Inventive and inexpensive storage solution for titchy bedroom

[Gatekeeper]

ds has the box room and is currently in a high level bed with attached futon chair and desk thing underneath. All very handy and a good use of space BUT he hates it. Ceiling isn't really high enough and he feels hemmed in; also feels stuffy as well. I hate the bloody thing as well as I can't change the bedding on it with a huge struggle and end up stotting my head underneath when tidying up

So am going to bung it on ebay and use the cash to redecorate his room and bring it up to date a bit. He is 9.5 and wants it to be 'cooler'

He will have room for a standard single bed which we already have , and his Tallboy for clothes (bed also has two large underdrawer things in for rest of clothes)

looking for suggestions for interesting storage for walls, storage ideas for his books and Lego etc. Have googled till my eyes are like sheep's jimmies but all the ideas seem to be for vast bedrooms using wads of cash and I will only have about £50 to play with

Send me your thoughts and brainwaves oh wise mumsnetters please

Floating shelves for books? saves on precious floor space
Multipocket hanger for the back of the door for bits and bobs e.g. www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/pocket-shoe-storage
My son's lego goes into the boxes of an ikea trofast, with display Lego sitting on the top
www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S19887301/

hope this helps

Cheers Pinkiphone; no other floor space available alas otherwise Trofast would be the way forward

WE ended up having to build in the wardrobe in our smallest bedroom.

We took a normal single wardrobe and built up a sort of enclosure for it right up to the ceiling. In our case we had about a foot between wardrobe and bed so that also made space for shelves to go in. On the top of the wardrobe was a bigger shelving area that could hold lidded boxes for toys etc. The side facing the bed was where we put some shelves for toys that were being saved like lego models . I didnt bother putting a front on it as it looked fine without but it might be an idea to put mirror doors on if the light is needed.

We hung the biggest shoe tidy I could find on the back of the door for all those bits and pieces that need a home. I made sure it was the sort with clear plastic fronts so that it was easy to see what was in each pocket.

• back of the door storage

• shelfs on wall at bottom of bed for books

• get the dronas boxes from ikea (£2.50 for x2). Can put Lego in and put on the shelves mentioned

Go on to the IKEA site and put wall shelves into search box - there are loads. Hopefully something there will be suitable and in your price range.

Ikea do the over bed units that match a single wardrobe. They also do a small wall shelf instead of a bedside unit to hold a cup etc.

www.dickoatts.com/kids-beds-with-storage-for-a-boy-and-a-girl/kids-beds-with-storage-white-bed-blue-quilt-wooden-floor-green-wall/

First go at links so hope it works

Sure you would get something along these lines at ikea

www.houzz.com/photos/762444/Loft-bedroom-contemporary-bedroom-london

this might help ?!

www.houzz.com/photos/201064/mill-valley-contemporary-kids-san-francisco

or storage over bed ?!

www.houzz.com/photos/895576/KidSpaces-by-TBL-eclectic-kids-los-angeles

some brilliant ideas there..I am now lost in the houzz website! Really like the idea of over the bed units/storage

thank you

Dovaffanculo can I ask an huge favour and ask you to photo the bed and wardrobe please ...sounds v. interesting

yay !! Houzz is fab !!

I wonder if you could use squarish kitchen wall cabinets lined up in a row and a much lower height than you would use them in a kitchen. Three of this sort might look quite good or you could get a row of them very low on one wall, leave a chair-sized gap in the middle and put a narrow worktop on top so that he has a desk with lots of storage underneath.

I got one of these flush against the wall bookcases for DD2's tiny room:

www.kidsrooms.co.uk/childrens/bookcases/tidy-books-bookcase-in-natural-finish-with-no-letters_p1572.aspx

It's nice because you can fit in into a space which would otherwise be unusable (behind a door, in a tight corner etc)

My DD had a slightly raised bad with drawers and a cupboard underneath (about three drawers high). Then she had a run of caravan style cupboards over her bed with a shelf for books and bits and bobs below them. So 6 foot or so of cupboard and shelf. We had ours built in but you could probably do it really nicely and cheaply from IKEA.

Another thing to consider is that he will be in high school soon and need a decent study area. A friend of mine used a small fixed to the wall drop leaf table as a desk.

Sorry Gatekeeper we moved from that house -but if you can use this to imagine the inner 2/3 part is the original cheapo wardrobe and the rest is built around it you have the right idea.

It was a very cheap way to make the most of limited space. We got a joiner in to do the main work at a daily rate of I think £85 and it only took 1 day-simple joins. we supplied the materials and it cost about £120 altogether I think.Obviously much less if you or DH can do the work.My DH could but the end result wouldnt have been anywhere near as good as polished.

We've put up loads of these in my sons room. m.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/art/40070185/
They hold quite a good amount of books (forward facing) and look pretty good. Easy to paint/stain and easy to put up, also dirt cheap. Put 'Ikea spice racks as bookshelves' in Google images and you'll see how they can look. I've also got some in my bedroom for all my bottle and potions.

In my daughter's box room, we have a midsleeper for her bed. It is the height of the widow, and she uses the ledge as her bedside cabinet. Underneath her bed, we have a six box storage unit (all from argos) which houses all her toys. The unit holds six large boxes. She has a built in wardrobe, so the rest of her room is for playing. As she is younger, we got her the shorty bunk, as it then fits width ways across the room, and so takes up much less space for her.

Bed (without the tent stuff): www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/7375549.htm.

Storage unit: www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/7190250.htm

You can buy it either in whitewash or plain pine. We chose plain pine so we could paint it.

My brother was in the box room and dad hung a board on the wall that came down over his bed for his train set etc. when older he used it as extra space for drying models etc, it had to fold up for him to go to bed but gave him more playing space.

m.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/art/30152596/ might be useful? Along the lines of the spice rack previously posted? Sorry about link, on blasted phone.

blimey..thank you all so much. Absolutely brilliant ideas here and I can't wait to get started!!