Lisa got in contact recently to ask for our help with her new flat. I’ve been meaning to cover small space living for a while so jumped at the chance to put this post together. Over to Lisa…
I’m about to buy my first home with my boyfriend and I’ve caught the interior design bug. As well as just normal life stuff my boyfriend is the owner of 6 guitars, a bass and many amps and technical equipment to go with them as he is a musician whereas I have boxes upon boxes of costumes and props as I run a children’s theatre company!
As you can see not exactly normal possessions to have to try and squeeze into a first time flat so I was wondering if you could do a feature on maximising small spaces, clever storage ideas and also maybe some easy up-cycling ideas as we are on a smallish budget?
Whenever I’m looking for small space solutions I always take a butchers at our American friends. Some of my favourite sites, The Everygirl, Apartment Therapy and Domino have page after page of studio or one bedroom apartment home tours where super stylish creative folk have carved out their home in less than 750 square feet.
Multi-purpose furniture
One such lady is Whitney Leigh Morris, an LA designer and stylist living in a ‘tiny canal cottage’. Whitney uses custom built furniture to double as storage. Have a look at her sofa in the slider above which houses all manner of everyday objects underneath, perfect for theatre props! She also has a knack for using hooks, hanging trays and ladders to make the most of the vertical height, freeing up floor space.
I’ve also included a couple of other images above of sneaky storage solutions for the bedroom including a lift-up bed with heaps of storage space underneath and a headboard DIY to bring in extra shelving.
Use every inch of wall space
Another stylish femme with a flair for using floor to ceiling height is Alaina Kaczmarski. Alaina’s teeny Chicago apartment made us of every available piece of wall space taking prints, art and other collectables right up to the coving.
Make rooms appear larger using mirrors
Fair enough the image I’ve added to the slider above features a massive mirror in a huge room not a small one, however the principle remains the same. Add a large reflective surface and you get the illusion of space and light.
Pull furniture away from walls
Though it’s tempting to position furniture right back against the walls to maximise the floor space, pulling sofas forward slightly to create a very faint shadow seeming to indicate the room is more spacious than it actually is.
Go for glass or lucite
A transparent coffee table or clear desk can disappear from sight, once again tricking the eye into thinking a place is larger than it is.
Use functional pieces as decor
Get those guitars out on display and make a feature on the wall! In the kitchen display your prettiest pieces on open shelving leaving your cupboards for the boring dishes and colanders. Hopefully you’ll use these pieces on a daily basis so there shouldn’t be time to gather dust.
Section off areas with rugs
If you have a multi-functioning room such as a living room doubling as an office, consider zoning off the areas with floor coverings. Add a rug under your desk and a different complimentary one under the coffee table to divide the space and add personality to each area.
One in, one out
When I had a small pad I had to simplify my possessions and operate on a strict one in, one out policy to keep the clutter at bay. Being brutal with your belongings forces you to keep things you truly love though which is a good mantra in my book.
What are your tips for small space living? Any tricks to share with Lisa for making the most of her flat? Any space saving ikea gems you’d like to suggest?
Image sources
Multi-purpose Sofa & Hanging Shelves | Gallery walls | Free-standing mirror | Lucite coffee table | Kitchen shelving | Guitars on wall
Thank you so much for featuring my request, I love using the sofas as storage and using large mirrors to give the illusion of space! Don’t you worry the Guitars will definitely be a feature wall 😀
Our pleasure Lisa! Good luck with the move x
My recommendation for living in a small flat is look for furniture that has small proportions – a lot of furniture is really big!
My sister lives in a small flat in London and having looked for a new sofa for a while recently bought one in M&S, which have brought out a range of living room furniture for smaller flats, and DFS do a smaller sofa range too. The M&S one was a three seater sofa, but had a narrower back and arms which saved space, while being very comfortable ans spacious.
Fab suggestion Caroline. I had to get a smaller footprint sofa for my old house and it made a massive difference x
Think outside of the box (literally) when it comes to storage. My recent moment of genius came when I was trying to find a slim and tall shoe rack – it seemed impossible! But then I went to throw out an old CD rack and realised I could fit my shoes in it. Easy upcycles while you are getting settled in could be covering boring boxes with nice paper that you don’t mind having on display, or painting shelves, pots and hanging hooks to co-ordinate with your colour scheme or to add a colour pop. Chalk paint is amazing and covers any surface.
I think I need to steal your CD rack idea Claire! Love this x
I’d definitely second Lovely Lauren’s advice of sectioning off multipurpose rooms. We’ve got a pretty standard Kitchen/Living/Dining room which is a square. There was no room for the telly in the Living room corner.. and I didn’t want it in the Dining corner of the room..
By putting in an ikea island (http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00116996/) which has a breakfast bar “half” we created somewhere to hide the TV ! Under the breakfast bar! with the mega bonus of extra kitchen worktop space!
It involved a LOT of measuring tv cabinets to make sure we had enough space but now lots of people come in and ask “where’s your TV!”. It’s a good TADA moment!
This is genius Jo! So clever x
🙂 it came to me lounging by a pool in Bali. Obviously I should chill out by pools in Bali more often, Next step, conquer world!
I think I may join you Jo 😉
Like Claire B says, thinking outside the box is definitely the way to save space. Utilising every available space is how my boyfriend and I have managed to store things in our flat, like boxes under the bed and putting hooks inside cupboard doors to hang things up from the dustpan and brush to lids for pots and pans which were always lying around.