‘We solved an “impossible” storage challenge!’

Katrine’s home had several places where the storage conditions were hopeless. Elfa’s flexible storage system made it possible to fit out a neater, nicer home office, but also fixed her under-stairs storage challenge. Get inspired by her storage journey!

By Charlotta Flinkenberg

Where we live

Katrine Agesen, age 35, influencer and sales coordinator for a kids’ furniture company, lives in a 200 sq.m. home in Aarhus, Denmark with her husband who works for a football team, and their two children aged six and eight.

Katrine's home office

You can easily install the storage solution yourself. Start with the top track, install the hang standards and then simply click on the other items.

Their 200 sq.m. home in Aarhus, Denmark already had some storage solutions, but none of them were ideal. Katrine Agesen works part-time as an influencer alongside her job as a sales coordinator for a kids’ furniture company. Her interest in interior design and passion for elegant Danish style combined with an intense need for neat and orderly living led her to reach out to Elfa for expert help with three tricky spaces in their home. First up was the home office:

‘Here I only had a wall for my own use. It contained standard bookshelves and all the contents were all on show, as is the case with open shelving. I wasn’t happy about that, as I wanted the option of hiding certain things away. Besides which, the shelving was only 15-20 cm deep, and I needed to maximise all the dimensions of depth, width and height,’ Katrine explains.

Top-hung click-in system with Elfa Décor, install Décor shelves, angled metal shelves with Décor shelving bar, Décor shelving tray and gliding mesh drawers with Décor fronts.

She was assisted by Lars Rudolfsen, storage expert at Elfa Denmark, and she also looked at Elfa’s catalogues, website and instagram for inspiration.

‘My actual work station, as in my desk, was up against the middle of this wall, so the focus there was more on keeping certain items visible using Elfa’s angled display shelves and stowing away the more dreary office supplies in gliding mesh drawers, which were given appealing fronts from Elfa’s Décor range. It’s important to me that the overall look blends in with the general look of our home.

Under-stairs storage challenge

The next space to deal with was at entrance level, right by the kitchen. A small storage space, approx. 4.8 sq.m., used as a pantry and for storing cleaning equipment. This was a trickier challenge, as the stairs take up a lot of the space. ‘Before, this was a difficult space to keep neat and organised: rectangular, cramped and with the stairs overhead as an awkward factor. This space was more like a ‘dumping ground’, where we were chucking in stuff any old how. If I leaned in to get anything, I couldn’t get at it because the floor was cluttered with stuff’.

We sawed off the end sections using a metal saw for a built-on-site look

Top-hung click-in system with a storage rail, accessories hooks, tool holders, transparent tall boxes, transparent dividers, wire shelves, wire shelf baskets and gliding mesh drawers.

Here the storage solutions team from Elfa drew on its long-standing expertise and experience to come up with a storage proposal. The result was a wall-mounted solution with custom shelving lengths so as to maximise use of all the wall space available.

‘It was such a relief to get everything cleared up from the floor! This system provides a neat, airy feel’.

Make space for kitchen appliances by choosing a flexible system.

Did you change anything after the drawings and sketches online, when it came to the crunch and the storage fixtures were to be installed?

‘We tweaked a few details. After installing the wire shelves n the wall-mounted top track, I realised I wanted to leave more space above one of the shelves, so I removed one of the planned shelf units. That was just so as to be able to store a bulky kitchen appliance like our Air Fryer. But that’s exactly what I love about Elfa’s system: the flexibility, that you can alter and adjust it as needed on-site’. As in needs you might not have been aware of until you actually start stowing stuff in your new storage space.

Avoid hunting around for cleaning equipment like a dustpan and brush by hanging them up on the storage rail by means of accessories hooks and tool holders that simply click into place.

Is there anything you are particularly pleased with in your under-stair space?

‘The look and feel of it being made-to-measure, built in situ and a personalised solution. And that despite the fact that several of the components have various standard dimensions. But also that it’s fine to change your mind and swap things out. Some of the shelving we ordered was slightly too long intentionally so as to be able to saw off the ends with a metal saw. That way, we’ve maximised our use of the space available, and also gained a more professional, built-in-situ, coordinated look’.

One trick for maximising storage options in small spaces is to use the inside of the door to the room in question. ‘With Elfa’s on-door storage you can easily install various-size mesh baskets for bottles, jars and cleaning supplies. I particularly like their holder for giftwrap rolls, which is super handy to install on the door.’

Inspiration for on-door storage

Small 3 sq. m. wardrobe

Maximising storage space

Front hangers provide an effective solution in cramped spaces with limited depth where you want to keep your clothes rowed in front of each other. They go under wire shelves or wire shelf baskets.

The third place in the Agesen family’s home in need of a much-needed storage makeover was one of those typically hopeless spaces many people have: a small utility room.

‘Lars, storage expert from Elfa, said that this space was the toughest challenge he’d ever had in his whole career,’ says Katrine, laughing.

Top-hung click-in system with wire shelves, wire shelf baskets, gliding mesh drawers with drawer dividers and a storage rail with hooks and boxes.

The utility room is cluttered with all kinds of installations, cables, meters, the fuse box, ducts, heat pump and other stuff that mustn’t be covered or hidden too far away. The ceiling height is three metres, but the floorage even less relatively at just 3 sq. m. Here the height is put to maximum use with the aid of Elfa’s longest hang standards. These were then installed with wire shelves, wire shelf baskets, mesh trays, dividers and hooks to overcome the challenges posed this space.

‘This room is right next to our laundry room and second entrance. We want to be able to hang up our winter jackets, our paddle gear, wellies and trainers. But it’s also a great place for airing shirts and blouses we’ve just ironed in the adjacent room.

With drawer dividers in the sliding mesh trays, you can organise your stuff, and avoid it getting jumbled up in the trays.

The large bags we seldom use have been paced on the top shelves and in some of the transparent sliding mesh trays we keep the iron and winter accessories.

‘I’m thrilled with all three spaces where Elfa helped us organise our storage. But the thing that impressed me most was the turnaround in our hopeless utility room. It was a thankless space to fit out, and we had virtually given up. But look how great it turned out in the end!