Storage Solution

One of our challenges with this small house is storage. The hallway (and I use the term "hallway" loosely) originally had some shelves which were set into a little nook next the the bathroom door (refer to "before" video).

We took out those shelves and bought a tall, narrow wardrobe cabinet from Ikea. The only problem was that the cabinet was about four inches too deep for the space. I decided I could cut it so we bought it anyway.

After cutting four inches off the back of every piece I assembled the cabinet like normal with a few small modifications.


Here it is all ready to go into the nook. You can see the holes I cut for the electrical outlet and the gas line that sticks out.


Ikea sells shelves for this unit but they are a bit pricey. All you have to do is go to Home depot and get a piece of melamine shelving. They sell all different sizes. From this piece I was able to cut 5 shelves.


Add a few shleving posts (from any hardware store) and the shelves pop right in. Sorry Ikea, you don't get my money for this one... but we'll be back...again...


We liked this cabinet because it left some space on the side for things like brooms, dust mops, the ironing board, etc.


Here is the cutout with the electrical outlet showing through. Picture the iron sitting in here nicely hidden away and ready to go.


Here is the gas line at the bottom. This is connected to the wall heater on the other side. The nice thing is that it is hidden in the cabinet so nobody will ever see this ugly thing.

We can't wait to fill these shelves with towels, extra blankets, cleaning products, and any other things that need to be stored away in a nice clean place.

Just wait until you see what we did with the bedroom closet...