Designing Small Spaces Tips
When it comes to designing small spaces in a home, there are several considerations to keep in mind: scale/proportions, lighting, functionality, and organization.
Scaling & Proportions
When designing small spaces such as your studio apartment, closets, flex rooms, etc., it is important to not use oversized furniture in the space especially if it’s a multipurpose space. To properly scale your space, it is best to utilize the vertical space to make the room appear bigger which helps visually enhance the space. When it comes to organizing your pantry, closets, linen closets, etc., it is important to maximize the use of vertical space and extend it to the ceiling, if possible, for more storage.
Lighting in Small Spaces
Many small spaces often struggle to make it feel and look natural and spacious. Adding a light and bright color palette helps transform the space, making it feel bigger and creating an illusion of spaciousness. Using shades of white, gray, beige, or pastel colors helps enhance the visual perception of space, but also brings a sense of tranquility and elegance to the interior space and makes for a popular choice for small rooms.
Add some secondary lighting in the space such as lamps, wall sconces, or floor lamps. It helps bring attention to the focus of the space, whether that be your chair near your bedroom, shelves of collectible items, or your furniture space in the corner of the room. Adding lighting also makes the space feel tranquil and helps add extra brightness to spaces that need the light.
Open up those windows! Windows helps carry that natural light into the space, it helps make the space feel bigger and brighter. Swap out the old heavy curtains for a sheer shade of fabric to enhance the space.
Functional Ways to Utilize Space
When having a small space, you often feel like it’s limited in square footage. Most designers tell you to not put your furniture against the wall, however, if you have limited space, why not use that area to maximize the space? With a small space, you want to utilize the most out of the square footage with the furniture, pathway to walk through, storage, and any task zones. Having a small space you can try to create area zones by using a rug and room dividers to make that area its own space.
Functionality is a great way to embrace the idea of investing in multifunctional furniture pieces that help serve as extra storage solutions. Having a small space doesn’t mean you have to limit style, functionality, or comfort.
Decluttering & Organizing
Having limited space that is filled with clutter can lead you to feel overwhelmed. To limit the clutter in your space, start getting rid of items that serve no purpose to your main areas in your home. Those items can be areas that take up unnecessary space to walk through, surface areas that have over-piled items that are not needed, and too many items that are not correctly stored in the properly designated area.
Organizing tips in small spaces to work is minimizing the items to make more space. Having too many items that are involved in a space often feels cluttered. When is the last time you have gone through and done a spring cleaning? Limit yourself to purchasing items that you already have and utilizing those items until you need a new one.
When it comes to having a small space, don’t be afraid to go a little crazy and bold in design styles. At the end of the day, it’s your own space that you dwell in and it should be a direct reflection of your style and taste.
