Dining rooms were once
spacious, elegant examples of dining design. They have been gutted and,
frequently combined with other rooms, leaving you unaware f where the
living room ends ad the dining room begins. If you are fortunate enough
to have a separate dining room and not just an area, what follows are
some tips for storage.
There are two basic furniture requirements in a dining room: a table
with chairs and a display cabinet for special occasion china and
cutlery. If you are pressed for storage space, utilize the available
furniture as much as possible or replace it with more functional and
adaptable pieces.
A skirted table can hide a myriad of things. For this trick, you'll
need a tablecloth that goes to the floor. You can cover the table with
something simple or layer it with different length cloths. One time
conscious person has suggested you multi-layer the table with several
of your linens. When one is used, you remove it to reveal another
layer. This serves two purposes: a storage place for your linen and as
a means of keeping them wrinkle free. If you adopt this practice,
remember to cover the good linen with a see through plastic covering to
protect it and all the layers from spills.
Another possibility to decrease the amount of wrinkles and increase
storage space is to attach a dowel to the back of a cabinet or closet.
It makes for easy accessibility while minimizing creases and lines.
Another means of turning the dining room table into extra storage space is by returning to an old-fashioned kitchen table style.
Old-fashioned table had the cutlery drawers built into them. You pulled
them open and you had easy access to the necessary knives, forks and
spoons. To adapt your current table, attach one or more shallow drawers
to the underside of the table, making sure they do not rub against or
hit the knees of anyone sitting at the table. These can be used to
store the cutlery, linen and other items used regularly at the dining
room table.
Also to be considered for possible storage purposes is the china cabinet.
This structure may be free standing or part of a larger unit with
drawers. Make sure you use every inch carefully. If necessary, clear it
out, sort everything, discard nonessential and extraneous material or
items, and replace the items. Add or build extra storage units within
the larger unit if you feel it can help in the fight to achieve maximum
storage capacity.
Do not forget to look up. See if there is any room above the cabinet to
locate tasteful baskets or boxes filled with stuff you are not
currently in need of using.
Another viable way to store material is by building shelving units. These can be placed unobtrusively around the room or in obvious
places. You can display some objects in plain view while you covertly
hide others in the background.
There is one thing you should really remember when finding or creating
storage in any room of your house, including the living room. Try to
make sure the items stored in each room - excluding garages or attics,
pertains to that room and that room alone.
