Making Use Of Every Square Inch

I love older houses. I wish I could own a number of houses in a number of cities (don't we all!). I'd definitely want one in S.F. and Vancouver B.C. Recently, I found myself looking at San Francisco real estate online, just to drool a little. Where would you like to own houses? I'd be curious to know.

My house is an older house (1942) which is small (about 1100 sq. feet), but has a lot of charm. It has most of the original windows with paned glass, nice woodworking, and hardwood floors. One of the things it lacks is enough storage space. I've found some great online sites for small homes like this one. When you have a small place, you really need to make all of your space work for you, without it feeling too cluttered. Since we moved in about three years ago, the area to the right of the front door has pretty much been empty. When Pele the dog was alive, her bed inhabited that area. But it's been sitting empty for months.

It takes me a long time to make decisions about what things to buy for the house (I've been thinking about area rugs for a long time too). Especially if I'm mail-ordering something, I want to be as sure as I can be that It's the right decision. I wanted some type of credenza to fill this space in the living room.



I was picturing a white credenza, with white shelves above it to display pictures. I found this one at CB2 that I liked a lot. But I thought on it for months, often looking at it online, until I was sure. And then I ordered it. Here it is on New Year's Eve, with an intoxicated woman who I don't know very well, dancing in my living room. We learned the electric slide that night (but that's another story).




Here it is a little closer. It's been nice to have because I keep my purses, gym bag, hats, scarves, and gloves in it. This frees up precious closet space in the bedroom.



And here it is with the Ikea Lack shelves above it. I still have to frame more pictures and put them on the shelves, but at least this corner is now pretty much complete. The extra storage sure helps.