Creating space

We live in a small house, at least by current, Australian standards. Our house is about half the floor area of the current average new home. Over the years I have bit by bit carved out storage space in the most unlikely spaces.
We have recently finished two projects. One of them occurred to me about 12 months ago, the other was inspired by Pinterest just recently.
We have a problem with where to store our suitcases. For years they lived under the bed; however, the cat - realising that they caused us to leave her by herself or with strangers - took a dislike to them. Her logic was if she scented them (pweh) they were hers and would have to stay home. They actually went in the bin!

Our hallway, from the living area to the bedrooms has two alcoves at the end. For a year or so the suitcases lived in a untidy pile in the corner of one alcove.

Rough diagram of our hallway

Enter inspiration - why not put a fake ceiling into the two alcoves? Using the door frames on one side, a length of 1 inch square dowel on the two other sides, some boards cut to size, we did just that.

We've since repainted the entire hallway. It's now all the same yellow as the wall behind the bookcase in this picture. The new 'ceiling' is also yellow so it blends into the walls. In each alcove we used several boards, rather than just a single piece. This makes it a lot easier to remove. Above this shelf is the access point to the roof space. I am really enjoying not stubbing my toe on suitcases, and threatening to send to the pile toppling in all directions, every time I turn the corner.

The second project was even simpler. My inspiration - an 'aha' moment if ever there was one - came from this photo. I mentioned it to hubby on Sunday and today (Friday) it's done. That in itself is a minor miracle!

Eventually the wall behind will be the same yellow as the corner (and the hallway); we've run out of paint. This board is 150mm wide, and the length of our wall. It is supported by three L brackets underneath, screwed to the joists in the wall. The location of our front door means that everybody travels through our lounge room. Coffee tables in the centre of the room are a bit of a nuisance. It's also not possible to put a coffee table at either end of this couch. This shelf will give people somewhere to put their coffee cups, and the remote, and the phone, and ... all sorts of stuff.