floating shelves are good for towel storage - can be painted the same as wall color to blend and not feel so bulky A train/hotel type holder is good inside the shower too if wall space is tight....like where they hang in hotels..high and at the back shower wall. You would definately want a higher end all-stainless one if hung there. A more involved fix idea- in two homes we've owned I've "stolen" space for storage by adding wall cabinets that bumped into an adjacent room's closet...such as I took a foot and a half from the back of a hall closet that backed up to a bathroom and used this as an inset wall flush towel cabinet. The coolest space stealer we made was when a bedroom closet backed up to a back shower/tub combo. wall; we built a 14 inch deep niche at the back of the shower (and tiled it in) for towel storage...this was handy storage and worked very well, this was in the mid-90's before the digital age and all this sharing of ideas...I can't find any photos of that. :( Also, even stealing a few inches from any wall and placing shelves that are recessed in and extend out with an 8 inch ledge or so gives you enough for towel storage with less bump-out into a small room. Wonder if I'm clear in comunicating my ideas, but hth.

phyllis, yes, this was fun to read. we are building a house, I picked out a light camel color for the walls. i went to the house and the builder had the painter paint EVERYTHING that color! Walls, ceilings, closets, shelving, everything. After a few weeks of going back and forth to check other things that were going on, we decided to have them paint the ceilings white. (I just couldnt stand everything the same color) A painful decision, as we are having to pay for this even though our builder never asked about the ceilings, and I assumed I picked the "wall" color for the walls. I figured ceilings were white as a given. Now, after reading this thread, I realize that the closets should have been white too! All of my closets in my current home are bright, white and pretty! If he had asked me, I would have said white. They could have sprayed the trim, ceiling and walls in the closets the white they used on all the trim in the house. Easy. Coulda, woulda, shoulda....

Each to his own, but I'd go counter depth if the fridge is returnable. I was really worried about my CD not having enough storage since I've always had full depth, but I've had mine now for 3 weeks and it's fine on storage with a family of 4(the stuff that hung out in the back of the full depth was stuff that was never used and should have been thrown away all along). But we also have a full depth in the garage not too far from the kitchen and it's stocked, both fridge and freezer. However, if you don't return it, your plan to bump it back into the closet is a great one - and I agree, lucky you that you have a closet there to bump into! The fridge bumped out into the kitchen as far as it is would be dealbreaker, an eyesore, and an obstacle to efficiency, function, and space for sure.

This is hard one. New home build has.. (small farmhouse) We have a pantry and a tall pantry cabinet too.. pantry has vaccum & brushes. We have a small hallway between rooms that has space for officey stuff, charging, counter for snacks for party.. but mostly printer and laptop support stuff.. upper cabinets. We have a dresser in the small main floor bath instead of closet. We have a shoe closet because we like Japan style. We have a large nice coat closet plus a simple mud room with hooks at another entrance and farm boots. we have a homeschool supply cabinet/a matching one for coat closet we have a linen closet/built in in the hallway upstairs that is actually a basecabinet with wood counter and a upper wall cabinet built in (like office hallway) we have a full linen closet outside of bathroom door on this level too sharing the upstairs vac/broom and cleaning supplies we have a shallow shelf with sliding doors in upstairs bath for small items but not a fan of cloth hanging out in the bathroom.. in hallway. interestingly we don't have closets for the kids yet. We want an easy layout with what we have with windows and doors.. vents.. going modern and growing with them style.. we have are farmers but we have a 4' wide door in BR with another 4' wide open curtain place for me.. I like tall dressers and need more places for folding, jeweler and underwear.. have nice pieces that do best folded.. hate closet systems, want light and pretty space instead. Velvet curtains ;) basment is full! We have a plan for dedicated and double checked (insects and others) but want true dressers indtead of tubs and wall stuff. Want to sew and love basement.. don't want walls covered.. want art and more fancy room stuff in basement. Going for dressers for Christmas, sweaters.. and sometimes buffet peices.. do not want a Rubbermaid look! I want to do something amazing with my basement too.. not sure exactly but more living room, play room, art studio with storage much lower than normal storage rooms. Also having a vac & broom in the have closet.