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Katherine’s home transformed from a muddled mess to an organised oasis

Kathrine Sørland is one of Norway’s top lifestyle, fashion and home décor influencers. She has been appearing on Norwegian TV for many years. Let’s take a look inside Kathrine’s home and we’ll show you how we helped solve her storage problems, room by room.

Hall makeover

At home with Kathrine

Kathrine and her 12-year-old son Leon live in a modern flat recently built on the island of Nesøya. Their spacious, airy flat is tastefully decorated. But Kathrine needed help from Elfa to bring structure and order to all her storage spaces which were impractical and impersonal. New flats are often fitted with simple standard storage solutions that are seldom optimal. Flexible storage systems are much better options because they can be adapted and reconfigured to suit your storage needs. That’s why many people, like Kathrine, switch to a flexible style storage solution after a short while.

The hallway

At the top of Kathrine’s priority list was the hallway. She is an active woman, and a practical hallway makes everyday life that much easier. Kathrine’s hallway is attractively decorated in dark colours with mirrors and velvet cushions. Although her wardrobe already had sliding doors, chaos lurked behind them. It was fitted with a modest storage system, comprising of tall wire basket stands and a closet rod, which is standard in new flats. The basket stands were highly impractical for someone who loves shoes and accessories, and the closet rod was so overloaded that it was about to break loose from the wall. It was virtually impossible to find anything in those crammed and cluttered baskets. “I have given up trying to keep organised here and that makes it really difficult to find anything. I’ve now got to the stage where I simply push things down into the baskets. And I’ve been expecting the wardrobe rail to fall down for some time now,” says Kathrine with a smile. Kathrine approached the task of sorting out her wardrobe with great enthusiasm. All out-of-season items were put to one side for packing away into storage. Items she no longer wore or used were sold, donated, or thrown away. Leon’s room is adjacent to the hallway and, as he also enjoys cool shoes and jackets, he was given a wardrobe of his own inside his room. This freed up additional space in the wardrobe. “It’s surprisingly wonderful to get this space organised! And it feels good that someone else can enjoy pre-loved items that I no longer use,” she says happily.

Graphite

Kathrine’s hallway was already fitted with sliding doors, so the task involved creating a storage system in the space inside the wardrobe that tailored to her needs. She chose the top-hung click-in system in our new Graphite colour, which matches beautifully with the dark walls and style of the hallway. Top track wall-mounted shelving can support considerable weight and leaves floor space free and easy to keep clean.

“I like the colour of the fittings. It is definitely more in keeping with my style. And so nice not to have the old white shelf at the top. It was impossible to see what was up there. All I could do was aim, toss and hope things landed on the shelf,” she tells us.

Mesh baskets

The system includes gliding mesh baskets with dividers, which make it effortless to sort and organise accessories into separate categories. This means that scarves, hats, gloves, and small items all have a set place and are easy to find when Kathrine is rushing out in the morning.

Hanging space

Kathrine uses the hanging space in her hallway for the in-season jackets that she wears regularly. The closet rod is mounted directly to the click-in system instead of how it was previously fixed in plastic brackets on the wall, so, now, it can support more weight and be adjusted to a practical height.

Shelves

Wire shelves are worth their weight in gold in the hall! They stand up to knocks and bumps and can be wiped clean when they get dirty from footwear. Their wire design allows you to see what’s on the top shelves, making it much easier to keep track of where things are. Kathrine stores her hats and summer shoes on the top wire shelf. A practical way to maximise space up to the ceiling is to move shoes up and down the shelves in the wardrobe according to the season: if you can’t or don’t want to store them elsewhere.

Shoe shelves

One essential feature was the gliding shoe shelves which were essential to accommodate Kathrine’s impressive shoe collection. Each shelf has room for six pairs, making it the optimal way to store shoes, especially when space is limited.

Everyday life is simpler with a new wardrobe

We’re curious to hear what Kathrine thinks of her new hall wardrobe after a few months. “I’m delighted with it! So pleased that I finally have a proper storage system in the hallway and I especially love the interior colour. Now I can even leave the sliding doors open with a clear conscience!”

