Top storage ideas for your new build home

You’ve just moved into your brand new home and something isn’t right. It’s been a while since you viewed the show home, but you don’t quite remember it looking like this. Ah yes, you realise, no clutter. Time to check out our top storage ideas for your new build home!

It’s no secret that new build homes are getting smaller, and the most common complaint we hear is the lack of storage space. That’s why want to share our top tips for boosting your storage – including their pros and cons.

1. Shelves… Everywhere!

The first and easiest step to maximising your available space is to put up some simple shelves in every cupboard, nook and cranny. This is probably the most affordable of our recommended storage ideas, especially if you are handy and are able to DIY.

If you don’t have the tools, the skills or the inclination, a local joiner will be able to offer more professional-looking results still for a fairly modest amount.

Cupboards

Not sure where to start? If you have a ground-floor bathroom cupboard (often included as a requirement for a possible future accessible shower) this can be an ideal starting point.

Think about the maximum height of the footwear or other things you want to store on each shelf. And don’t be tempted to give too much extra headroom “just in case”. Otherwise, you won’t make the best use of the space and, when full, the cupboard will still look a bit bare.

Kitchen cupboards present another opportunity for increased storage capacity. Are none of the items in your overflowing cupboard more than about half the height of the space? Then perhaps a shallow shelf at the back would give you more room and make it easier to find your small jars quickly.

You may have a cupboard for an unvented hot water cylinder, and this can be a good place for some shelves, too. However, the builder may advise you not to use this space and we would also advise caution.

Any shelves located here should be well clear of any pipework and should be able to be removed quickly in the event of a leak when your plumber needs urgent access. If you can get it right though, you get toasty warm towels in return.

Utility room & storage boxes

When looking for top storage ideas, a utility room can be another great location for the addition of a few shelves. If you are planning on using storage boxes on the shelf, try to pick these at the same time as designing the location and size of your shelves for the best possible fit.

You only need a few millimetres of space between each box for a comfortable fit – any more and you’re wasting shelf space.

2. Under-stairs Storage

Moving away from DIY and more towards the domain of the professional joiner, fitting under-stairs storage can give a practical (and beautiful) addition to a modern home. Not all homes have a staircase with an accessible side suitable for exploring. But those that do often provide a fairly standard-sized space to make use of.

Features such as handle-less doors, sliding compartments and a variety of finishes make this option highly attractive and extremely easy to use, and all in a space that would otherwise be unused.

Typically, you create the storage from a kit design of parts. Panels are often cut offsite on a CNC machine table and then fitted under the stairs by a joiner.

You can keep the pricing of under-stairs storage low by using materials such as MDF or plywood since the units are all hidden behind closed doors. Checkatrade has put together a great overview of possible costs for under-stairs storage.

3. Bespoke Built-in Storage

Built-in wardrobes, bookcases, cabinets and shelving are the crème-de-la-crème of home storage solutions. Unlike shop-bought storage furniture, bespoke built-in storage will be sized precisely to fit the space available, making it the very best option for maximising the use of the available space.

Not only does bespoke storage give the maximum storage space available, but it can also intrude the least on the space of the room. Careful consideration during design will allow the finished built-ins to blend into the room much better than any freestanding furniture ever could.

If you’re going bespoke then you might also consider adding lighting to your design. A few LED strip lights and an LED driver can transform a shady nook into a stunning feature in your home. Not to mention make it more practical browsing your books or stored items.

Just make sure that any electrics you have fitted are completed by a competent person. If moving a socket or switch, or adding additional sockets, then the work should be certified with an NICEIC Minor Domestic Works certificate or similar.

As you can imagine, the price for built-in storage can vary wildly depending on a number of factors – the complexity of the design, the materials chosen, and the demand on the joiner.

An exotic hardwood or even oak can be two or three times the price of painted MDF. A professional joiner in high demand with a track record for consistently beautiful bespoke built-ins will be able to charge more than one who does a little bit of everything.

Get an idea of costs with Checkatrade’s price overview for custom built-in shelves.

4. Loft Flooring for Storage

And last but not least, our all-time favourite when it comes to top storage upgrades: Loft flooring. If you’re looking to instantly add a huge amount of storage space, or space to store larger items such as buggies, suitcases or Christmas trees, then flooring the loft is your best option (if we do say so ourselves!).

You might also begin to resent these bulky, lesser-used items for taking up so much of your limited prime space in your home. Reserve accessible in-house storage locations such as cupboards, shelves or under-bed storage for things you actually need to access more than once a year. And by flooring all or part of your loft you can free up those spaces.

Free up Your Garage

Converting your garage? A floored loft can help with that! Like every garage we have ever seen, yours is probably rammed full of stuff – ours certainly is! And all this stuff needs to go somewhere so you can get cracking with your dream gym/playroom/home office/man-cave garage project.

Even the smallest of new-build single garages are about 11.5m2 (see this Daily Mail article about a couple who couldn’t fit their car in their garage). And flooring your loft is the only way to create this amount of space in your home without building an extension. Conveniently, the ‘middle section’ found in roofs with a fink-type (W-shaped) truss provides around 12m2 of storage space!

Consider how much space you actually need – now and in the future. We are more than happy to provide you with a quote and include costs for a few different sizes of flooring to suit your needs – from our smallest 6m2 to flooring your whole loft. It’s no trouble to come back to you in the future to extend your flooring if your circumstances (and storage needs) change.

Why Loft Boarding Scotland?

Why choose us? We would advise that it is better to get a small amount of the right flooring done by us properly than get a larger amount of the ‘wrong’ flooring done by someone else poorly. (Even fitted properly, the ‘wrong’ flooring can cause lots of problems down the line). We never try to upsell flooring to our customers and none of our staff is on any kind of commission.