From multipurpose rooms and bright space planning to elastic, floating and transparent furnishings, our Little Spaces section is brimming with ideas that will assist you look at your home in new ways. Reimagine a tricky area — or your entire house — with the suggestions and techniques in those guides.
Tim Cuppett Architects
Planning Your Space
From miniature one-room studios to rail flats, not all small spaces are created equal for a grip on the best way to arrange furniture in your space by figuring out how others have handled similar space problems.
For example, in a living room with several doors and windows (such as the one displayed here), pull on your chairs arrangement together in the middle of the area, and utilize matched sofas or armchairs to create a cohesive appearance.
Get the guide: Design Solutions for 11 Tricky Spaces
Accredited Staging Professional, Jamie McNeilis
Storage and Organizing
From trading in your bulky desktop computer and audio system for a sleek notebook and iPod dock, to embracing folding furnishings and searching out sneaky storage pieces, there is a lot you can do in order to win the battle clutter in your small space.
Get the guide: Keeping Tidy in Smaller Spaces
Emily Elizabeth Interior Design
Getting furniture off the floor is a great way to maximize space. Take a floating dish rack, a bicycle hanger, or even a loft bedroom over the kitchen. Another wise tip: Widen the windowsills so they can double as shelf space.
Get the guide: Lift Off! Features for Small Spaces
Ed Ritger Photography
If you rent, you may not be in a position to justify springing for habit built-ins — but there are loads of different ways to tuck smart storage in your apartment.
Craft a workplace from a tiny closet, tuck blankets and board games into a coffee table and hide baskets in fresh room beneath furniture.
Get the guide: Storage Suggestions for Renters
If you can splurge to a habit detail or 2, you really can go wild with smart storage ideas. For instance, why don’t you include recessed shelves, hidden cabinets or a flat-screen TV onto a panel that pivots?
Get the guide: 12 Ways to Sneak the Most Out of Your Space
Abbe Fenimore Studio Ten 25
Decorating Tricks
Decorators understand that there are certain things that always make a small space feel more broad: Transparent or mirrored furnishings, cleared floors, simple upholstery (bypass the ruffles) and well-lit rooms top the list.
Get the guide: Small Space, Spacious Feel
LiLu Interiors
Consider also making a couple bigger changes to expand your space — select a tight colour palette and stay with it in every room, use strategically positioned focal walls and switch solid inside doors for glass ones.
Get the guide: 10 Ways to Maximize a Little Space
Wud Furniture Design
Entry
Whether you have an open entryway, a narrow hallway or a front door that opens into a stairwell, small-space dwellers almost always have problems with entryway storage. Look for slender, wall-mounted storage, such as floating shelves, cabinets and jacket trees, to take advantage of available space. And from the tightest spaces, wall mounts and hooks will be the very best friends.
Get the guide: Smart Solutions for Nonexistent Entryways
Living Room
A petite living area has to work harder. Hide spare seats in plain sight (such as the stools displayed here), hang drapes additional high to make ceilings look taller and take advantage of little nooks with built-in window seats (with hidden storage, obviously).
Get the guide: Love Your Living Room: Upsize a Little Space
Michael Fullen Design Group
Living Room
Just because your home lacks a formal dining area does not mean that you must go without a suitable space for sitting and eating. Consider filling a tight corner with banquette seating or hang a lavish pendant light on a small pedestal table for 2. Lay the region with a rug and art or a mirror on the wall — or look for a drop-leaf table that may be pushed against the wall when not being used.
Get the guide: 10 Savvy Ways to Design a Little Dining Area
Stephanie Sabbe
Kitchen
Big, sprawling kitchens can get all of the media, but a streamlined kitchen may be just as (or even more) efficient and beautiful. Consider it — with less room to fill, it is possible to splurge on fancier appliances and materials than you would if your kitchen were three times the size! Consider using narrower-than-usual counters to save space in a very tight spot.
Get the guide: Let’s Toast Small Kitchens Everywhere
Moment layout + productions
Toilet
Pocket-size baths can be quite a challenge to design nicely — it’s no mean feat fitting a sink, toilet, and bathing space in a few square feet. Console sinks, recessed medicine cabinets and floating vanities will help. And here’s a bit of counterintuitive wisdom: a claw-foot bathtub (albeit a smallish one) is visually milder than an equal-size bathtub that reaches the floor. Who knew?
Get the guide: 8 Tiny Bathrooms With Big Personalities
DKOR Interiors Inc.- Interior Designers Miami, FL
Obviously, there is also a fantastic case to be made for eliminating this bathtub entirely — if you prefer a luxurious shower to a boil, why don’t you get that space-hogging bathtub out from there? A sleek glass shower may make any small bathroom look more spacious.
Get the guide: Convert Your Tub Space to a Shower — the Planning Phase
Michelle Hinckley
Bedroom
What to do when your bedroom barely fits your mattress, let alone a full bedside table (never mind equally sides …)? End your frustration by choosing hardworking accessories that don’t take up floor space, like swing-arm lamps, sconces and pendant lighting, and utilize a niche or floating shelf for your things.
Get the guide: Make the Most of Your Bedside Space
Kerrie L. Kelly
If you want to hide a queen-size mattress in plain sight, you can not beat a Murphy mattress. You can personalize the mattress to match your walls and architectural elements, so when it’s closed, you would never guess a big, comfy mattress is there at all — and when it’s time to sleep, all you want to do is give it a pull.
Get the guide: Inspiring Murphy Beds
The Cross Interior Design
Desk Space
if you want a home office but don’t have a dedicated room, smart storage and slender furnishings will be your friends. Try building a work surface over a radiator onto an otherwise unusable wall, then tuck your workplace in a closet or from a sliver of wall, and experiment with pullout desks and ingenious shelving. Rather than cluttering up the space with a message board, utilize chalk paint on the wall instead.
Get the guide: Space-Saving Tips For The Small Home Office
Dayka Robinson Designs
For a workspace in the bedroom, the key is not allowing your tech devices and piles of paperwork take over what ought to be a restful space. Keep your setup minimal — a notebook is definitely preferable to a hulking desktop in this case. Allowing your desk double as a nightstand or dressing table is a smart space-saving move.
Get the guide: The Way to Produce a Bedroom Workspace Fit
LKM Design
Playroom
Goodness knows kids will get a place to play — if you have a playroom or not. Steal space in a window nook, under the stairs or onto a landing to keep your child’s things neat and appealingly displayed.
Get the guide: How to Carve Out a Nook for Play
S / Wiley Interior Photography
Combo Room
In a small home, employing each room for at least two functions is a must. Think creatively about the space you have, and you may think of a new combo you adore. Why don’t you place a huge table In the laundry area, to use to get work and folding laundryroom, or hide a home office in the living room or guest room?
Get the guide: 15 Rooms That Excel at Double Duty
Inform us How are you made a room do double or triple duty?