Small bedroom storage: where the space hides

The typical London bedroom loses a surprising amount of volume to the shape of the building: the chimney breast and its two alcoves, the slope of a loft conversion, the band of dead air above the door, the awkward metre beside a bay. Freestanding furniture cannot reach any of it.

Alcoves either side of a chimney breast are the obvious start. Built to the ceiling and scribed to walls that are never straight, they turn two unusable recesses into full-height hanging and shelving.

Eaves storage is the second win. In a loft room the space under the slope is too low to stand in and perfect for drawers on runners: seasonal clothing, luggage, everything you need four times a year.

Above the door is the piece nobody thinks about. A bridging unit connecting two wardrobes across the doorway adds a run of storage without taking a single centimetre of floor.

Then there is the bed itself. A low run of joinery at the bed end, or a headboard wall with bedside storage and lighting built in, removes the need for two bedside tables and the clutter that lands on them.

The internal planning matters as much as the boxes. We plan hanging heights against what actually hangs, drawers against what actually folds, and shoe storage against a real count rather than a guess.