14 Smart & Sexy Storage Solutions

In perhaps the most tenuous of Valentine’s content hooks, I thought I’d take a look at how you can add functional storage to your home but, you know, make it sexy.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have been horrified to see the inside of our garage on my stories a few weeks ago. The secret is finally out; I do have my own version of ‘Monica’s Closet’ and it isn’t pretty.

Despite what you might see here, we don’t live in a pristine show home all of the time. However, one thing that has helped to keep our house looking relatively tidy most of the time, is the addition of smart storage that helps us to hide away some of the day-to-day clutter (anything that hasn’t yet been relegated to the garage of doom). We’re not The Home Edit level organised in this house, but storage potential has been a key consideration with most of our furniture purchases.

So, here’s a look at 14 of my favourite pieces of sexy storage – some of which we have in our home already and others that are most definitely on the lust list – eye hearts all round, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Locker Love

We browsed and agonised over the right storage solution for our dining room for well over a year. I love mid century style wooden sideboards and we saw some lovely original/ vintage options and contemporary copies too but in the end, we were won over by the fun colours and industrial style of the Mustard Made Lowdown Locker when we spotted it in the window of the lovely BTS Concept Store in summer 2019 and it came home with us that day.

‘The Lowdown’ locker in Ocean, £249 from mustard made Available to order locally from BTS Concept Store

Due to our large dining room table, we needed something compact but that would still pack in useful storage and this has been a great solution for us. It comes with adjustable shelves, and has handy holes punched out of the back, which is useful if you want to use it as a media unit.

We have a stereo tucked away inside and our record player on top and just open the doors when we want to play a record. Plus, it comes in a great range of colours too. We opted to tone in with our blue room hues but we could have chosen a contrasting colour.

Skinny Love

I’d love one of the Mustard Skinny lockers, or even better, one of the new Twinny double lockers as a wardrobe/ extra storage for our bedroom and another for our guest room – one day! Check out the full range at mustardmade.co.uk

‘The Skinny’ in blush and mustard, £229 from mustard made Available to order locally from BTS Concept Store

Thinking Outside the Plant Box

Plant Box, £185/ €199 from ferm living Available locally from Maven.

One of my first purchases for the house was our Ferm Living Plant Box. It was one of those items that I had been ogling well before we ever contemplated buying our own home and when I saw it on display in Maven on the Lisburn Road, I just had to have it.

Initially we used it solely as a plant box but due to the contractual compromise that comes with marriage, last year I relented and gave over half of it to record storage. I’ve come round to the idea now, actually and I love the fact we have a little record room set-up in the dining room and a rather pleasing pop of pastel colour contrast too.

Plant One on Me

I’ve got my eye on the new Ferm Living Large Plant Box that has a lower height profile and a rather sexy option to add an oak tray or top, and/or an additional taller plant box to bring a multi-height dimension to the piece. This configuration essentially gives you two thirds of the box for storage but still leaves a sizeable box for a nice leafy green plant. This is definitely on the wish list for our hallway.

Plant Box Large, £245 / €269 from ferm living Available locally from Maven. Corresponding black or oak tray/tops and colour coordinated taller large plant boxes are sold separately.

 A Match Made in Heaven

I spotted this lovely multifunctional side table and magazine rack on April and The Bear’s Insta stories earlier and I have been hovering over the ‘add to basket’ button ever since. I have been looking for a magazine rack and a side table and this just seems like the perfect – two birds with one stone solution, don’t you think?

Wooden Side Table / Magazine Rack, €72 from April and The Bear

 Mixing things up in the Bedroom

Our next big project is going to be a makeover of our master bedroom, en suite and dressing room. I am in the market for some new bedside tables to go with our new scheme, which I hope is going to include a switch to a darker hue – potentially an olive green. I’m thinking natural wood and a mid-century style would help create the boutique hotel room vibe I’m aiming for.

