WACKED OUT FOOD STORAGE
When I was a teenager, I thought that the notion of disguising your food storage as furniture was totally nuts. Now it seems totally normal. Not sure what that says about me. Don’t really care.
But I was thinking that it might be fun, and only slightly useful, to share the wacky ways we, meaning you and I, have ‘used’ our food storage. I’ll go first. This story is titled: THE BIG ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Last summer I did the design work on a 3,300 square foot basement playroom. Yup! One of the very first ideas I pitched to the client was to use her food storage cases, spread out in an area about 21′ x 17′, as the support structure for a STAGE. (Warning: Even in my interior design business I try to encourage investing in food storage. This client doesn’t happen to currently use her food storage, as in cook with it, but she has it, and that’s the first step.) Catching my design vision/version of “if you build it they will come”, she agreed to the idea of the stage but opted to have a contractor build the structure, sans case. BUT IT WOULD HAVE WORKED! I’m sure of it.
Next, and not nearly as grand, I’ve helped two of my daughters use their food storage hand-me-down cans and cases of wheat, as the supports for their new upholstered headboards. (Originally from Thomasville for $935.00, I salvaged the headboards for only $50.00 each. More on that later. See, this post is also about me trying to dip my big toe into the requests for sharing provident living interior design tips. Aaarg!) At first the girls thought they would have to pay someone to build the connection-contraption but I suggested that they first experiment with using their extra food storage. Worked like a charm!
Anywho! That’s what we did and we’re not ashamed. Now tell us your story.
Tags: food storage building blocks, making room, using it one way or another
February 10th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
First, can I just say how much I love the stage idea? A lot, that’s how much. A whole, whole lot.
Have you done any sort of testing as to how much weight each #10 can can bear? Because hubby and I just downsized our queen size bed to a full size bed. It makes our bedroom feel a lot bigger, and it’s snuggly. Only thing, our queen mattresses were those pillow-toppy marshmallow lookin’ ones, and the full size ones we’re using now are the former guest bedroom, rather basic ones. On the exact same (adjustable) frame, the full size bed is quite a bit shorter. It feels funny, probably just because it’s so new. I think that #10 cans would bring it right up where we’d want it, but I don’t want to dent them, break the seals, something like that. Could I just run rows of them under the steel rails of the bedframe? Should I add velcro? Thoughts?
I have a friend whose buffet in her kitchen is 5 gallon buckets of food storage, stacked and covered with a pretty piece of fabric. There is an unfinished board under the fabric to make the fabric drape the way she wants it to. On top there is a stained, finished plank where she can set out a buffet of food when needed. The rest of the time it is home for some kitchen things – cookie jar, basket of napkins, etc. It’s cute. I think people might assume there’s food or something under there, but for the most part I don’t think they’re thinking of a few hundred pounds of wheat.
Most of what I’ve heard or seen has been food concealed under furniture, rather than it being integrated into things. I know a lady who has a row of canned goods behind the paperbacks on her bookshelf, stuff like that, because of a lack of other storage. I think there are lots of possibilities!
February 11th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Thanks Laura! The stage really did turn out to be a hit. The children, and neighbor children, are constantly play acting. Good clean fun!
Love the ideas you’ve shared. I’m thinking that I might try something like your friend’s buffet trick, but in a slightly smaller version. Lizzie wants a desk in her room. I could use 2 stacks of four cases each as the sides and leave a 24″ knee hole in the center. Those sides could then be covered with a cloth or even wrapped and tacked like a present for a more tailored look. Then I would just need to float a 20″ x 60″ piece of wood across the top and call it good.
I don’t know how much load a number ten can hold, but I gave a presentation on Tuesday night where a gentleman told me that his son uses his food storage cases as the base for his mattress. I’ve actually heard that same idea from a number of people, so I guess it must be a safe investment. He didn’t metion Velcro but hey, it couldn’t hurt!
Sleep well!
February 11th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Thanks Leisa! Your desk sounds like a great idea too! I’m sure that something like end tables would be very do-able too, especially if a couple is starting out and lacking some furniture.
What about a bench in an entry, for taking off/putting on shoes? Full cases (duct taped together) could be stacked, then covered in a tailored fashion (or even with some re-purposed bamboo blinds or something wrapped around them). Put a cushion on top, and you have a bench.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
That works! The food storage boxes provide ready access to modular building blocks, and they’re only as weird as MDF.
All it takes is a bit of imagination!
February 14th, 2010 at 5:34 am
I have a small house with hardly any closet space and was at a loss as to where I could put my food storage. One day I had a friend over who is creative at problem solving to discuss this and she come up with the idea to build a wall of food storage behind my bed and then cover it by doing floor to ceiling fabric/drapes. This works because the shape of my room is rectangle with lots of room between the foot of my bed and dresser. I only had to move my bed and night stands out about a foot and my food storage wall holds more than 100 cases. No one would know that behind the fabric is food storage- it just looks like I was really fancy in my decorating by having a fabric wall (and it’s easy access).
February 14th, 2010 at 5:35 am
Also, I was able to fit 17 cases under my king size bed by just raising my bed about 2 inches with brick pavers.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:16 am
I used 44 cases of food storage from the cannery to build a king size guest bed for my sister and her husband when they came to stay with us for a month over Christmas. I used two twin mattresses I already had and it turned out that a quilt I made out of my husbands old blue jeans ten years ago was just the right size. All I had to buy was king size linens. I’ll send you a picture!
February 15th, 2010 at 9:48 am
YOU WIN MELISSA! I LOVE YOUR IDEA! That is truly EXPERT space planning. Your friend did a great job of seeing your space, and seeing where you had extra space. Everyone clap for Melissa!
February 15th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Very smart idea Bonnie! I would love to see a picture. Did you stack the cases 2 high? Tell us about the configuration. A useful stash for 44 cases is VERY impressive. How would you rate the comfort level? Do you think that the box spring was missed? I want to try this in our home!
March 7th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
I kid you not, I would seriously stack all my cases of fs from floor to ceiling, put a sheet over it and use it as a home theatre. Or paint a tromp l’oeil scene on them. Blend, blend, blend, they used to tell me in doing makeup…I think it applies to fs.
Or disguise them as a wall shranken. German for furniture units. I slept with wheat under my bed until I was a teenager. It got rotated, but it never went away.
We have put cans under tables…we have put plywood on top of buckets under our bed…
After so many years of not having it, we have it, use it and are so grateful for it.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:59 am
YOU thebomb.com Carolyn!
Food storage is the only insurance plan we can EAT and it’s so worth the space it takes in our homes. And just like anything else we would invest in, it seems like if we really want it, we can make room for it. Thanks deary for your strong example!
March 9th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Heh. Decorate with it, eat it, blog about it…I just love coming here.
But your blog is more than just food storage. It is a double dog dare to live within our means, challenge our creativity and really, magnify our stewardship.
I am so thankful for the skills I do have and the things you have here.
Thank you, Liesa.
March 10th, 2010 at 12:15 am
…so that we will have more to SHARE! (You’re very welcome.)