10 Savvy Storage Solutions for Converted Attics

Find a home for all your stuff in the upper reaches of the house

Lara Sargent May 19, 2016

Houzz UK contributor. Freelance interiors journalist with over 20 years' experience writing for national magazines, newspapers and websites.

Houzz UK contributor. Freelance interiors journalist with over 20 years' experience... More

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Most of us would like to carve out more space in our homes, and converting the attic is one way of boosting square footage. Whether you’re transforming yours into an extra bedroom, a home office or a living space, you might need to overcome sloping walls and tricky angles, which can be a challenge when it comes to storage. But that just means you have to be smart about it. Get the most out of your room in the roof with these ideas.

Stiff and Trevillion

1. Work with the eaves. This bank of built-in cabinets makes the most of every inch while barely encroaching on the room, offering masses of storage, including one big closet in the tallest section.

The use of color works well. White doors blend into the rest of the room, keeping the storage discreet, and rich purple interiors offer a little surprise and shot of personality when the doors are opened.

Maxwell & Company Architects

2. Line walls with low-level cabinets. With loft conversions, letting in enough light is crucial. In many cases, that means skylights galore, but this can reduce your storage options.

All is not lost, however. Make full use of the bottom section of the wall with long, lean, low-slung units, like these, that stretch the length of the room. This can be a fairly cost-effective solution, too, as you can join up lots of compact, off-the-shelf units rather than having to go custom.

Morgan Harris Architects Ltd

3. Max out on mirrors. If you want to create a bit of a walk-in closet feel, try cladding drawer fronts and cabinet doors in mirrored glass to magically open up a space and allow natural daylight to bounce around.

The drawers and cabinets in this space offer tons of storage without crowding the room.

DMVF Architects

4. Consider customized storage. Tailor-made storage may be more expensive than off-the-shelf solutions, but it’s a godsend for tricky-shaped rooms and awkward angles.

If your loft conversion is going to serve as your master bedroom, it might be worth shelling out for a wall of customized closets, drawers and nooks, with a dedicated place for all the things you need to store.

The custom storage in this loft space blends seamlessly with the architecture and makes the most of all the odd nooks and crannies.

Scott Donald Architecture

5. Mix your levels. Don’t be afraid to play with all your available space and mix and match different levels of storage. What you can do with one wall might be totally different from what you can do with another, due to eaves, windows or other factors.

Here, a bank of relatively deep, tall closets is balanced by a floating drawer unit that offers storage space while maximizing the light.

Kia Designs

6. Tuck it under. Adding a separate level with storage drawers underneath is a genius design trick for loft conversions with a little more head height.

This way you can fit out the area underneath the raised platform (used here for the bed) with a variety of drawers and pullouts to hide away clothes and shoes.

Lark Architecture

7. Go big on underbed storage. If you have the height, try raising your bed to capitalize on the space beneath. You could fit in bookshelves, a desk or even a clothes rod. You might decide to go for a built-in option, or there are plenty of stylish off-the-shelf cabin beds available nowadays — perfect for teens.

Stiff and Trevillion

8. Incorporate a workstation. Loft conversions are great spots for home offices: They’re quiet, tucked out of sight of passing traffic and far enough from downstairs distractions, such as the TV or housework.

Whether for one or a pair of workers, a busy home office will need good, organized storage, so invest in simple, streamlined desks and cabinets (handle-free, if possible) that can be tucked along opposite walls to keep your paperwork and paraphernalia under control.

Stick to white for your furniture and walls, so your storage doesn’t intrude visually into the room, and your home-office hub will be a cool, calm and collected work center for optimum productivity.

Miriam Gassmann

9. Design a pullout bed. This wall of unusual storage even includes a bed. Statement handles and different-sized cabinets and drawers make the unit a feature, but without it taking up too much room.

Free-standing cubes offer flexibility — they can be used as bedside or occasional tables, or they can be removed altogether to free up the room.

Andrew Paine Architecture

10. Make baskets work hard. If you don’t have the budget to invest in built-in furniture but want to make the most of every last inch, try using baskets or wooden boxes for those awkward spaces that won’t accommodate any other type of furniture. It’s a cost-effective way to make the most of your space, and it looks cute, too.

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