Just because your apartment is tiny doesn’t mean you must sacrifice any of your highly coveted space, which is something that’s crucial to everyone these days. Believe it or not, you probably have a lot more space than you think or, with a few simple modifications, at least the ability to make it appear that way. With the right design practices, even a pint-sized apartment can be adapted for swanky, uninhibited living.
Make Your Furnishings Work for You
When choosing furniture for your petite apartment, make sure to opt for pieces that are able to pull double duty. For instance, coffee tables, ottomans, seating, and nightstands are all available in versions doubling as storage containers. Instead of a standard 4-legged coffee table, use a vintage trunk or small bookshelf. Trade in your simple nightstand for one with drawers or small shelves. An ottoman with a lift-up top makes a great storage unit for all those shoes that won’t fit in your closet. Looking for inspiration? Check out a show home with similar dimensions to see how they’re decorated. You can often find show home furniture for sale to recreate their functional decorating schemes.
Exploit Vertical Space
Oftentimes you judge the size of your living area solely by the amount of available floor space. However, taking into account the virtually wasted vertical space, there are countless options for creating a less cluttered room. Instead of squandering your kitchen cabinets with huge pots and pans, hang them from ceiling racks or on wall hooks. Hang lamps from the ceiling to free up much-desired floor or table space. The real game-changer here? The lavish use of shelving of course. Shelves can be hung essentially anywhere for endless storage options and a personalized touch. Try small corner shelves for a unique itty-bitty living space.
Let the Walls Do All the Work
One simple way of decorating small spaces is to keep it light. The paint, that is. Light colors, white being the best, will open up a room and make it appear larger than if dark colors were used. If a darker color is preferred, use it for a single accent wall instead of the whole room. This will pull the wall farther away from the eye, creating the appearance of a larger area. Likewise, a well-lit room will appear much larger than a room that’s dimly lit. Brainstorm lighting options or check out Pinterest for a plethora of design ideas.
Create the Illusion of a Bigger Space
There are a few tricks to make a small room appear much larger than it is. Floor to ceiling window treatments – regardless of the window size – creates height where there might not be much to be begin with. Using this same concept horizontally, covering the floors with large area rugs creates the illusion that the space is much larger than it actually is.
Another way to create depth in a room is the generous use of mirrors as decorative art. Mirrors not only reflect light brightening the room, but they also create the appearance of increased depth, a trick of the mind to make your tiny apartment appear much larger.
Decorating with modest available space may seem difficult at first, but by thinking outside the box, behind the doors, up the walls, and under the bed you can uncover space you didn’t initially think you had. Dual-purpose furnishings, leaving no space unused, and a few simple optical illusions are the key to a great start at successfully decorating a tiny apartment.
