Five Ways I Turned Storage into Decoration

One thing that is synonymous with living in New York is LIMITED space. Housing in the city tends to be small and horribly laid out. As such one definitely has to get creative about decoration and storage (and often combining the two). Take a look at a few ways I made the most use out of my apartment space and hopefully you can incorporate some of these ideas into your home. 

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Multipurpose Furniture

Look, New York is expensive…like EXPENSIVE expensive, and you can’t always afford that two-bedroom apartment or the spot with office space you might ideally want, so most people have to come up with ways to make rooms and spaces multifunctional. In my case, I have an additional seating space in my living area. I decided to use a sofa that also converts into a bed in this section of the room so that I can have additional seating for guests during kickbacks, as well as host people to stay overnight despite having only having a one-bedroom apartment.

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Books as Accessories

Books…I have a lot of them. When I started decorating my apartment, I quickly realized that finding space for all of them would be…an issue lol. In gathering design inspiration, I noticed that I could use my large (in number and actual size) book collection throughout the rooms as a part of the décor itself. Aside from filling in “white spaces,” the books also serve as somewhat of an extension of my personality and showcase my interests including fashion, design, art and history.

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Food Containers as Decoration

In the city, kitchens in particular are notoriously small and finding places to store essentials can in itself be a challenge. For folks who also want to make their kitchen a little more “festive,” this could prove to be difficult to say the least. A solution I (kind of) came up with - was inspired by Khloe Kardashian - were my (in)famous cookie jars. Strategically stacking Oreos in large glass jars proved to be the perfect decorative, yet functional touch for my countertop. If you did not want to use cookies, you could also use other aesthetically pleasing foods such as different types of pasta or candy.

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Styled Display Units

Sometimes your space simply does not come with enough built-in storage, so you have to add your own. As someone who has a pretty sizeable wardrobe, I decided to work with the Container Store to install some additional storage/shelving in my bedroom. Not only did this allow extra places to put shoes and clothing bins, we designed it to also house my television, as well as sunglasses, other accessories and designer boxes I wanted to include for decoration. 

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Collections as “Art” Installations

In the words of one interior designer “everyone should collect something.” I will take that further and say that everyone should collect something they love and/or brings them joy. For me, I have been collecting sneakers for almost a decade and frankly, it has been a challenge figuring out how to store all of them. A such, I came up with the idea to install a “sneaker wall,’ stacking the sneakers around my bed in the bedroom. Hear me out – my thinking was to create an art installation of sorts that also served a practical purpose. I used clear sneaker boxes from the Container Store, and worked with a member of their team to measure everything to fit both the room and the number of sneakers (and counting) in my collection. The result is beautiful and impactful (people literally gasp when they see it in person), but also provides easy access to my collection and decorates what would have otherwise been another white wall.

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