Making The Most of Small Spaces: Boot Corner & Necklace Nook

Like many women with too much footwear (although can you ever really have enough?) I was using the space under my bed to store my boots.  They are too tall for my two shoe cabinets and there wasn't room anyway.  After removing an old rocking chair from my bedroom I had an oddly shaped corner space that I thought would be the perfect place for a boot cabinet, but I couldn't find anything that would fit properly and take full advantage of the unusual dimensions.  The space is under a window on one side and sandwiched between a floor to ceiling column that juts out for about two feet on one side and my heating/airconditioning unit on the other and nothing I looked at was working right.  My friend even drove me out to Ikea in NJ, but all of their corner shelving units were for kitchen spaces and not the right dimensions.  So I decided to create my own boot cabinet.  I found large sliding drawer bins at the Container Store, that were the same as the ones I got at Bed Bath & Beyond, that I store some of my shoes in.

Containers I'm using for my boots

Drawer slides out

Long enough for tall boots and see through so I know which pair is inside

I bought six of them and stacked them three and three.  That fit perfectly in the corner space I have and was enough to house all of my boots and booties.  It also gave me some space on top to store/display other things....

One is big enough for two pairs of booties

Also from the Container Store, I then bought shallow, stack-able  jewelry trays for my statement necklaces and two shirt boxes to stack them in so they wouldn't collect dust or NYC soot (they are right next to a window), or attract a curious cat....I love statement necklaces to pull an outfit together. Sometimes the only accessory you need is one large necklace to pack a punch.  If I'm in a rush and have time to grab just one item of jewelry it is always a powerful necklace.  I wanted easy access to my show stopper necklaces to save time and to be able to see them all in just a few seconds, because the items we wear the most are the ones we see first when when we open a closet or drawer or jewelry box.  

One jewelry tray fits two statement necklace

...notice the curious kitten in the corner

Shirt boxes to keep the necklace trays, and necklaces, safe

It's only been a couple of weeks since I organized this little boot and necklace corner, but I'm already wearing them more and using the necklaces I hadn't in a while because they were buried under other items in my jewelry armoire.  I'm also using the space to lay out all of my accessories when I'm getting dressed and trying to decide what to wear.  Much better than the floor or my bed that have easy access for the pets.

The finished nook.  

Nothing glamorous, but highly functional.

The final result isn't anything fancy, but it works for what I needed and it wasn't terribly expensive, like building a custom cabinet would have been.  And, an added bonus is that now there's lots of space under my bed again ;-)