While most people these days favour loose furniture and home décor pieces for less commitment and lower cost – there’s still value in investing in some solid carpentry! Especially when it comes to tight spaces and underused areas, sometimes a creatively designed built-in piece is what you need to solve these storage woes. Here, we’ve rounded up 7 incredibly inventive carpentry works that break the norm from the usual boxy built-ins – bringing form and function to their spaces.
Interior Designer: Pocket Square
If you are looking for a feature that’s a little different from your usual pre-fab countertops – go customised! This minimalist dry kitchen island is packed with all sorts of functional corners and cubbyholes – maximising whatever usable storage space that is often lost in these bulky built-in pieces.
2. Full-Length Bookshelves
Interior Designer: Up Creations
With floor-to-ceiling shelves that are wonderfully positioned against a recessed wall corner – mismatched lengths bring a visual punch to the reading room. Best part? Having the bookshelves flushed to the corner allows the rest of the small space to be better utilised – such as having a comfy reading armchair to sink into.
3. Built-In Seating
Interior Designer: Lemonfridge Studios (Singapore)
When you are short on space, creative carpentry can be the answer to your prayers! This dining area in a small-scale apartment has been transformed into a cosy, highly functional space! Timbered finishes form the structure of the built-in seating, which incorporates concealed storage bins at the bottom, small cubbys on the side for stowing books and even a display shelf for the homeowner’s collections.
4. Wall Crates
Source: Pinterest
These cutesy wall storage boxes add rustic warmth and glow, while being perfectly practical!
We love how it has a niche-like quality that brings dimensional structure to a room, even serving as a backdrop of sorts. Wall boxes like these are a cost-friendly addition to your home. Crated from inexpensive but strong wood, it doesn’t require much finishing, nor does it need to be aesthetically perfect.
5. Movable Wardrobes
Interior Designer: Seshan Design Sdn Bhd
We often think of our wardrobes as large, stagnant things, but this project flips it completely over – with the addition of sliding mechanisms that reveal various ‘blocks’ of wardrobe space. Great for smaller areas like the bathroom, the blocks can be closed to form a compact system, or pushed open for the user to walk through and access their belongings, much like a walk-in wardrobe.
6. Revolving TV Consoles
Interior Designer: Metrics Global Sdn Bhd
What happens when you can’t peel off your eyes from the TV for one second? Build a console that's perfect for your obsession. Especially nifty for tight spaces that can’t afford a separate living or bedroom space, this revolving TV console acts as a divider and convenient TV mount that can be turned to wherever you fancy watching your television in.
7. Platforms
Interior Designer: RK Interior Studio
If you have the ceiling height to afford, a platform area provides a little more dimension to an otherwise flat, broad living space. Plus, what’s not to love about it’s laid-back, Japanese vibe? But more than just for aesthetic reasons, this project’s platform living area also comes with hidden pull out drawers at the bottom – allowing the user to store a whole host of stuff without cramping the home’s clean-cut look.
Smart minds, clever designs
More than just professionals that help oversee the building of a space, an interior designer is also there to help design a home that adds practicality and reflects your needs. Request for a quote here, and we'll match you up with 5 interior firms, based on your budget and style. All recommended IDs will be covered under the Qanvast Guarantee, up to RM50,000*.