Our Hardest Working Storage (That Looks Good Too!)

Happy Friday all! This day started out SO beautiful and now it's hailing and dark outside. Welcome to spring in Indiana!! Or really, any day in Indiana. 

As the weather warms up I know I'll want to spend more time working in my garden and on outdoor projects. I'm trying to tackle some indoor projects lately that I know I won't want to mess with later in the month. One of those is going through and cleaning the basement. We finished the basement years ago and have thoroughly enjoyed having this extra space. Our family room upstairs isn't big so having a huge space to play and lounge in is fantastic. 

What's even better is I just have to yell "basement!" when the Bub and his friends play -- having all the toys down there is about the greatest thing ever. In the history of ever. 

As we went through the toys and starting clean up I was reminded of how much I adore the extra storage we had added down there. We have a 17 foot wall that was just blank space before -- you can't see the expanse of it in this photo but it's one of the best I can find (the wall with the TV): 

Years before the basement was finished I knew that wall would be the perfect spot for some incredible storage. And I was right. ;) We had help with the build and then I finished off the top with planked wood and stain: 

Incredible right?? It still makes me swoon a little bit, not gonna lie. 

Later I added some bins from Target for more functional storage: 

You can see more about those and the DIY labels I made here. :) 

I left some of the cubbies open so we could place bigger toys and boxes inside. Most of them are the same square size, some are slightly wider (I wanted the middle set wider in size to accommodate the electronics). It has been wonderful and functional storage over the years!: 

You can see more about those floating shelves here -- I'm still debating on adding some to the other side. We don't need a ton of shelving so I'll continue to sit on that for a while.

Do you think there's such a thing as TOO much storage in a house? I think there is. Even when we had these built I thought about the fact that someday we wouldn't have toys to put in them -- what would we fill the cubbies with?

I quickly realized we'll use these for years to come. Even though my son has grown out of many of his toys, he still likes to keep a bunch, even if he doesn't play with them quite as much. Oh how I wish Nerf guns fit into these cubbies!! ;)

But now we have a grandson (my stepdaughter's son) who loves to play with them, and my nephews and nieces love the toys too. It makes me happy to know we'll have toys down here for quite some time:

I don't think we'll be in this house when we're old and gray, but if we are I'll fill the baskets with pillows and blankets and add some decor to the cubbies. ;) And when we move someday I know another family will love them!

This build was one of our best additions to the house as far as form and function goes. We all love it!

Oh, and by the way -- a couple years ago I added some felt to the bottom of those baskets. I just cut it to size and hot glued it on. The baskets started tearing up the paint a little bit and the felt on the bottom eliminates that problem completely. Love it. Just a quick tip for you!

I finally remembered the before and after linky this month! That will be live this Monday -- be sure to get your posts ready and link up! :) Have a great weekend my friends!

P.S. Now the sun is shining again! :)