LoftLust

In order to get that clean crisp vibe associated with modern design and that we adore so much, you have to stick to guideline #5 for getting modern design without losing the cozy factor, and that’s minimizing clutter.

Organizers recommend identifying a ‘home’ for everything you have in your space. With the benefits of proximity you gain living in the city, square-footage is often the sacrifice so finding homes for everything can be tricky. To handle this dilemma, you need storage that is versatile as well as aesthetically suited to your modern space. Keep in mind that your storage pieces can often also serve the purpose of being a surface for items that you don’t want hidden away, but instead want to display. For this reason, in your small space, they’ve gotta look good, because they’re gonna be seen.

Careful consideration of materials and textures will help you select pieces that mimic the materials already a part of the building, compliment your personal style or instead provide a nice contrast. A highly complimentary material to many loft spaces is galvanized steel.

The ROS 5 Drawer Chest (FYI: this link to Conran will make you select a region before taking you to the product page) by Italian designer Giancarlo Piretti is a great example of that perfect mix of material, form and function. Five wide shallow drawers fill a large frame that sits on casters for easy mobility and accessibility. Instead of pulls or handles the designer has made each drawer facing with long grooves in the center that making opening them easy and add a very nice rounded curve to an otherwise very angular piece. I can see storing all sorts of stuff in here - papers and magazines, table linens, clothing, cds, dvds, remotes, photo negatives (I’ve got lots of those), prints, books, candles and other accessories.

Another super storage solution are The Container Store’s modular Galvanized Cubes. Coated with rust-resistant zinc, these cool storage blocks can go in the bathroom to store towels or cosmetics. The Galvanized Cubes have three options for doors, three options for the interior shelves, can be stacked or mounted to the wall and have the possibility to also take casters. Talk about versatile! The frosted glass doors and shelves are particularly stunning and a great way to dress these up. The X-Divider component is a sweet option for wine bottle storage, towels or rolled t-shirts. It’s that industrial chunkiness in a very cleaned up design. Perfectly modernized, galvanized steel!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 20th, 2006 at 8:04 pm and is filed under form, function. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.