Vintage Sheet Storage

Although I have a two bedroom apartment, it's pretty small.  It's comfortable enough, but it could be a little bigger for my taste.  Being that it is on the tad cramped side, it doesn't leave much room for storage.  And honestly I have entirely too much stuff (shoes, clothes, fabric) to have packed in here.

My daughter's room is right across from mine; and in our makeshift "hallway" which really isn't, there is an alcove that is about a foot and a half deep and three feet wide.  I figured if I couldn't annex some space, then I should go vertical.  That's just what I did.

I purchased six wall brackets from Lowe's and three melamine shelves from Home Depot.  The shelves were a pretty tight fit alone without the brackets.  I ended up trimming the depth an inch or so so that it wouldn't butt up against the trim in the corners.  I anchored it all to the wall, but I didn't secure the shelves to the brackets.  Part of that was because I was eager to get my vintage linens in place; the other part was because the shelves were already a tight fit, I didn't feel like they would slip anywhere.  I probably will eventually screw them into the supports though.  The shelves are uneven in height, but that's not something with which I'm terribly concerned.  At this point it was more about functionality than aesthetics.

I was amazed at how much each shelf could fit.  I was able to get two rows on each shelf and at least three columns as you can see.  I've placed most of my vintage sheets (at least the ones I could find), a few vintage pillowcases that are in my home (most are still at my parents'), and few of my vintage sewing and modern sewing books (again the majority of those are at my parents' home.)  I have a mini shelving unit that used to be my sewing table that I'm going to store underneath and house my vintage pillowcases or solid color fabrics.

I packed them as tightly as I could toward the ceiling, and I tried to order them by color.  For the most part I succeeded, however I should have ordered them by color before I placed them in their spots because I misplaced a few colors. 

I'm not sure if you can tell how deep it is by this photo but it's pretty deep.  These shelves cut down my space by half compared to the bookcase I had them sitting in.  I considered wrapping them around mini bolts but thought about the fact that most of these sheets are still whole.  I think that would probably take up more space than this option.

A few of my pillowcases sit on the shelf as well.  I honestly don't know why I really have pillowcases.  I don't bother to use them as much, only when I find a pillowcase in a print that I don't already have in a sheet.  I sometimes use them for skirts, dresses, or really small projects that I don't want to cut into a big sheet for.  Also when I buy sheets sometimes they come as a set with the pillowcases.

I also placed a few of my vintage sewing books on the bottom shelf.  I actually like how they look gathered together.  I have way more than this collection here.  Like vintage sheets, vintage sewing books are my weakness as well.  I can barely ever pass up a good one, especially a vintage Better Homes & Gardens book.  They are by far my favorite.  I have two Singer Sewing Books.  I think one is just about warn to pieces and the other has its original dust jacket.  I also have some of my modern sewing books nestled up in the nook.  I like these just as much because whereas vintage books teach about technique and overall knowledge, modern books teach different projects and ideas.

Let's see how long this stays this nice and neat!!  This will be the last time that the colors look this organized because once I start playing with the fabrics, there is no telling what order it will be in.  Hopefully I can at least remember to put everything back on to these shelves once I'm done using the sheets.  

How do you organize your sheets?  I would love to see!  Please leave a link so I can what you do to organize your sheets and maybe get even better ideas!