Creating space

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Principle 11: Use edges and value the marginal

If you have stuff, then you need places to put it. When we moved into the house a few months ago everything lived on the floor, or in boxes stacked up on top of each other. Having used up the money that we borrowed from our local Credit Union we have needed to be innovative with the materials that we have.
Since the house is small (about 100m2 floorspace) we have attempted to make maximum use of vertical space, using as little floorspace as possible. Getting organised has been very important, everything has it's place - even though it all looks a bit chaotic, there is an order to it. As there is always lots to do around the house, projects get prioritised according to need (the squeaky wheel gets oiled first).
In demonstrating this principle I have used edge spaces (corners, walls and recesses) and 'marginal' materials to produce benches and shelves. All of the materials used in this project were either found or left over from the building / deconstruction process.

Section of flooring recovered from local demolition being cleaned up for use as a laundry bench
Laundry bench in place and loaded up, pretty well unchanged since we moved in
Sanding back hardwood rafters and studs from original building to use for shelving, offcuts used for firewood
The edges were sanded back by hand and surface painted with bio-priming oil
Bench and shelving underneath in laundry / hallway
Built in wardrobe with three shelves fitted in bedroom two, galvanised pipe used for hanging clothes
Built in wardrobe in bedroom two filled up to the top
Two shelves fitted to bedroom one wardrobe, with enough room for plastic boxes which can be used like drawers
Shelving made from hardwood studs recycled from old house, old ladder used for support
Shelving in bedroom one

Comments

Anonymous said…
tidy work. just encountered a dead link on the upper diary image top right by the way.. -d
September 14, 2010 at 10:36 PM
Richard said…
Thanks for that, resolved now.
September 15, 2010 at 5:14 AM
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