Besta System

by Rose Elder

In San Diego California, as in any major city, we have lost the common perspective of living space. We think that a 1400 ft.² house is a pretty standard home size. When we purchased our 2000 ft.² house I genuinely believed it was huge! Before that, we had lived in an 800 ft.² apartment and a 1000 ft.² condo.

Once we moved in, I realized 2000 ft.² really isn’t that big. That’s the problem with living in a city where a lot of people want to be; Homes are tight. Unless you spend at least a couple of million dollars, or you live far from the beaches and the downtown area, you will live in a smaller home.

I really needed to think hard of the best way to furnish the space. I needed to find a way to maximize storage space without making our place look cramped. Sometimes the more furniture you put in a space the tighter and smaller it appears to be. Another key point is the size of the furniture. If the furniture is too large for the space, the area can look smaller.

Years back I remembered seeing this amazing wall system at BOConcept. By the time I was going to furnish this house the high-end furniture store had closed its doors in San Diego. Then I remembered seeing a similar system at my local Ikea for a fraction of the price. Of course you are thinking: Again with Ikea!

So I started “pinning”. There are so many inspirations on the Ikea Besta system on Pinterest that it took me a week of “pinning”, and several visits to Ikea, to finally get the look I was going for. There is now a Besta System tool on the Ikea website that makes planning even easier.

After I purchased the Besta system parts I wanted, I decided to have them delivered. The person that assisted me mentioned that there was the option of paying a pretty fair price to have them installed. I decided then to use their install service on the wall units. It was very important for the safety of my children to have the units properly secured on the wall.

It took three men and about three uninterrupted hours of to have the wall system installed. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken me and Adam to do it ourselves. I am a go-getter but I also know my limitations.

Here the photos of my Besta system design. I have had it for almost 3 years and I still love it like I did the first day. I have organized as much as possible inside each unit and I still have a lot of empty space I will use for years to come.