Walk-in wardrobe makeover

“I’ve no idea where to start!”

Waving her hands and with a resigned look on her face, Kathrine tells us.

“This wardrobe is filled to the brim and so cluttered that I’ve given up on it completely. I try to squeeze things in where they’ll fit and then it’s impossible to find them when I need them again. I now realise that I have an incredible amount of clothes, half of which I don’t wear. I’m so busy all the time that I’ve been putting off the task of clearing and organising the wardrobe for too long,” she explains.

Small walk-in wardrobe with massive potential

Kathrine’s walk-in wardrobe has two sliding doors on each side of the corridor between the bedroom and bathroom, so it’s actually a walk-through wardrobe. The white sliding doors on each side made the space feel narrow and rather dull. The original storage system was installed with very simple solutions at the time the flat was built and consisted of low, deep shelves, and a closet rod. The closet rods were so overloaded that they were on the verge of collapsing! It was virtually impossible to keep the piles of clothes organised on the deep shelves. No matter how zealous you are at folding clothes, all it takes is a couple of stressful mornings for the piles to topple and cause chaos on the shelves. New solutions were needed! “This wardrobe is filled to the brim and so cluttered that I’ve given up on it completely. I try to squeeze things in where they’ll fit and then it’s impossible to find them when I need them again. I now realise that I have an incredible amount of clothes, half of which I don’t wear. I’m so busy all the time that I’ve been putting off the task of clearing and organising the wardrobe for too long,” she explains. It was a tough but necessary task that Elfa’s storage expert Hilde Børresen Istre gave to Kathrine. Time to get this space organised! Everything that you don’t wear or use or that’s not in season needs to be moved out of your “everyday wardrobe.” Pack out-of-season clothes in sealed boxes and store them elsewhere. Clothes that you no longer wear can be donated to charity or sold.

A blank sheet

The task was completed a few weeks later and Kathrine couldn’t have been happier. “It’s fantastic! I have given away lots of clothes that I simply wasn’t wearing any more and now someone else can enjoy them instead. To free up space, I have moved party dresses that I only occasionally wear to another wardrobe and have boxed up and stored away everything that is not in season.”

A walk-in wardrobe with space for everything that is easy to see at a glance

Kathrine’s wardrobe now only include those clothes she actually wears and are currently in season. We quickly saw that what she needed most was space for hanging up clothes, shoe storage, drawers for trousers, tops, and training gear.

Shoe shelves

Gliding mesh shoe shelves with room for six pairs of shoes are perfect for Kathrine’s impressive high-heel collection.

Mesh baskets 

Gliding mesh baskets with dividers are the key to keeping tops, sweaters and t-shirts organised and tidy. These items should be folded into squares and stacked one behind the other so they’re simple to see and easy to access. And the more you stack, the neater it looks!

Sliding doors with mirrors

The original white sliding doors were donated and replaced with striking mirrored doors. Sliding doors with mirrors are always a great choice because they reflect the light and make a room seem larger. In this space, facing one another, they create an incredibly cool effect. A totally different feeling to how it was before with those plain white doors. They’ve really opened up the space!

When the system had been fitted, the doors were in place, her shoes lined up and clothes neatly packed in the mesh baskets like files in a filing cabinet, Kathrine was jumping for joy.

“It’s simply amazing! I love the way the mirrors make the space feel much bigger and reflect lots of light from both the bedroom and the bathroom.” 

Still pleased?

After a few months, we were excited to find out whether the new set-up was working and if she was still pleased with her walk-through wardrobe. “I’m overjoyed! I have more space and find it much easier to keep things organised. Now it bothers me if something is not hanging straight or is slightly out of place,” she says with a smile. “The new wardrobe system has actually made me more organised. In general. Not just what people see on the outside. And now that I have my clothes sorted by colour it is never a problem finding what I’m looking for. Thank you ELFA! I love my wardrobe solution!”

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