Storage: Practical Magic

Take a Tour of a Home Packed With Smart Storage Ideas, Showcasing How Good Design Can Simplify Your Life

- Shelley Tustin

This streamlined open-plan dining zone is a lesson in clutter-free living, thanks to multiple adjacent storage spaces that allow life’s daily detritus to be stashed in style.

HAVING DESIGNED MORE interiors than she can count, Jane Howell has learnt that storage space is everything. Quite simply, it can change the way a home feels. “We both have a fundamental belief that your surroundings have a profound effect on how you feel,” says the interior designer, who works with her husband, Chris, in their design and construction business, Northbay Constructions. “Well-planned spaces feel welcoming. They comfort and inspire.”

The elegant, well-ordered Melbourne home that she and Chris built for themselves and their teenage sons, Jonah, 17, and Sam, 14, is a case in point. “I started by working out what I have and what I need, and then designed storage from there,” says Jane, who engaged plenty of tried-and-tested tricks, as well as some genius ideas. These include kitchen cabinets that go to the ceiling; recessed shaving cupboards that maximise space in the bathrooms; extra-wide drawers in the boys’ rooms to cater for unanticipated miscellanea; and a smart laundry system.

Though Jane is an old hand at creating houses with smart storage, she still appreciates the difference installing clever systems in her own home makes to her own life. “This is such an easy house to look after,” she says. “There is somewhere to put everything away.” Here, Jane shares the ideas that make her own home storage heaven.