Need ideas for living room storage cabinet...

[Matt Meiser]

Now that the entertainment center is done, I need to start thinking about some additional storage for in our living room since we went from a huge wall unit with four drawers and a side cabinet we used for games, photo albums, and gadgets to just one drawer of similar volume. The new drawer holds our DVDs with room to spare, but we'll have a decent number of VHS tapes for the foreseeable future to store too. I've been considering some kind of cabinet kind of like a pie safe but am open to ideas. There's only a too-small-as-it-is coat closet nearby and there's really nowhere to do a built-in due to the layout of the room. Virtually everything is stuff that we'd want behind closed doors--i.e. its not pretty to look at. I'd love to see pictures of projects others have done to solve similar issues.

(And yes, we realized this would be a problem long ago before I even designed the new entertainment center. ;))

[Jim Becker]

I'm thinking that it should reflect the style of the piece you just completed if it's in the same room...

[Matt Meiser]

Definitely. In the end I'll be designing whatever I build, but I'm hoping to see projects in any style though because that will give me ideas.

[Danny Thompson]

We put our VHS in baskets in the bottom of a buffet (on shelves behind doors).

[Von Bickley]

Matt,

I know you have already posted a picture before, but let's see a picture of that EC.

[Prashun Patel]

A coffee table with a drawer or an ottoman with trunk-style storage sounds appropriate.

[Matt Meiser]

Von, here's a link to the thread with the pictures (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=103388).

I think we are looking for some kind of cabinet rather than a coffee table or ottoman because the room is rather narrow and we use the floor there.

[Von Bickley]

Matt,

A pie safe type cabinet would be one idea. Consider the old antique type wash stands with storage down low and a bevel mirror on top. Also you may want to consider something like an antique hall tree where they had storage under the seat. Instead of a raised seat, you could have cabinet doors with pull-out trays for storage, and a bevel mirror on top. Just some ideas. I would use the same type wood, hardware and finish that you have on the EC. :)

[Matt Meiser]

We got a Pottery Barn catalog in the mail yesterday--wait--no yelling yet--and they had a couple "consoles" in there that gave me a couple ideas. Not style wise, certainly not construction wise, but in terms of very rough dimensions. They were maybe 3-4' wide, about counter height or maybe a little lower. I like the wash stand idea too. We actually have a rather poor quality antique one that we had in our bedroom when we were first married. Its part of our basement furniture collection now. I'll have to suggest that to LOML.

We also went through our VHS tapes last night and LOML and I each pulled out the ones we wanted to keep--Theres a few things we need to transfer to DVD and some moved that wouldn't be terribly expensive to replace on DVD. We put those on an Amazon wishlist and I think we'll slowly work on just replacing them. So mostly what we'll store in this TBD piece of furniture is photo albums, board games, the camcorder, digital camera, and stuff like that. Oh, and our CDs--keep forgetting about those. We put all our CDs in Case Logic ProSleeves (http://www.caselogic.com/100_disc_capacity_double_sided_prosleeveii_reg/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=56554) a few years ago so they take a LOT less space.