Great Bedroom Storage Ideas

Storage is the most important element in a bedroom after the bed. Here’re some bedroom storage ideas to put essentials and objects where they can be easily reached and yet make best use of available space. The trick is to match the storage to the objects. Storage facilities ideally need to be adapted to each individual, which means that ready-made systems or pieces of furniture are often not the best solution, because they are likely to address a general storage problem rather than your own.


Bedroom Storage Ideas for Clothing

Different styles of clothing require different storage solutions. Here are some basic guidelines for general dimensions:

  • Long coats and dresses require a considerable amount of full-length hanging space, usually calculated at a maximum height of 5ft 3in (1.6 m).

  • T-shirt, jeans, sweaters, shirt, hats and handbags need either many shallow shelves or drawers measuring 1ft by 1ft 10in. Deep shelves tend to result in piles that fall over.

    The custom shelves each hold a single pristine tailored shirt



  • Wardrobe depths should be at least 2 ft (60 cm) to hold a full-sized coat hanger complete with clothes handing on it.

  • Wardrobes heights up till ceiling are recommended though you think you won’t need the space. It’s guaranteed that these will soon be filled with bulky, awkward things. In the bedroom below, the owner built a wall of walnut-veneered doors to hide away everything that might need storage.

    Wall of custom-fitted wardrobe



    Hanging space is often best divided into 2: one above and another below. The associated access problems of an upper hanging space have been resolved with the introduction of wardrobe lifts; weighed hanging rails that pull down by means of a central rod.

    Shoe storage can be made with:

  • racks (as shown below)

    An inexpensive storage solution - success of this storage depends on the discipline to be neat and tidy


  • on sloping pull-out shelves

  • in clear plastic boxes

  • in their original boxes with a Polaroid taped to the front detailing the footwear treasures within

  • in hanging fabric units




  • Bedroom Storage Ideas - The Wardrobe

    Free-standing wardrobes can be challenging to integrate. This is because they take up a large amount of space and are rarely designed to work with your particular clothing problems. The obvious alternative is a fitted wardrobe, or a combination of cupboards and wardrobe. You may break the wall of doors up with color, architectural details and carefully chosen knobs.

    The example below shows fitted cupboards with staggered units of varying depths. The doors are furnished with large and striking handles.

    Bedroom Storage Ideas – Staggered Cupboards



    Another alternative is to have a mix of shelves and cupboards covering an entire wall (see below left). The design looks neat and streamlined with the doors are closed and yet suits the storage of virtually every possible type of clothing and object.

    Note also the wall of drawers hidden behind wardrobe doors for the picture below right.

    Bedroom Storage Ideas – Hidden Cupboards Bedroom Storage Ideas - Hidden Drawers

    Bedroom Storage Ideas with Shelves

    If you incorporate drawers or shelves into built-in units, make them plentiful, shallow and consider fronting them with plastic, glass or cut-out section for easy recognition. Remember to allow room for garments that are not used every day, such as sports equipment and skiing clothes.

    Bedroom Storage Ideas – Staggered Shelves



    You may also want to have open shelves as shown below. For the bedroom shown below right, the shelves are in translucent acrylic with an almost conceptual display of clothing, staggered along one side of a bedroom. The regularity and order of such a display is visually stimulating, but also requires a highly methodical approach.

     Bedroom Storage Ideas - Open Shelves Bedroom Storage Ideas – Shallow Shelves



    Custom wardrobe is also suitable for small bedrooms. One of the many small bedroom decor tips is to use a wall of fitted storage to make the room look larger and properly planned. This in turn will reduce the need for other furniture.

    Also, bear in mind that it is no good storing something that you cannot easily access when you need it. Although it might make sense to put, say, seasonal clothes away in high cupboards when the season changes, it makes very little sense to use those same high cupboards for things you use regularly.


    Alternative Bedroom Storage Ideas

    Although shelves, hanging rails and drawers are the most conventional forms of storage, there are other bedroom storage ideas, including boxes, baskets, free-standing rails, and even bags. As with any other furniture, storage should be chosen to complement the style of the room. And storage solutions do not necessarily have to be expensive – shelves divided into different section, for example, can provide a good basic system, as can different heights of hanging rail, perhaps screened from view by a curtain or blind.

    The first example shows Japanese-style shoji panels which are a less rigid solution to conventional doors.

    An elegant Japanese-inspired storage doors


    In the picture below, a storage system has been constructed using wicker baskets of different dimensions as drawers. Hanging space is incorporated into the system which has been carefully planned.

    Bedroom Storage Ideas – Storage with Baskets



    There are now many companies and stores that specializes in storage, offering ideas ranging from the small but clever (plastic pockets for shoes that hang from a hook) to the large and expensive (complete systems tailor-made to fit your room). But remember always to plan the storage around the objects that need storing, rather than the other way round. Storage space can extend beyond the confines of a single dedicated unit:

  • Beneath the bed – the space that can be used, either shallow containers or built in unit. Note also that anything stored beneath the bed, whether in boxes or trays must be covered to protect from dust

  • Bedhead – In a larger bedroom, there may be space to build a bedhead wall that can be made into a userful open shelf unit

  • Under stairs, sloping roof or obscure corners – shelving units


  • Bedroom Storage Ideas – Storage with Odd Spaces



  • Spare bedroom, corridor, hall – the space can be annexed to include a walk-in wardrobe or dressing area

  • Look out for old wardrobe trunks in sales and junk shops for useful and decorative storage at the end or side of the bed. In the simple bedroom below, a tradtional blanket chest in woven wicker provides storage at the end of the bed





  • Return to the top of bedroom storage ideas.