Need inexpensive ideas for shelving

[Karinbob]

I have a lovely large room in my basement that is going to be my sewing/craft/misc. room. It has two windows in it and is pretty spacious. I have a tiny desk which I am sitting at that holds my computer with an ugly filing cabinet next to it. I also have a work table that is 30 X 60 and a Hutch top that came off of an old cabinet. The ceiling is too low to put the hutch on top of the cabinet so it sits on the floor. It is being used as storage for videos, children's books and games. It really looks kind of dumb sitting on the floor. :( Any way....... I am looking to put lots of shelving down here and pull the work table into the middle of the room to use as a cutting table for sewing. Anyone have ideas for inexpensive shelving? I want to use baskets to store all of my paraphenalia and to make it cute. I have little to no money right at this moment but I wanted to see if any of you have any creative ideas for storage and shelving. Thanks K

[Lisa S]

Take pictures! I'd love to see what you have to work with ~ I'd be happy to offer some suggestions.

Take pictures of old unused stuff that you have too... I'm sure this forum could help you come up with free or cheap ways to reuse your stuff.

Some ideas:

I just rehabbed some old furniture. I was given a bedroom set which included a tall set of drawers and a vanity.

I turned the set of drawers, (with one broken drawer) into an entertainment center for my 11 year old. I removed the drawers and their supports and had my husband add some shelves and molding. Then we painted the whole thing. My son uses it for his T.V. and Game Cube... works great!

Since my boy doesn't do much primping and preening, he really didn't need the vanity. I painted it, changed the knobs and took out the mirror. In place of the mirror, I installed some cork board into the mirror frame. Now he has a desk!

[Karinbob]

Lisa,
What great ideas. I am going to look for old dressers this weekend at garage sales if the snow stops!!

Do you think the room would look weird with lots of dressers around the room. I have a lot of stuff to store. I was thinking of going up the wall with storage. But I so love the look of using old things. I saw in a scrapbooking magazine where they used old wooden filing boxes (the skinny kind) from a library and it really made the room look great. They were able to stack them on top of each other. But I don't know where to find that kind of thing. Plus I need bigger drawers to store fabric and such so I really like the idea of old dressers............maybe I could stack them HEE HEe :D J/K

[Lisa S]

Hey, I think you could stack dressers! What a cool idea! A dresser and open shelving would look nice. What else?...

I have a whole little room in my basement that holds mismatched/broken furniture and decorating stuff. I wander into it daily to come up with ways to use my junk. I figure I'm saving on buying new and going to the dump!

I'm giving my friend the drawers from my rehabbed dresser. She's short on storage space, so she's gonna put wheels on them and put them under her kid's bed for out of season clothes. Frugal is fun!

[Karinbob]

:p We have come up with a new thing!! Stackable dressers!! We work well together Hee Hee. I will have to try the stacking dressers and see what I think. I am wondering maybe I could cut off the legs of one of them and then stack one on top of the other. I have seen benches stacked on top of each other and it looked way cute! Or if I leave the legs on then I could use the space underneath like a counter for more storage! Hmmmm we will have to try this out.

I wish I had a room full of mismatched broken furniture to work with. I will have to go to the thrift stores and see what there is. I will let you know how this turns out. Thanks K

[Lynzee]

I can't wait to hear how this idea works, you two! My rooms are so tiny that the only way to add anything is if it can be added upwards. Stackable dressers would be perfect! Please keep me posted. Better yet, post pictures!

Thanks!
Lynz

[Lisa S]

Karinbob ~ If you've got little kids, make sure you bolt the upper dresser to the wall... I'm such a worry-er.

We have a Goodwill here in town that sells furniture dirt cheap and it's the source of most of my project furniture. Love Goodwill!

[ChrisNH53]

I have an old dresser in my sewing room and I took out all the drawers (they were falling apart anyway), painted it white, and found baskets that fit in those spaces. It looks great.

[Karinbob]

I don't have little kids mine are teenagers but I do have a ton of Nieces and Nephews that visit quite often and they would most likely try to climb them and maybe even jump off of them! Yea can we say wild! :eek: So I would have to bolt them to the wall for sure. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. K

[Karinbob]

Wish me luck in finding some great old dressers!

[Kristen]

Good luck shopping... also, could the hutch top be mounted to the wall? We did that with a corner cabinet!

[Karinbob]

If I mounted it I couldn't put anything under it.....there would be a small space left. It is a tall hutch. Probably made for a room with high pitched ceilings. Good idea though. Thanks, Karin