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Homes

Front Porch: Furniture can solve storage problems

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published January 20, 2006

After spending half my adult life living in Midwestern cities where generous storage was something I took for granted, it wasn't until I moved to Florida that I began to comprehend what it's like to have virtually none.

I longingly remember those basements, attics and garages as I grapple with stingy kitchen cabinet space and guest room closets so small I can barely find room to stack office supplies.

Short of giving away all my possessions and adopting the Spartan, sailboat live-aboard lifestyle, I wondered about ways to solve this problem without having to resort to expensive built-ins.

Jan Karamitsanis, who owns Jankara Fine Designs in South Tampa, thinks about the storage issue a lot. A mother of 7-year-old triplets who has serious space needs herself, Karamitsanis sees the latest in storage options during her frequent travels to interior design markets.

"Anywhere around Central Florida and south of here, you don't have basements," she says. "And if you do have an attic, it's probably hot and muggy. Storage really is a consistent problem for a lot of Floridians."

If you are beside yourself worrying about where to put stuff, Karamitsanis suggests multifunctional furniture, like new (but vintage-looking) cabinetry that displays china and glassware but also hides your flat-screen TV.

"There are even gorgeous, Italian-made beds with foot boards that can store everything from DVDs to books to jewelry," she says.

For space-challenged people living in rental apartments, lofts or small condos, she recommends stackable storage boxes in attractive colors that can be topped with a lamp and used as an end table.

Over the past year, she has started noticing some seismic transformations in the world of storage. Manufacturers are making increasingly attractive portable storage bins and magazine holders in colors that follow interior design trends, such as greens and oranges, mochas and reds.

Proof is in a quick online shopping trip where good-looking storage containers appear on myriad Web sites, from discount to home decor chains.

From Ikea (www.ikea.com) there's a wrought-iron and canvas wall-mounted newspaper rack for $14.99. Target offers four-piece canvas cubes and boxes in colors like sage and brick on its Web site (www.target.com) for $44.99.

Pier One Kids sells attractive four-drawer canvas storage towers on its Web site (www.pier1kids.com) for $77.40 on clearance. A selection of elaborate gourmet kitchen carts and portable buffet servers are available for less than $300 online from Wal-Mart (www.walmart.com)

Even chairs and stools can't just sit around and look pretty without earning their keep.

The Container Store (www.containerstore.com) offers a bamboo-lattice storage stool for $89, as well as white magazine-storage tables for $59.

Denise Clody, a designer with the Design Shoppe Inc., a longtime Sun City Center furniture store that also offers interior design services, suggests thinking about buying furniture that serves a variety of purposes, most importantly storage.

"Instead of an end table, you might want to consider a Bombay-style chest where you can store all sorts of things," she says.

In addition, forget about the single-use hall table once good for little else but throwing your keys, and think about using a chest of drawers.

The same thing holds true in the kitchen, she explains.

Think about bringing another chest of drawers to hold silverware or cooking utensils.

Or instead of a wine rack, buy a wine cabinet or wine chest to further maximize storage for things like cocktail napkins, coasters, even glasses. And night stands offer little more than a place to set a lamp, so think about a nice-looking three-drawer bachelor chest instead.

"If you need more storage, furniture should be as functional as possible," she says. "A cocktail table should have drawers, and use accent furniture that looks like one thing but really doubles as something else."

[Last modified January 19, 2006, 08:43:07]