Old House Love; Character and Charm and ZERO Storage

“I’m a minimalist, it’ll be fine!” you say?

That’s what we also said roughly three years ago when we bought our home that was built in the year 1900. With one main closet in the living room and a makeshift closet that was added by a previous owner, we quickly learned we’d have to get creative.

Who doesn’t love a historic home with it’s gorgeous fireplace, crown moulding, and tall ceilings? If you’re nodding your head with a dreamy gaze, you’re not alone, and if you’ve ever lived in one of these beauties, you can probably sympathize with other historic home owners who have very little storage in their homes. “I’m a minimalist, it’ll be fine!” you say? That’s what we also said roughly three years ago when we bought our home that was built in the year 1900. As we began moving our belongings into our new digs, we started realizing we didn’t have a place to put key items like bathroom towels, extra bed linens, throws, curtains and other textiles. In the tiny kitchen, we found there was very little cupboard space, nowhere to store our common appliances like the toaster, blender, and mixer- let alone pots and pans. With one main closet in the living room and a makeshift closet that was added by a previous owner, we quickly learned we’d have to get creative, and even though our circumstances happen to be that we’re in love with an old house, maybe yours is just that you plain don’t have enough storage. Either way, we have ideas to help remedy.

A history lesson: Why are there few to no closets in old houses?

As you might imagine, during the time when many of today’s historical homes were built, people didn’t own more than a few articles of clothing, which also means they didn’t need much storage space. The handful of items they did own were usually folded and placed in a trunk or a chest of drawers, or hung from a wall hook. Later, as people began needing space to store their clothing, they started using freestanding pieces of furniture like armoires, or chifforobes. Closets were used as places of privacy, for study, or discreet conversations. Personal valuables were typically kept in a cupboard and not necessarily in the bedroom.

Here are four creative ideas for adding storage to your home.

RULE 1: furniture must have storage

Drawers under the bed, armoires, drawers added within the closet, trunks double as tables and decor, our office desks have lots of drawers- the rule has become; if we purchase a piece of furniture, it must have storage of some form.

Where there is none, create

This is where we store our towels. There are only two of us, so it works, but maybe not so much for a large family.

Cooking pots can make quaint decor

We built this long skinny table to add shelf-like space to an otherwise useless void. Bonus: the hooks underneath hold our pots and pans. Bonus #2: we think the pans actually look rather charming and fit the historic vibe well.

Deep closets + tall ceilings =
room for high shelving

Another bit of open space between the top of the closet door and the ceiling? You bet we’re going to put it to use! See below for the the shelving that we’ve added above the closet door in the living room. The best part, it’s completely hidden from view when looking into the closet.

We write about all things house and home because we’re slightly obsessed, which is in part why we make great real estate agents. If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in the future, we’d be honored if you’d include us in your process of interviewing local real estate agents here in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Call, email, or text Santiago at
santiago@kw.com :: 616.337.0564