Penelope Bedside Tabl 3-drawer, £699, West Elm

I have been lusting after West Elm’s Penelope 3-drawer marble topped bedsides for years now. The lovely Marianne of Smyth Sisters Instagram fame has them (or at least she did in her last house) but at £699 a pop, sadly I think I will have to wait for a surprise windfall before we can afford them. A girl can dream…

Great Bedside Manner

I’m also drawn to the aesthetic of these gorgeous Alba semicircle modular beside tables by Woodendot. They’re cleverly designed so you can hide wires/a book behind the back panel and have a lovely minimal vibe. But alas, I think we do need something with a little more storage, or we’d have a rather creative storage solution on the floor…

Alba L Semicircle modular bedside table with storage, €279 from Wooden Dot

She-IY

Ok, I know this is a bit ridiculous but I just love this Grib Toolbox by Ferm Living. I mean, who says DIY has to be manly? I can almost visualise this beauty sitting pretty in my perfectly organised fantasy tool shed / summer house. This would equally look great for storing other household bits and bobs or utensils, as the picture below shows. Or perhaps an alternative desk tidy?

Ferm Living Grib Toolbox £65, available from BTS Concept Store.

Making WFH Sexy

In one of our OG lockdown makeovers, we turned our back bedroom into a home office. It’s a small but hardworking space and storage has been really important – from the pimped-up Billy bookcases with magazine display shelves to the Ikea day bed with built-in drawers.

Trolley Dolly

I picked up an Ikea Raskog trolley last year and it’s a godsend, helping to keep all my make-up and cosmetics in one place. It generally lives in the office, so it’s within easy reach, in the event of unexpected video calls but it can easily be wheeled from room to room.

Raskog Trolley, £39 from Ikea

There are a few phwoar worthy pieces that I have my eye on / that I think would really help to make home working a little more attractive. Top of the list is the All-Day Tray by Lozi Designs – a bespoke birch plywood multifunctional piece that means you can work anywhere in your home. Variety is the spice of WFH life but my makeshift solutions for getting comfortable and achieving a semi flattering angle for a Zoom calls are getting a bit tiresome almost a year on. Plus, isn’t this so pretty?

All-Day Tray, from £198 from Lozi Designs

I love the idea of being able to mix up my WFH routine and this beauty would have so many uses – sitting on the floor, the sofa, even putting it on top of your desk for a standing solution. It’d be great for the garden in the summer too, if we ever get any sunshine. Plus, you can also stow your laptop, pen and notebook away under the adjustable lid when work is done and use it as a little table – taking you straight from work to TV dinner. Ok, I’m in full-on purchase justification mode here. I think I should just buy it and be done with it. Someone agree with me. Please…

Don’t Miss the Memo

If I didn’t already have something similar, this cute industrial style wire memo board from Cox and Cox – complete with attached wooden storage boxes would also be going in the basket.

Wire memo board, £95 from Cox and Cox

Clear the Desk

I don’t know about you but I struggle with a clear desk policy at home, more than I would in the office. I like the idea of this vertical laptop stand from Woodendot – wouldn’t it be a nice little ritual at the end of the work day to stow away your laptop and come back to a clear desk in the morning?

Loma vertical laptop stand, €49 from Woodendot

Basket Case

Adding some baskets to the top of our kitchen cupboards gave us great storage but also helped to fill that odd dead space between the top of the cupboards and the ceiling. The fact that they’re used to store/hide most of the treats in this house makes them extra appealing too.

Milton Set of 3 Brown Rattan Storage Baskets, £38 from Wovenhill

Let’s Hang Out

Storage doesn’t have to take up loads of space to make a difference and help to keep clutter off the floor. Peg rails were amongst the best things we added to our utility room when we did it up last year. Things we use every day and need close to hand - the floor brush, dust pan, watering can, and a bag of face masks now hang from the peg rails and they look cute doing it too. This oak rack from Alaynas Home is rather nice.

Oak peg rail rack, £25, Alaynas Home

I’ve seen other people take this even further – the lovely Jo and Chris (Two Men and a Semi on Instagram) have used these as a contemporary take on a dado rail along a whole wall in their hallway and it looks sexy AF.