7 furniture hacks for your living room
BY READERS DIGEST
1st Jan 2015 Home & Garden
Whether you’re trying to put your stamp on rented accommodation, redecorate on a budget, or find the best ways to make the most out of a small space, there are some truly innovative furniture hacks explained online. Here are seven of our favourites to help get you started with your refurbishment:
1. Under Stairs Bookcase
Image source: Ikea Hackers
If you have stairs in your living room, it can be easy to assume that the space under them simply has to be written off. However, this under stair bookcase ensures that no sliver of space goes to waste. Using a combination of CD towers and bookcases ensures that you don’t have to break the bank buying tailor made furniture. This is also a great option for storage in attic rooms with sloped roofs.
2. Craft Corner
Image source: A Little Learning For Two
Do you have a child? Too big for their old cot? Turn their old crib into a craft table, and place it in your living room - it looks great, and it means you can keep an eye on your little one.
3. Simple sideboard
Image source: Ikea Hackers
A sideboard offers great options for storage as well as acting as an aesthetically pleasing interior design feature. Either place your chests of drawers right next to one another, or create open shelves in the gaps between with pine planks.
4. Mini office in a chest
Image source: Martha Stewart
This is a great example of a space saving furniture hack. It’s likely that you have a range of papers that you need to keep, and it’s likely that organising these papers is a bit of a nightmare. Fitting a chest out with hanging folder file cases and painting it to fit with your colour scheme makes for a filing system so cute you’ll be happy to keep it in your living room. Consider topping it with a foam cushion, and you’ll have a great option for extra seating.
5. Bench seat with storage
Image Source: Ikea Hackers
If you aren’t specifically looking to store files, this is a fashionable approach to seating with plenty of storage. If the drawers on either side as seen in this example don’t appeal to you, lining a wall with sturdy bookcases on their sides and fitting doors to each compartment will look equally stylish. Find material to fit with your colour scheme, and either make your own seat cushions, or have an upholsterer put them together.
6. Blanket ladder
If you have an old wooden ladder lying around, lean it against your living room wall, and use it to hang your blankets and throws on. The example shows a ladder used for elegantly hanging towels in a bathroom, but the idea can easily be transformed for use in your living room.
7. Side table
Image Source: Ermerja Design
Magazine files can easily be put together, and set on top of a stool for an incredibly simple yet stylish side table. This table offers great storage options, and can be decorated however you like.
