Whether your 'cozy' home is a little too cozy or you just want a more flexible space to showcase your home decor, here are 6 easy life hacks to help you create beautiful small spaces.
1. Define spaces
Whether it's a hallway, a living room, or even an awkward attic bedroom, define your space based on your needs - storage, work, eat, sleep, relax. Not only can defined spaces make your life easier, they can also be fun to transform with simple decor and smart design.
2. Multifunctionality
Maximize small spaces by taking advantage of multifunctional pieces. If you need a work space but don't have the luxury of space, you can save precious square footage with sleek wall-mounted desks or shelves that are deep enough for a laptop or books but narrow enough to complement your space.
Bonus: Aesthetic pieces can double as decorative and functional pieces.
3. Emphasize height to create illusion
Okay, so you can't just magically wish for more space, but you can magically create the illusion of a bigger space. Who knew that emphasizing verticality and height can instantly and literally increase ceiling height or, more precisely, create the illusion of height? Though at first you might think, "Wait, my space is already small. Wouldn't vertical emphasis make my space appear even smaller?"
Counterintuitively, by drawing attention to heights, you can actually draw attention away from the widths of any space. Instantly create an expansive grand loft feel with floor-to-ceiling curtains (even if you don't have those gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows you'd love to boast about.)
4. Utilize small pieces and smart material to create light spaces
Small pieces of furniture help maintain a light feel in any space while big pieces typically make spaces feel heavy. One smart way to utilize small pieces is to select slim, but sturdy furniture. A beautiful, relatively "thin" but sturdy wooden coffee table should be sufficient. Steel and glass (even big pieces) tend to give a "light" feel since these materials generally don't absorb light.
Another smart way to utilize small pieces of furniture is to replace a large bulky piece such as a coffee table with two smaller coffee tables - preferably with thin legs rather than bulky legs to maintain openness. Careful arrangement and selection of furniture preserve precious floor space as well as create balance. Plus, smaller pieces are much easier to move around when you need to rearrange your space for a new look.
5. The perfect big piece
This might sound contradictory to the previous advice, but before you disregard this one, please read on. In the last tip, I suggested using smaller pieces of furniture. However, if you are just absolutely in love with a gorgeous but slightly bulky piece, what you can do is work around it, literally. The beauty of a big piece of furniture is that you can get away with making it the center of attention. Kind of like a big painting with nothing else (or minimal pieces) in the room. In fact, a big, beautiful piece such as a stunning wooden coffee table can immediately draw your eyes to the piece. And if you contrast a dark rich color in a classy white room, your space can appear grandiose.
6. Continuity
Whether with actual lines or implied lines, creating a continuous flow helps to tie your space together and ultimately creates a sense of connectedness that makes your space feel whole and complete. When a space is designed well, there is a natural harmony that somehow almost magically takes attention away from any small clutter. Subtle colors that complement each other can create an elegant space. Visual lines such as the simplicity of black frames can allude to a harmonious atmosphere when repeated throughout different spaces.
For more ideas or questions, contact Lucy Parker (@lucyluvsdesign), Resident Designer at HomeDecorAZ.com