Interior Designs for Small Spaces

When you're stuck in a small space, it can sometimes be hard to figure out how to give yourself a little bit more breathing room. Metropolises like New York City are notorious for their tiny apartments, but residents of these cities have figured out how to solve their space difficulties in surprisingly inventive ways. In this guide, we'll introduce you to some of the best ways that you can make any small space look big.

Wrap Your Island in Storage Shelves

Do you have an island between your kitchen and your dining room that you don't know what to do with? Go ahead and rip down that poster you've kept since college because there's a great way that you can use this space to its full potential: With just a few plywood boards, you can transform your island into a storage paradise.

Set up a crosshatch pattern with your boards that protrude about six inches out from the wall. Then, lean the whole apparatus against your island and use a few fasteners to keep it in place. Not only will this simple design idea provide you with tons of opportunities for storage, but it also looks light and airy in an area that often starts appearing cramped.

Pick a Unifying Color Scheme

When you're confronted with a smaller space, covering the walls and ceilings with different colours might seem like a tempting way to make your apartment more visually interesting. However, this approach makes your space look smaller; according to PPG Industries, which is home to dozens of renowned paint experts, it's better to choose a unifying colour for your entire apartment. Taking this approach eliminates dividing lines in corners and between your walls and ceiling, and if you mirror your unifying colour with an area rug or an accent piece, you can enhance the feeling of expansiveness in your small space even more.

Every Feature has More than One Function

Think that your kitchen bar only has one purpose? Nope, it's also your laptop desk. And that bench in your living room? It's also a coffee table. When you're short on space but flush with creativity, it's easy to turn every feature in your apartment into a double feature. For instance, there are even some sofas that have modified Murphy beds above them; a couch by day becomes a bed by night with no space wasted.

Keep this principle in mind as you lay out your furniture as well. As one example, if you arrange your couch so that its back is parallel to the side of your full or queen bed, all you'll need is a curtain to divide the main area in your studio apartment into a bedroom and a living room.

Keep Your Lighting Lifted

In small spaces, your feet and your furniture will be in a constant fight over the square footage that you have at your disposal. While your grandmother's floor lamp would certainly look great next to your loveseat, you might want to save that space for an end table and hang your lights from your ceiling instead.

Recessed ceiling lights are some of the best options available when it comes to elevated lighting, but this type of lighting can get boring if you deploy it throughout your apartment. You might not be the kind of person who would go for an ostentatious chandelier, but there are plenty of modern lighting options that are still somewhat more interesting than light bulbs built into shallow holes in your ceiling. You can even save some space for books and water glasses on your bedside tables if you dangle a pair of soft lighting options on either side of your bed.

Use Innovative Bathroom Storage

Before you throw your hands up in despair over the prospect of fitting all of your toiletries into your tiny bathroom, take a moment to sit down and carefully plan out your dreams for your preening place. While the area next to your sink might be a blank wall right now, it doesn't have to stay that way; building shelves is easy, and once they're in place, your storage options are endless.

If you start noticing your shelves filling up with toiletries and towels, you can always expand your available space once again by deploying a fleet of small wicker baskets for your razors, mascara, or whatever else might be clogging up your bathroom chi. Plus, if you're dealing with a plain basin sink that has zero storage potential, you can always replace it with a vanity that has plenty of drawers for storing your private grooming products out of sight.

The Power of Mirrors

Don't underestimate the oldest trick in the book; while mirrors might be practically cliche when it comes to tactics for creating the illusion of more space, that doesn't mean that these reflective wall coverings aren't effective. Wherever you put mirrors in your small space, they make it seem like you have double the space that you do if you view them from the right angle. Mirrors also make your apartment look brighter, which is a must if you don't have much room to work with.

To get the most out of your mirrors, floor-to-ceiling options are your best bet. Closet doors are one area where mirrors fit in perfectly, and you can also try a full-size mirror in your living room behind your couch.

Bring Your Space to Life

As a finishing touch, you might want to add a few houseplants throughout your tiny apartment. While plants don't make your space look bigger, they do make it look better, and they also improve your air quality, which can be a valuable resource in smog-choked urban environments.