Need extra closet space, but want to avoid major renovations? Adding a custom media center can help you get the most out of your Alexandria home’s master suite.

Alexandria is one of the cities in the DC metro area that is well known for its charm and rich history. Beyond Gadsby’s Tavern and the Carlyle House, the city displays its rich past at every turn. A stroll through Old Town Alexandria introduces you to hundreds of original buildings that date back to the 18th century. Homes here are delightfully charming and beautifully designed in the Georgian or Federal style, which draws a special kind of nostalgia from homeowners and visitors alike.

As wonderful as historical homes are, it can be difficult to alter them to fit our modern lifestyle while maintaining the integrity of their design. This is especially true when it comes to closet storage space—something that Alexandria residents lack above all else. These homes are already on the smaller side and require even more creativity to solve their inherent storage problems. One such creative solution: using a custom media center in the bedroom to make up for lost closet space.

Surprising Convenience

I’ll admit, every time we bring up this strategy to unsuspecting homeowners, they look a little skeptical. But consider this: you may already have a television in your master suite. Whether you’re eagerly following the most classic zombie “safe-zone” in pop culture history or you’re reliving the Alexandria of 1971 with Remember the Titans, it’s worth creating dedicated furniture to support your watching habits. Why not create a custom media center that can stylishly surround your entertainment and double as much-needed extra closet space?

While they’re not nearly as common in the bedroom, media centers involve just the kind of cabinetry you’re looking for. They help to utilize the full height of your bedroom ceiling and allow you to store items above, below, and on both sides of the TV. You may not initially realize how valuable this secondary storage system can be, but our clients are always amazed at how quickly they are able to fill it.

Shelves Become Key Components

If you still want to mount your TV on the wall, no problem. The beauty of custom design allows you to position cabinets and cutouts wherever necessary. This also comes in handy when you’re figuring out what to do with the unending equipment that comes with your entertainment hobby. Between cable boxes, DVRs, blu-ray players, and speaker systems, you’ve got a lot of equipment to stash somewhere.

Luckily, our custom media centers can be designed with fully-adjustable shelving. This means that you’ve got a perfectly-sized space for each component box you need, and can readjust as technology evolves in the next five years. We can also include open shelves elsewhere in the design for you to display photographs, your prized book collection, or your favorite antiques from Spurgeon-Lewis.

Mix in a Few Cabinets

Adding cabinets with doors makes your media center a valuable closet stand-in. You’re suddenly free to store more unorthodox items (including your winter boot collection). Taller cabinets can even include a hanging rod and be used as an external wardrobe. These cabinets give you the flexibility to cover up whatever chaos might exist behind those closed doors. So whether you’re storing seasonal knitwear, fatigues, or jewelry, you’ll finally have the space to hide them away in plain sight.

Get Double for Your Dresser

One of the major deterrents for building a media center in the bedroom is limited floor space. Your small historic home may be as charming as King Street in the fall, but it probably doesn’t have nearly the amount of space that your family might want. You hardly have room for all of the gear your kids need for soccer practice—much less an extra piece of furniture.

However, a media center can easily take the place of a dresser and save you some square footage. By including drawers in your media center, you are able to maintain the same amount of storage that a dresser would normally provide—plus the additional space from the cabinets and shelves. You’re getting more storage in your bedroom by having a media center than you would with a dresser alone.

When additional closet space is needed but major renovations are out of the question, it’s time to get creative—and adding a custom media center to the master suite can help owners of historic homes get the most out of every square inch. Want to see this kind of design in action? Schedule your free design consultation today to see just how a media center would be built in your own bedroom and how it will look when it’s all finished. You’ll be able to customize every aspect of the cabinetry to fit your specific needs, and your designer will help you fit everything in its place—perfectly.