Home DIY - Thinking out of the Box
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Exploiting wasted Space
What can be achieved with a bit of Home DIY by thinking out of the box and exploiting hidden and wasted space? Here are a few simple ideas with some examples, including before and after photos, projects including a built in Larder in a doorway, making a kitchen smaller to make it bigger and in the process creating a cloakroom, utilising and building on from existing furniture to create a built in Welsh Dresser; turning the old fireplace into a display unit and revamping an old bathroom.
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Built in Larder
Creating storage space in a doorway
Based on a 1950's style larder, built in to a space replacing what was previously a brick arch. Although the brick arch was architecturally attractive, at 4ft (1.22m) wide it was a space waster when storage space is premium. In taking down the brick arch there's ample space to retain a standard width doorway and beside it squeeze in a custom-built fitted cupboard; as shown in the before and after photos below.This design is based on an old 1950's freestanding larder that belonged to my grandparents and the enamel bread board from the original larder was fitted into the pull-down worktop. The Carcass is built from 18mm exterior plywood and the shelves, doors and drawers are constructed from pine.
Larder
Pull Down Worktop
Below the pull-down worktop are spice drawers and vegetable drawers. The spice drawers are used for anything other than spice, ideal for storing all those little things that tend to get lost in the back of other drawers. The vegetable drawers are made from pine, including their bases all of which have five large 1 inch (25mm) vent holes. The drawers were given several coats of varnish for easy washing. Each of these three drawers is designed to take the weight of 10kg of potatoes. I did evaluate commercial vegetable racks to fit the space as an alternative but they're all poorly designed and none of them could take the weight of the potatoes and if we tried they would have been top heavy, not lest to say they would have ill fitted the space available. Larder Bread Bin
Flap and shelving
After brick arch removed and before Larder built
After completion of Larder
New Built in Larder in Kitchen
Fitted Kitchen
Making it smaller to make it bigger
The Larder mentioned above was just part of a larger project to modernise the kitchen and install fitted kitchen units, which are covered in full in a separate Squidoo. Here is just a before and after photo showing where a section of the old kitchen was boarded off to create more storage space. Previously, the back door was in the corner of the kitchen (behind the plasterboard in the photo) creating dead-space in a huge area of the kitchen because access to the door was needed. Blocking off that end of the kitchen reclaimed a lot of usable space that could be reutilised for cupboards and worktops. The old back door in the space behind the plasterboard was bricked up and a doorway to the space was knocked through from the living room to create a cloakroom (see the before and after photos here). The new back door was made in the opposite side wall away from the corners to maximise on space and usage, as seen in the photos below. New kitchen cupboards where back door use to be
Creation of wall space for cupboards
The New Cloak Room
New Kitchen door - During construction
New Kitchen Door - Completed
Welsh Dresser
Addition to existing Alcove cupboard
New Built-in Welsh Dresser
Fireplace
Making use of hidden space
Once full central heating had been installed and the fireplace has become redundant we ripped-out the more modern surround and brick facing to reveal the original opening; which as it turned out was quite large and square, therefore I plastered and decorated it and added fitted glass shelves. I then knocked through the chimney breast to reveal the wasted space behind, and with help from a friend (a retired builder) we built a recessed brick arch, in which I fitted a wooden back and base, made good and decorated, and finished it with more plate glass shelve. Display shelves in old fireplace
2nd Bathroom
Utilising spare space
A previous occupant had portioned off the end of the main bedroom to create an en-suite bathroom, but did little more than install a cheap plastic bath with a few tiles around the top of it. Therefore when a friend was getting rid of his old enamelled iron-cast bath I took it off his hands, gutted the en-suite bathroom and with the help of two friends (it was heavy) dragged the iron cast bathroom upstairs to install into the 2nd bathroom which was then fully tiled and decorated; a solid oak floor was laid and to finish oak panelling installed up the side of the bath. The remaining oak boards were used to create a built in vanity unit with glass shelves above. Great DIY Stuff on Amazon
Your Feedback and Comments
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bakerwoman Feb 9, 2012 @ 1:44 pm | delete
- You are indeed a great handyman extraordinaire. Thanks for sharing the photos and tips to inspire all of us.
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senditondown
Feb 5, 2012 @ 2:55 pm | delete
- Great utilization of all your home's space. Nice job.
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MysticTurtle
Nov 16, 2011 @ 6:52 pm | delete
- You've done a great job finding and utilizing otherwise wasted space! I love your ideas.
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spritequeen
Nov 11, 2011 @ 2:57 pm | delete
- Very nice lens. Thank you for the information.
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Joan4
Jul 16, 2011 @ 6:11 am | delete
- I really like the way you have made unused space more usable, especially the larder.
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