When it comes to home decor, there are two major factors when making choices. The first is aesthetics; the look of your space influences how you feel in your space. It alters your mood and, therefore, the relationships you have within your home. The second is functionality. You need the things in your home to work, to take up a reasonable amount of space and work in tandem with everything else you have going on. With that in mind, the following will explore a few key ways that one item, in particular, can add more functionality to your home. Cabinets are a fantastic way to improve the function of your space.
Storage Space
One of the major benefits of cabinets is how much storage space they offer. If you’ve been caring for a home for more than a year, you know how stuff starts to accumulate. Stuff is great; it’s useful and can improve your enjoyment of life. It can also take up space, and not all of it you want on display for everyone that walks into your home. Cabinets can help you keep your stuff organized and put away nicely where it can’t be seen unless you want it to be. This is particularly vital for items you don’t need to use often, like seasonal decorations.
Keeping Things Tidy
Having somewhere to put your belongings can leave your space feeling cleaner. Study after study has found that a clean, organized home is linked to a boost in mental health. Think about it—when you walk into a room that is a mess and become instantly aware of fifteen things you need to do, how do you feel? Compare that with how you feel when you walk into a room and don’t need to be doing anything. Having enough storage space to keep your house from becoming an endless list of tasks can do wonders for your wellbeing.
It’s also super useful for when the in-laws call and tell you that you’ve got twenty minutes until their surprise visit. Simply pick up things that are out and around and put them within your cabinets to be dealt with later. Cabinets make for some wonderful speed tidying.
Display Things
Of course, not all of your stuff should be hidden away. Some of it deserves to be proudly displayed. Collections or memorabilia representing vacations and classic moments from your life look fantastic in cabinets. Delicate items can benefit from display cabinets in particular, as cabinets allow them to be seen without needing to be touched. Some cabinets even contain class coverings that help keep things clean, safe and dust free.
Focal Points
Depending on the room you’re redecorating, cabinets can make stellar statement pieces. A statement piece is a design foundation; it’s the focal point around which you select the rest of your decor. Cabinets can make for excellent focal points, particularly when they’re big and contain both hidden and visible compartments.
Height Variety
One of the major flaws of interior design is having everything in a room be roughly the same height. Variety is a crucial aspect of beauty, and cabinets are an excellent and practical way of varying the heights present in your space because cabinets come in so many different shapes and sizes. Take a moment to think about the vertical range of your decor and see if there’s space for a cabinet that helps cultivate a wider range of heights. As a bonus, taller cabinets can be used to store things out of reach from mischievous children (like gifts, for instance). Just make sure that you properly secure any tall cabinets to the wall if you have young children around them, as kids love to climb things.
Fill Voids
Another problem that can occur in amateur interior decoration is big voids. Yes, negative space is a key component of good design, but too much negative space is just as much of a problem as too little. You don’t want a home that feels cold, bare and empty. You want one that has life in it. Using cabinets to fill empty spaces is incredibly functional.
The above information should have made it clear that there are several functional reasons you might want to consider cabinets when you’re redesigning a room. If you live in an area where earthquakes or major storms are real possibilities, make sure to take the time to properly secure your cabinets to the wall behind them. If a cabinet set is on the heavier side, you’re also going to want to include felt foot stickers onto the cabinets to keep them from damaging your floors.