Storage tips: Room dividers

In a tiny-ass apartment, your furniture often has to pull double-duty. You don't have enough room for two separate items for two different functions, so you're always out to kill two birds with one stone. Finding pieces that can do two things at once saves you space, money, and makes you look damn clever. CasaSugar has an article with ideas for storage in the bedroom. Take a look at the picture below; the headboard of the bed has drawers on the back side. Not only is this headboard-cum-dresser so big that it gives you tons of storage, but it's large enough to act as a room divider. When you're in a studio, you don't have the luxury of fancy-schmancy walls to give yourself some privacy, so you have to create "walls" in different ways. (There's a longer article about dividing up your studio coming soon to TAA!) In the example above, the headboard/dresser is big enough to hide the bed when viewed from the other side, but it's not so big that it dominates the room. It doesn't go to the ceiling, therefore you can still get light through the whole room. Also, the white color makes it feel lighter -- if it were black it would remind me too much of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey! But take a look at the EXPEDIT bookshelf from IKEA below. Even though it's taller than the headboard/dresser, and painted black to boot, it still doesn't feel overwhelming because of the empty space in each of the shelves. When used as a room divider, you can still see through to the other side while marking off different areas of your home. If you need more privacy, you can glue fabric over one side of the shelf. A lightweight, gauzy fabric will block the view to the other side of the bookshelf, but still allow light to pass through. I myself am the proud owner of a 5 x 5 black EXPEDIT, and at least two of my friends have it as well (one of 'em, Megan, already uses hers as a room divider in her fab-fab-fab downtown loft). It really suits the needs of people like me and my friends: tons of storage, affordable, and great looking! Via CasaSugar and IKEA.