Okay, this may be a little too much information, but here goes:
I live in a small house. The property is nice, but the house is a hundred years old, and built with rather small rooms and in the old, closed style. We have a formal dining room that is oddly shaped and really too small for a formal gathering. It’s situated between the kitchen and my bedroom. When this house was built, closets weren’t really popular, so my room has none, and so when I bought the house, I bought two beautiful wardrobes and a huge dresser.
I’ve always wanted a walk-in closet. And the kitchen doesn’t have enough cupboard space. So…yes I did. The dining room is now half walk-in closet and half pantry! Who needs a formal dining room? I mean, really, we haven’t had more than ten guests in the last ten years. And mostly, they were people who love us and understand that I’m a little crazy. If I weren’t, would I try to make a living as an author?
So, some bookshelves for pantry shelves, the wardrobes and dressers behind the pantry shelves to provide a U-shaped dressing area, a voila! A magical walk-in closet, with privacy, and comfort, and plenty of space. And now my bedroom has lots more space.
I wonder, does this kind of vision come from being an author? Or is it just an offshoot of being…well…off. I’d love to hear from others as to this wacky but useful use of space. Do you have a space in your home that is never used? Have you always wanted something in your house that there was no room for? Any opinions out there?
Ryder Islington's Blog 
Hi Ryder,
Love the idea of using the space according to what you need. Bravo for you for doing what you want and not what ‘is supposed to be there’.
I think spring is in the air and spring cleaning hits everyone at this time of year. Just today I was looking at our formal dining room. It no longer has a formal table in it, but is used to store junk, which I will soon sort. It is open with the living room in a giant L shape. The problem is our only air conditioning is a window unit in the dining room, so for us to cool the whole area, it is on high, which makes that area super cold. Maybe, I’ll make it into a giant refrigerator. Or, not.
I do think people that are willing to think outside of normal thoughts tend to become authors.
🙂 Christy
Hi Ryder,
You are my kind of friend. I was doing that sort of thing long before I became a writer. Once I used half of an old wooden door at the end of the bathroom sink cupboard. You could see from the front door clear through my bedroom to the bathroom door. I cut an old door in half lengthwise and knocked out the top panel. Then I put a wire mesh in the opening (those things you put under tires when you get stuck?) Interlaced artificial flowers that matched the paint in that room and it was a great privacy screen. I love your idea in your dining room. It really is a testimony to using what space you have to be more productive. Maybe a writers mind helps dream up things though.