When it comes to the things which cause the biggest storage headaches, shoes have to be right up there. You can’t really stack them, by their very nature they have the potential to be grubby and get everything they touch grubby, and they need to be kept in pairs. If all this wasn’t bad enough, factor in a small flat or house, and perhaps a rented one where you’re not permitted to start drilling into walls or embarking on any major scale construction, and your options are limited.
Author Archive for Em Kuntze
Better living in small spaces: Cooking Without a Kitchen
What do you do when you’re a passionate cook, but have an area approximately the size of a postage stamp to do your cooking? Miriam Nice, food writer and London-based foodie, has taken a rather a novel approach to the art of cooking in a less-than-comprehensively kitted out kitchen: contemplating what to do when you don’t have one at all.
Reimagining the phone box: a London design classic
The London Design Festival, held annually in September, never fails to showcase the best and most innovative new design here in London and the UK. While it’s always exciting to see what’s new and what’s cutting edge, there are certain pieces of design which are so iconic they are as as intertwined into British life as the Queen, tea or joining a queue just because it’s there and it would be rude not to.
10 of the best: Britain’s most eccentric collections
Collections are brilliant things, aren’t they? What’s particularly brilliant is that for every stamp or teddy bear collection there is always – always – someone collecting something, if not slightly odd, then completely bonkers.
Book storage ideas from the London Design Festival and beyond
There’s someone in our office who has a bit of a ‘problem’ with books. They’re stacked three deep on the shelves, apparently. A mixture of old, treasured novels; thumbed and worn ones, will-read-later tomes and weighty reference books.
From bedroom to brewery: How home brewing has become London’s new hobby
As regular readers will know, we’re all about better living in London’s small spaces. This week our roving reporter, Em Kuntze, set out for the Old Kent Rd Brewery to discover how a hobby that started in a bedroom is fast becoming a way to make a living.
Modern Meals on Wheels: recipe boxes in London
Long gone are the days where the TV dinner was the alternative to the home-cooked evening meal and - can we just say - thank heavens for that.
If we’ve switched to subscriptions, why do we still have so much stuff?
We’re in the midst of a sharing economy frenzy. From Air BNB to ZipCar to Boris Bikes Satander Cycles to BorrowMyDoggy, we seem very keen to use everyone else’s stuff, or at least cut down on the amount we actually own.
The incredibly cool art of transforming tiny spaces
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re aware that London housing stock is a) expensive, b) not exactly spacious and c) in increasingly short supply.
The enduring appeal of the campervan
Better living in small spaces – that’s what we’re all about here on the Box Room blog. So, with the summer heat on high and the urge to escape running riot in offices across the capital, Em Kuntze explores better holidaying in small vans – the humble campervan, to be precise.
On your bike: the best of London cycling
So apparently there’s a formula for how many bicycles you need in your life. According to those wise folks over at velominati.com, the golden ratio is N + 1, where N equals the number of bikes you already own or, “S - 1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from you partner.”
On the record: vinyl storage for all collections
What is it about vinyl? It’s a curious thing when you think about it: the cassette and minidisc are all but defunct, CDs seem that way headed, but vinyl… vinyl appears to be the form that technology just can’t improve upon.