The English Muffin Problem

Om nom nom

Mmm, English muffins. I love 'em. We always had Thomas' English muffins in the house as a kid 'cause my dad loves 'em too. I tried Australian muffins a few times, but they're just not the same. What was missing were all those nooks n' crannies. They tried using that as a selling point, even! Psht. It's all about the nooks and crannies, whether they be full of butter and jam or... in your walls?


As TAA-dwellers we know that it's important to use every inch of space available to us. However, if you're in an older building (or in a building where the architect was a little drunk), you might have some odd nooks in your home that are harder to utilize.


One of the more common nooks is a Murphy bed closet where the bed has been removed. Remember Stacey in K-Town? Though her bed is a traditional floor model, she still used the Murphy bed closet as a kind of recessed, built-in headboard for her bed.






At Apartment Therapy, Nora has a similar problem. Her Murphy bed nook is in her living room, and she's not sure what to do with it. AT took her question and threw it to its commentors for suggestions. My favorite was abodewell's suggestion that she install a puppet theatre. Heh.





Nora's under-utilized empty Murphy bed closet

(For more information on Murphy beds, check out this "history of" post at Design*Sponge, and the site for the Original Murphy Bed Company. Yeah, there's really a Murphy who invented the thing.)






Holly Becker of Decor8 also wrote an article for Real Simple addressing this problem in a more general way. Her article "Odd Nooks: Ideas?" has some great solutions that echo many of the AT commentors':

- wallpaper the inside of the space

- install some shelves

- build in some seating

- hang hooks and create a kind of entryway niche

- put in a desk for a mini-office

- build in a wet bar

- use it for storage and hide it behind some curtains

Personally, I love these crazy built-in crannies. They're so much more visually interesting than a flat, blank wall. Mmm. Just like in English muffins, these nooks n' crannies are DELICIOUS!