Making Room: Finding Space in Unexpected Places

by Wendy A. Jordan

Most homeowners long for more space as well as space that better fits their needs. But building an addition is expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive to the household. What homeowners don't realize is that just about every house has room to spare, much of it unrecognized. Making Room showcases creative ideas for areas that are underused or taken for granted--a broom closet, an empty wall, window bays, and corner nooks.
Making Room focuses entirely on creating new spaces within the existing footprint of the home, and explores commonly overlooked spaces and scores of clever ideas for putting those spaces to use. More than 100 creative ideas highlight transformations that are small in scale but big in impact, such as a bathroom closest converted to a shower, drawers incorporated into a staircase, a bookcase built into the base of a staircase, and a computer niche tucked into a hallway. Making Room also provides practical design advice that inspires homeowners to adapt the ideas to any room in their home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Interior Design

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2007

Reviews

[Megan]

If I ever buy that old house that I've always wanted... I'll have to find a copy of this book. It shows all of these ways to increase storage in smaller places (a lot of it is just using wall space and the space between two walls.) It's pretty cool, with a lot of good ideas.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book with great design options to maximize space in your home.
Wish I was a carpenter so I could use them.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many neat ideas!

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has many great ideas but unfortunately most of them require changes to a house's structure making them only feasible for people who are remodeling their homes and only within the capability of the most experienced amateur home do-it-yourselfers. The book fails to point out the complexity of the changes presented as well as the negative acoustical impact of breeching walls between rooms. I would still recommend it for anyone who owns their own home, is looking to increase the space available, and is willing to spend the money. For all others, I recommend they investigate other books on maximizing storage and using built-ins.

[Elf Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

First a disclaimer: this book will be much more interesting to homeowners/home builders than renters, because let's face it-- who's going to fix up a rental?

That said, the ideas for making small spaces work range from obvious to ingenious. Every house should be built using these ideas; as someone who lived in a van for a year and a half, I think I can honestly say that we need vastly less space than we might imagine. Good design can make a small home more functional than any mansion you'll run across.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of great photos of ways you can transform your home into cubbies, nooks and cranies you can store your stuff in. This is really a neat book. Not sure where you'd get the plans for to implement any of it, but my favorite pic is the bottom step that pulls out as a drawer!! how cool is that?

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome! We are remodeling our home, and I will periodically go through idea books, storage books, etc. for ideas. THIS book, however, not only has some of the best ideas, it has some truly unique ideas that we've never before seen. We will be implementing a few of them for great storage...without taking up any more space.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to look at, and some interesting tips. Many of these tips are most useful if you have a home that has some available space: stairways, extra closets, odd corners, those low spaces under slanted ceilings. Less useful for someone like me with a one-story, extremely simple, boxy house with small rooms.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that helpful since most of the ideas in the book require a total remodel of a room. I was expecting the book to have more ideas to help you find space with what you have instead of completely changing things around. I was pretty disappointed in it.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really more of a book for people interested in organizational renovation projects for homes that they own. Not so useful to me, as the renter of a tiny house who was looking for savvy advice on how to utilize space better.

[Meadow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a three post-it book. Which means I found at least three things I really liked. That is pretty huge, as I am indecisive and don't know what I want. Except that I want it know.

[Heywu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good ideas for small apartments. Clever under the stairs storage.

[Aurora Deshauteurs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great use of spaces, interesting designs, lots of possiblities!!!

[Allisan Looman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has some genius ideas that are really easy to follow and implement. I recommend it to anyone with too much stuff or too little house. Or both.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reference. Lots of ideas for using nooks and crannies.

[Semi-Academic Eric]

I like the design of this book. It's easy to glance through and it looks fun, bright and engaging.