Not Baskets, Not Cabinets: The Simple Way To Keep Living Room Blanket Storage Out Of Sight

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Apart from your bedroom, the second most common place you'll find blankets is often the living room; the ones you leave out in the open draped over the back of the sofa, just waiting to be wrapped around your shoulders when the night's temps and the movie du jour cause chills to run down your spine. Any blankets that you don't display on the furniture nestle inside a basket tucked at the end of a couch or are folded away in a cabinet drawer. However, in some instances, it makes more sense to consider a coffee table with a hidden compartment as a blanket storage solution instead of the usual suspects.

Problems arise when your blankets are too large, (or you have too many of them), to fit into your go-to hideaway spots. Basket lids won't close, and corners of woolly fabric will force their way out of cabinet drawers. It's a matter of too much blanket for too little space, which clutters up the living room. Instead, coffee tables often have roomy compartments that can easily accommodate such blankets.

For people who live in tiny homes and micro apartments, which usually measure between 100 and 400 square feet, even the smallest cabinet or basket might still have a bigger footprint than the home's floor space can handle. Blanket ladders offer some help. However, if the blankets are bulky, the open-air storage option creates a visual mess, thanks to the juxtaposition of the heavy blankets set against the backdrop of a tiny room. Falling is an issue for blanket ladders, too, especially if they're extra full. Storing blankets in a coffee table with a spacious built-in compartment instead will keep them neatly tucked out of sight.

In most of these scenarios, furniture with built-in storage, like a coffee table with a compartment, is a better way to keep your blankets organized in the living room. Different styles exist. A common design, like the Joaxswe Farmhouse Coffee Table, features a table with a hinged tabletop with a spacious compartment underneath. Blanket storage is as easy as lifting up the top of the table and stashing the blankets inside.

There are other kinds of coffee tables that don't open from the top, but rather from the sides, thanks to hinges attached to the top or the bottom of the piece. Your items enter the table via a side door rather than a top one. And deluxe models, like the HAIOOU Lift Top Coffee Table, include both top and side entry doors, giving you hidden storage space for not only blankets but also games and magazines.

When floor space is at a premium, the multi-functional character of such tables gives you two pieces of furniture for the price of one. They function as coffee tables when you need them to hold a cup of tea or breakfast. Meanwhile, inside the piece there's plenty of storage space that doesn't ask for its own footprint. Being tipped over or falling also ceases to be an issue. And some table designs are quite cavernous, making fitting even bulky blankets less of a challenge. Best of all, these tables work whether they're being used in a standard-sized home or its mini-me equivalent.