Slot in a pampering spot If you’re fitting a bank of wardrobes in your bedroom, consider having a dressing table built in, too. It’s possible to buy wardrobe and dressing table combinations off the shelf, but having them built bespoke means they can be tailored to your exact dimensions and taste. This velvet stool adds a glamorous note and highlights the dressing table area, but if you’re short of space you could choose one that would slot neatly underneath when not in use.
Love your louvres This smart piece of cabinetry combines under-stairs storage with timber louvres for a versatile partition that’s good to look at, whether the slats are open or shut. It forms the wall for a staircase, combining drawers with a thoughtfully designed screen – which would also help with sound insulation.
8. Hidden away Deceptively simple, this hallway includes a concealed laundry and guest bathroom. Thin stainless-steel handles provide easy access to these handy rooms, while the adjacent double doors open to the deck and studio. A mix of natural materials – honey-toned timber and charcoal stone – produce a neutral colour palette, all encased by white surrounds to keep the room light and breezy.
. Work zone Using every centimetre of the available space, this hallway integrates a two-person home office with a built-in desk and storage unit. The dimensions of the desk are 3600 x 500cm, which provides plenty of room to use a laptop or device. While it works as a home office, it’s also perfectly positioned as a homework zone where parents can easily oversee their children’s activities.
Hallways tend to be viewed as purely facilitating movement through to other rooms, rather than spaces to be engaged with in their own right. “You could create a simple corridor that has rooms coming from it,” says Smith, “Or you can design an active and dynamic zone that has depth and reason beyond a path to get from point A to point B – for instance, featuring increased width in areas with display shelves, or study recesses.”
Interest in these ‘incidental’ areas seems to be growing. As Julie-Anne Smith of Dig Designs in Melbourne shares: “We are seeing a trend where our clients are increasingly looking for smaller inter-connected spaces that challenge the idea of open plan that had been popular over the past decade. The connected zones between these smaller spaces are the in-between spaces of your home.”
Space is key We’d all be so lucky if we had this pantry to work with every morning. Heck, each child could have a shelf dedicated to his or her own lunchbox and accessories. For many of us this may not be possible, but the key ingredients here are the tall, open shelves and sliding baskets. The shelving height accommodates a variety of lunchbox and water bottle heights, as well as tall cereal boxes so they can stand upright. Sliding baskets of varying sizes are great for wrangling water bottle caps, Tupperware tops, paper bags and plastic lunch bags. The best feature of this pantry, though, is its ability to be closed off
Consider installing storage that doubles as room partitions. In the above bedroom, the walk-in robe is separated from the main bedroom not by a wall but by a tall storage unit
Transform a cupboard into a room of its own So you don’t have your own laundry room or dedicated craft corner, but do you have a built-in cupboard? Take out unnecessary shelving, add a desk or chest of drawers to hip height and you could create anything from a sewing hub to a baby changing station (pictured).
Stairs Concrete stairways are beautifully sculptural and can become both an architectural and artistic feature in the home. In this three-level home, a single stairway weaves the three levels together. It begins with a heavy concrete base and rises to a luminous platform of steel and glass.
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Choose contrasting materials. This smart, boxy built-in closet looks like a room within the larger bedroom space. The wood-paneled walls create a nice contrast to the white plasterwork, but the closet is open to the high ceiling to ensure that every corner is fully lit.
Glaze it. Rather than make your walk-in closet and all its storage a semihidden space, integrate it with the bedroom by glazing its walls. This gorgeous closet is a wonderful feature in the corner of this room, its woodwork painted a deep smoky blue and its contents softly lit to draw the eye.
Cut out and cover This alcove storage has been cleverly designed with a cut-out section for the TV screen. Below, the key consoles and pieces of tech are neatly stowed, but the doors also open to reveal further storage …
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