Laundry Room Dreaming

Living in a hundred year old plus house, you run into a general lack of storage. People in 1907 did not have any stuff, needless to say I'm not sure I would have survived! We have neither a usable attic nor basement, so you have to get creative, learn to love the space bag, and utilize every hide-able spot behind and under your furniture. When I first visited this house when I was house shopping I made a comment about adding  some built in storage in the laundry room, as there is a perfect 12 inch recessed area along the wall. The space in question is odd, 11 inches deep plus molding and about inches 72 long.

I've been looking around and considering many options. The first place I looked was of course, Lowes. The area is too shallow for base cabinets but is the perfect depth for wall cabinets. So armed with my tape measure I hit the kitchen aisle and tried to but my rudimentary algebra skills to work. After coming up with many combos I still ended up with an undesirable look, at a very high costs. Each 30 x 30 wall cabinet runs about 150-200 dollars a pop. Bust #1!

My second idea was to use standard bookcases that can be easily purchased at any big box store. And for hidden storage, I figured that I could run a rod with funky fabric across the front. I located some bookshelves online at Walmart.com and priced them for about 50-75 dollars a piece for a 5-7 shelf unit. So immediately I ran out to my local Walmart and to my chagrin I discovered that what I was looking for did not exist in store. Bust #2!

My most recent idea takes me to my old friend Ikea. I first looked at the standard Billy bookcase, sticking to my second idea. And that's when I came across the Billy with doors! BINGO! Covered and uncovered storage, can we say heck yes! So here are my current ideas. 

1. Billy bookcase with doors (upper is glass)
2. Billy bookcase with lower doors only
3. Billy bookcase
4. Billy dvd storage
5. Lack shelf

6. Gruntal lighting
7. BÖJA
8 and 8a. Vaster (in white and red)
9 and 10. Calypso and Erbium

My favorite combo as of right now would go a little bit like this...

(Note: Excuse my low budget Picassa editing, I stake no claim as technology extraordinaire!)

Because the space is such an odd size, there is left over space to the tune of about 10 inches. I considered an addition shelf, number 4 above for a custom, finished, built in look. However, that leaves me without any storage for the broom and swiffer. So I was thinking that the above combination would leave me with just the extra amount of space for those items, along with some hooks for other small items.

As for the lights, I have been crushing on the Boja for awhile now- but I also like the reverse boob light of number 9 and 10. It all comes down to how much I'm loving it in real life. I find that a lot of times I fall in love with something in the Ikea catalog only to be bummed out by it in real life. Either way, I definitely want to grab some lighting for the inside top of the book cases so I can show off my tchotchkes.

So that's my plan right now, what do ya think? Help a gal out!