Where to add storage spaces

last month

Hi design experts,

I am looking for some suggestions for adding storage spaces in our basement with minimal changes.

tldr is we need a lot of storage space (preferably a room or a space you can just close the door and non visible) in our basement but the house we bought is not designed for that. One place I am thinking about is to add a closet in place 1, and maybe adding a drywall in place 2, dividing it into two rooms but it makes the exercise/recreation room much smaller, any other suggestions/ideas?

Thank you in advance!

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Comments (7)

PRO
JAN MOYER
last month
last modified: last month
How would anyone know? Store what? Need how much space for the things you want to show versus hide?

Nobody can answer.

Basement storage is the land of forgotten forever, unless seasonal decor. Consider yourself warned.

Know that this site, has no psychics . No mind readers, either.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last month
More info need ans what is that space at the bottom of the stairs it says nook for what? Wht exactly is in the storage room you show and where are those things. I am a storage maniac becuse i like to know where everything is and so organized storage is a must but we need info Post here in comment sDO NOT start another post. Waht is in the large space you show do you have TV there so much needed to get help.
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Lily (BTW, that is my cat's name!) The entry to the bedroom is to the right of the cat room. When you are walking past the cat room, you take a right and pass by the opening of the cat room, and then by the bathroom entry on the left and the closet entry on the right, then you keep going until you get to the bedroom. I don’t have a door on the closet because I will be able to see a pretty view through a big window in the opposite bathroom. The closet its huge so I don’t technically need more space, but having a 6 ft wall with just a mirror on it seemed wasteful to me. Yes, the negative would be if I found a great sculpture and it’s bigger than I could fit in the niche!! Other than that, if the casing of the foyer is okay to create the ‘wall/border’ of the niche, then that is great! I love your idea about forming a casing on both sides of the sculpture to really put a frame around it. Hopefully I’ll find something before the house is built! Because I have the space, I AM going to get one of those 3 way mirrors :) I was going to do one of two things. One option is to have 3 mirrors on entire wall opposite the cat room and the niche, and the two outer mirrors would adjust when I wanted the 3-way function. And yes, I was hoping for storage behind all 3 mirrors but it works even if I don't add storage (the mirrors would be the cabinet doors). If I didn’t care about the niche, I could have full hanging space behind the mirrors too. OR, I saw this photo and was wondering if this is a good option if I don’t add more space to the closet. I could keep a little storage behind the two outer sides that project, and the center mirror would be flat against the wall. Then you adjust the side mirrors when needed. The negative is the two side mirrors (the wings) would be a little bit in the way of accessing the hanging clothes on either side. I imagine I don't have space for the shelves on the sides so the side mirrors may look odd just hanging out there.
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As an update, after spending some time with this over the holidays, we aren't really feeling the various iterations that would allow laundry--it seems like we'd really have to take out the lower lefthand window entirely to make that work and even then the flow wouldn't be ideal. The most viable spot seems to be where the coats and broom closet are if we move the door, so we'll keep that as a future option. That lands us with storage and a baking counter along the lower lefthand wall. (This is what is already there, except right now it's on freestanding shelves and carts.) This leaves a couple of dilemmas: length and depth of baking counter. We have 24.5" of clearance for a counter in the corner before hitting the bottom window (and only 20" if we want to clear the window moulding too, which would probably look better and be simpler). This feels too shallow to be useful for rolling dough, etc., so I'm considering keeping counters 20" deep on the ends with the section under the window coming out to 28" or so. Second question is the length. The window opening is exactly 36", and with the moulding, it's 46" long. So if we stick with stock cabinetry (which I would like to do from a cost perspective) this could be a 21"/36"/21" split along this wall, or a 15"/48"/15" (both with a couple of inches of filler on each end). The first feels like more useful storage, but will it look strange to follow the window opening vs. the moulding? As far as utility, this will all be drawers below with two 18" open bookcases on either side of the window, and much of what will be stored here is moving out of an existing 32" drawer bank, so the 36" seems more than adequate. Two 24" drawer banks would also work. Thank you!
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PRO
Norwood Architects
last month
Will caution you that you will need to provide direct egress if you have a bedroom in the basement. The window must be sized to meet International Residential code requirements.
AnnKH
last month
I'm with the others - unless we know what you need to store, we can't help you. Some things I need space for: winter storage for patio furniture; Christmas decorations; suitcases; tubs of kids' toys (grandkids are in our future); sports equipment (golf clubs, ski boots); camping gear (including down sleeping bags hanging, not stuffed); power tools and hand tools, and a place to use them.

I'm looking at the den - 16' x 16' is a big room. Instead of a little closet at the bottom, I'd add storage to the left wall. Whether that's closets, cabinets, or shelves depends on what is being stored, and what you use the room for.
kandrewspa
last month
I don't know why you couldn't put a wall up to create space #2, but I don't know what you need to store or how much room you need to have left in the Recreation/Exercise space area. When creating #2, you could make it standard closet space depth and have almost 16 feet of reach-in closet space. Install several double doors so you can easily access all the space. Or make it 6-8' deep and then you would have something similar to a walk-in closet. Then you could have 12-24" deep shelves on both sides. Allow 30-36" for a walkway. Is there any ductwork in the ceiling that would make a particular size more logical (you could hide ductwork in the closet)?
PRO
Debbi Washburn
last month
Not sure how wide it is going to the bedroom or what you are use that sitting area for ( it seems odd ) . I would run a set of 24-30" deep closets fromt he bedroom all the way down into the recreation room. Then do another closet outside the utility ( move the door into the utility room).

I find that storage ina basement seems to be best when it is reach in closets as opposed to a walk where you are wasting floor space.

good luck!
Linjie Peng
Original Author
last month
Hi thanks everyone for the comments. I should’ve been more specific: we want to make the bedroom/den as our guest bedroom so we couldn’t make the whole room a storage room.The exercise room we want to make a gym + family room if i divide like my picture number 2, it will be small to do both, however making the sitting area as a storage room is weird too.

The storage room we need to store: 8 suitcase (3 small, 5 large), several heavy duty totes (10), some other boxes, some camping stuff, and a few other seasonal things: wall arts, some decorations, Christmas tree, some small appliances like humidifiers, air purifiers etc

Where to add storage spaces

Comments (7)

JAN MOYER

Patricia Colwell Consulting

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Norwood Architects

AnnKH

kandrewspa

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Linjie Peng
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Where to add storage spaces

Comments (7)

JAN MOYER

Patricia Colwell Consulting

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Norwood Architects

AnnKH

kandrewspa

Debbi Washburn

Linjie PengOriginal Author

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Linjie Peng
Original Author