Dining Room Storage

Everyone ready for another entry into "Kai Does Not Know How to Photoshop"?  You would think I'd be too embarrassed to show you how much I suck at it, but since 80% of the suckage is due to the fact that I don't have enough time to write a blog post, much less design moodboards for them, so I'm okay with total strangers laughing at my complete lack of skills.

Let me introduce you to the dining room.

Forgive me for once again posting pictures from when we first moved into the place.  It's just easier to explain what I'm talking about without exposing my mismatched/half-finished dining room as a giant distraction.

I love our dining space - it's large enough for our table and some storage.  The problem is, I've been seesawing back and forth as to where that storage should go and what type of storage it should be.  Now that the table and rug are in place, storage is the last big item that I need to find.  So it's decision time.

With only one full wall, I've always envisioned putting the storage there.

Flanking bookshelves?

A credenza?

A whole wall of shelving?

Since this back wall is the first thing you see when you walk into my house, I want to make sure whatever I do there doesn't make the entire place feel smaller - which any large storage piece has the possibility of doing.  Something with mirrors would be nice, but probably pricy.

I went back to the drawing board (literally) and started playing around with the idea of moving the storage to the same wall as the sliding glass door.  The door is centered on the wall, so there's about 48 inches on either side.  Even when you take some of that away for curtains, that's still three feet of storage space for a total of six feet - which is pretty much the same amount I would get on the large wall.


That's right, I threw in a table and some curtains.  It's practically 3-D.

I love the idea of using Ikea wall cabinets hung low to make two floating cabinets.  Eliminating the legs of a piece makes the space feel larger.  And wall cabinets are designed for dishware, so they're a better choice than using bookshelves like I previously posted about.  Here are a few awesome Ikea cabinets turned into floating credenzas that I found.

Fauxdenza via Door Sixteen



The Brick House Floating Credenza



Made By Girl Floating Cabinets

I really love the above - only with a slightly more rustic top (like the middle picture).  By my calculations, I'll need two 36" wide wall cabinets.  I love the glossy look to the doors, but for some reason that makes them much more expensive, so I'll probably get the plain ones and dress them up with some pretty knobs.

I also loved how Naomi dressed up these Ikea shelves with some gold spray paint.  So I thought I could put them above for extra open storage.

I'm 79% sold on the idea.  I just have to get the supplies.  Then there is still the big wall to address...