, or one that’s mounted on hinges to provide a game table or, in the case of a studio apartment, a dining table. A student desk or a modular unit designed to hold computer equipment can also be incorporated into a do-it-yourself wall unit.

To plan your own wall unit, first measure the wall and the main components (such as the desk, table, or chest of drawers). Then draw out a “design” on paper, making sure you allow enough space between all of the shelves for head room, or to hold necessary equipment, books, sculptures, records, and the like. You can get materials from the unpainted furniture store (good for chests and small desks), from furniture or office supply stores (good for computer stands), and from the lumber or building supply store (good for wood for shelving, and the standards and brackets for mounting the shelves). You can stain or paint the unit to fit your decor, while still maintaining a high degree of organizational usefulness. Also remember that you can design any wall unit around special paintings or large framed photographs for a decorative effect.

Don’t forget window seat possibilities — they offer storage and a pleasant place to relax and read or play a game. You can have one built for you, or you can probably adapt a small cabinet, purchased from the unpainted furniture store for the purpose. These units are usually stacked as a part of a wall unit; for a window seat, simply use one or two of these units next to each other, painted or stained, and topped with cushions of your choice.

Magazine racks do a good job of at least keeping magazines in one place; a cloth organizer that hangs over your favorite chair will hold the TV Guide and TV remotes. Some ottomans are designed to hold craft supplies such as knitting yarn and needles, and if little children use the room frequently, keep a rolling toy cart in a corner so that the toys can be consolidated and out of the way when not in use.

Entertainment Centers

Much of the activity that goes on in the living room centers around the TV/home theater and/or hi-fi equipment. Special cabinetry can consolidate all of the equipment and save overall space in the room. These units will hold the TV, DVD player, home-theater system, receiver/amplifier, and loudspeakers. You can put your equipment on one of these freestanding units, or you could convert an antique armoire to do the job. You can also place the various components at strategic spots on your floor-to-ceiling wall unit. If you have more tapes and/or records than the unit will accommodate, you can store them in an antique buffet, modern credenza, or on open shelving (on your floor- to-ceiling wall unit). Pull-out racks can be helpful for storing cassette and videotapes, and can be placed on shelves in cabinets, reducing the piles of tapes that inevitably result when they are stacked on any shelf.

Photo: This wall unit is actually three units placed together to serve as a corn pact entertainment center with several shelves that are perfect to display decorative items.

Books

If books are stored in the living room, a floor-to-ceiling wall unit will keep them organized all in one place, or you can use smaller book cases in different areas of the room. They can be backed against the sofa, or at the ends of the sofa, with the top of the bookcase serving as space for a lamp, magazines, and the like. These smaller bookcases will also often fit into odd spaces in the room (such as the space between the heater and a corner, or under a window). If you’ve got more books than room, your spare room may be the answer. If you don’t have a spare room, give some books away before they run you out of house and home.

Photo: A studio apartment can benefit from this storage arrangement, which turns one room into a living room, dining room, and storage area.