Under sofa storage for gym accessories
This was created out of a need as my stuff gets dusty really quickly in the workshop. Especially the yoga mat, dust sticks to it more stubbornly because of its material making it difficult to do a complete wipe down. Plus, it isn’t exactly a small item that can be shoved into any cupboard space..
So where is a good and accessible place to store it? Under the sofa! So I can just lay out the mat between the sofa and TV and start following some POPSUGAR Fitness videos. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
Design Process
Most storage systems like this 54L plastic container from Citylife would actually suffice, but, being lazy me, it still seem rather troublesome to wheel the entire container out, lift the lid, retrieve the stuff, close the lid, wheel the container back in, and repeat the process when I need to keep the stuff.
A front lid closure with magnet would solve all that hassle. {Kinda feels like I’m in a bakery peering through those clear acrylic window lids to pick my bread}
The top opening was not necessary, but just thought it is a ‘good-to-have-in-case’ situation. Or rather, why not? It is just a matter of 2 extra hinges.
The wheels were added for mobility. Although again, they were not a necessity, but a definite good to have.
Constraints
Height of space
The major constraint was the height of the space under the sofa. It is 200mm.
- Diameter of rolled up mat: 140mm
- Height of wheels: 58mm
Remaining height for plywood and acrylic materials? 2mm????
Well, I could roll my mat really tight to about 120mm diameter, that would give me 22mm to work with instead..
Using 15mm plywood and 3mm clear acrylic, that would only give me about 4mm leeway for the hinges. This was really cutting it too close. We had to think of another design..
So we brought the wheels out to the side instead of trying to fix it underneath the storage. This opened up a lot more space as you can see.
And since the side tabs were already out, we were thinking, why not box it up to add more storage? We didn’t put a lid on these because we planned to put our sports shoes there, and figured that it is better if they had more ‘breathing’ space. *pulls t-shirt over nose*
Flexibility of acrylic sheet
The other problem that we faced was the flexibility of the acrylic material over the 900mm length covering the top of the storage. It started to sag in the middle. We had to brace it somehow without putting any divider or columns in the storage area. So we added a 8mm plywood cutout underneath and it did help a little. Not perfect, but good enough.
What else?
Should I have painted it? Or does it look alright raw like that? Would you have done anything differently? Any other suggestions for ways we could do better?
Let us know in the comments below.
Onwards to a more active lifestyle!
