Tips for Decorating Small Spaces
Interior design is an art form. When you’re decorating a room, you might feel like you’re working a paintbrush over a blank canvas, bringing out beauty that previously existed only in your mind.
But when you’re decorating a small room, that canvas can shrink. In fact, decorating really small spaces can feel less like creating a work of art and more like solving a puzzle. When your sofa goes there and your TV stand there, that leaves room for your bookcase there, and… what a headache!
We’re here to help. When you keep a few basic principles in mind, decorating small spaces gets a whole lot easier. Here are our top tips for decorating small spaces.
Make pieces pull double duty
When you have a small space, you don’t have room for every little thing that you might want to include in your home. But you can make more room by demanding more of the furniture, wall hangings, and other things that you do allow in.
Try to find ways for objects to serve two purposes. Perhaps a TV stand with good shelving and compartments could house decorative objects and books as well as your PlayStation and DVR. And lots of items can pull double-duty as storage. For instance, you could use a chest as a coffee table. Organizationis key in a small space, but it’s hard to organize without enough storage. Making pieces of furniture double as storage spaces makes sense, and you can combine that with smart small-space organizational techniques to make your room feel freer and more spacious.
Hide the clutter
Open shelving and other hip design trends may look cool on Instagram, but they rely on you to keep things perfectly organized and ready for the spotlight. In a small space, it’s not always possible to leave room between neat stacks of dishes or arrange clutter in attractive boxes for everyone to see. So, in a small place, opt for storage pieces that hide clutter. Close those cabinets, push in those drawers, and use every inch of your storage space without worrying that others will see just how full the storage spaces are.
Use rugs and carpets to create zones
Interior designers love their zones, don’t they? Designers love to tell people to keep their furniture away from their walls and to create smaller“rooms within rooms” by grouping furniture or using it to separate spaces within rooms. But if you’re in a tiny space, moving your furniture away from the walls will only serve to make your room feel crowded and even smaller. Don’t do it!
But here’s the thing. You can still have zones in your rooms without having your furniture floating all over the place. Use rugs instead. An area rug or a small welcome rug can designate even a very small space as a particular type of place. You can create an entranceway, a work space, an entertainment space, or whatever other sort of zone you might want, and you can make it feel distinct by changing the color and texture of the floor beneath your feet.
Use wall space for art and shelving
Your room maybe small, but that doesn’t mean that it lacks vertical space. Use that wall space to get more out of your home.
First things first. Beauty matters in your space. Use colors to make your space feel bright and roomy. Things like custom canvas prints can liven up your walls and bring pop-art, personal photographs, or other beautiful touches to your space.
Don’t crowd yourself in with wall shelving, but do consider the possibility of adding floating shelves high on your walls. The extra storage space can free up more room at eye level and on the ground.
