Make the loft your favourite room

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Your loft is an often forgotten about. Left unfinished, and often designed to just facilitate your water tank. Some people never venture into them at all.

However, even a small loft space can offer large storage space potential once utilised effectively.

Your loft space can be as much as the length of your house, by about half the width. That’s a lot of space to take advantage of.

The great thing about any loft is that it can be a completely private storage area in the home. An area where no house guests are going to accidently wander into, so the focus can be on a practical space that doesn’t need to look pretty. However, incorporate some simple shelving solutions and the space starts looking great as well as being really practical.

The key to making any loft storage space work effectively is your access. You will most likely be carrying items in your hands when entering or exiting this space, so it is essential to have a safe and sturdy access ladder system in place. It’s worth investing in a quality timber loft ladder system that is safe and strong under foot as well as being easy to use, and best to avoid the cheap, low quality systems. Once you start utilising the space more, you will appreciate investing in a quality loft ladder that doesn’t flex, and guarantees your safety.

The next essential ingredient to utilising this space is putting down flooring. An OSB floor can be installed in a day and you don’t have to floor the entire loft area.

Now you have turned your attic into a useable storage room in the space of a day. The installation of a quality timber loft ladder system and the flooring can generally be done for around £2000.

These next tips are taking a basic loft storage area into a much more functional space:

Lights. There are two ways of doing this, installing a plug in the attic or using battery LED lights. LED lights can be installed by anyone and work straight away. However, as you start to use the space more you may see the value of getting an electrician to install additional lighting and power sockets for operating vacuum cleaners, laminating machines, etc..

Shelving: This is the next stage in creating your modern storage space. It turns your bare bones space into an organised storage room. It will make everything look tidier and prevent any crushing from stacking boxes.

Boxes and bags: Its best to use sealable plastic boxes, or sealed plastic bags to protect your items. It’s a good idea to use transparent boxes and bags so you can easily see what is in them.

You will also find plenty of clever loft storage ideas on Pinterest.

And just a few do’s and don’ts to be aware of:

1. 1. Don’t put anything on your insulation, if the insulation gets compressed it’s not as effective.

1. 1. Don’t step on insulation, the ceiling boards underneath can’t support any weight.

1. 1. Do use vacuum storage bags. Attics can have higher moister content than the rest of the house.

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