House Beautiful

TRANSFORM AWKWARD SPACES INTO USEFUL PLACES

October 2009

'The hallway’s much tidier now'

JENNI ARDITTI and her husband, broadcaster Nicky Horne, both in their fifties, live with two of Jenny's three grown-up sons, Joseph, 26, and Jake, 22, in a detached Edwardian house in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London

'We've lived here for 12 years and the house has always needed more storage space. Nicky is my second husband and although his two children didn’t live with us, my three sons did, and the hall soon became a dumping ground for their stuff. Coats would be slung on the banister and bags left on the floor.

'I'm a bit of a neatness freak, and it's important to me that everything has its own place to live. It was obvious that the small alcove by the front door was wasted space. I did some measurements and worked out that we could take this small area – just 240cm high, 130cm wide and 700cm deep – and turn it into a shoe, coat and bag closet with sliding doors.

'On one side, I planned to have shoe shelves and on the other a double hanging rail, with a shelf for hats, gloves and scarves. I also wanted a space at the bottom for bags.

'Fitting the closet only took a morning. Everything was measured very carefully beforehand and then brought over in pieces to be fitted. I can’t tell you the difference it has made. Now I can fit in about 20 pairs of shoes side by side, and there's somewhere to keep bags and coats properly, too.

Designing walk-in wardrobes is my business; now I've put it into practice in my own home. Family life can be so busy and chaotic and I really wanted to create a feeling of order and relative calm when we walk in through the front door. I think that's important and we’ve managed to achieve it here.'

Professional solutions to make the most of family space

1. Use rubber hangers; clothes don't slip off them. They're also much thinner than wooden ones so more clothes can be fitted into a small space.
2. Choose funky or interesting hooks to encourage the family to hang coats up. They can be used in any small space that isn't big enough to fit a closet.
3. The space under the stairs is often messy, with items just flung in. Create order with stepped hooks for hanging up coats and bags.