It’s not always easy to manage small apartments. There’s a lot of limitations to the furniture you can have and the things you can do. But this should not prevent you from creating a cozy space that you can be proud to call your home. Here are twenty-five tips to make your small apartment more spacious.
1 Paint the Ceiling
Of the most effective things you can do is paint your ceiling or cover it with wallpaper. This creates the illusion that the ceiling is higher making your space feel bigger. Anything that draws your eyes upwards makes any space look and feel more spacious. Choose light colours for the paint or wallpaper and make sure that it goes well with the design of the entire room.
2 Lighter Shades For Floor
Darker colours tend to absorb light which has effects it makes the room feel cozier, but it also makes space feel smaller. If you want to make your apartment look more spacious change the color of your floors and walls to lighter shades. They will reflect more light and make your space feel airy.
3. Create Space between Furniture and Walls
Another trick is to pull some of your furniture away from the walls to create the illusion of spaciousness. When all your stuff is pushed against the walls your apartment looks and feels cramped. Just put a few inches in between your wall and big furniture to make your space look more open. To making use of those few inches you can DIY a console table to slip behind it. Just scrap 2x screws together for the leg and three 1 by fours screwed side-by-side for the top exposed size.
4. Coffee Table
Maybe it’s time to replace some of your furniture. Consider using coffee tables simplest and chairs that open up to reveal secret storage spaces. You can even build some of these on your own. Store your magazine collection, books, toys, and other items inside your furniture to clear up more space.
5 Use Hanging Shelves
Drawing the eyes upwards creates the illusion of space so try to hang shelves near the ceiling. This will not only give you more storage space for your books it will also make your ceiling appear taller and your apartment look a lot bigger.
6 Choosing Bigger Decor
This tip may seem counterintuitive but experts say it works wonders. Instead of putting many small decors around your apartment try choosing fewer but bigger ones. Ideally, your decor should not be smaller than a regular size. If you have a small space smaller decor tends to make a room look crowded.
7 Choose Statement Furniture
Beside hidden storage spaces with furniture, another thing you can do is to choose statement furniture that fills the entire room. For example, instead of placing smaller chairs in your living area go for a big couch. This reduces the clutter and makes the room feel bigger.
8 Use Stripes to Lengthen Your Space
This idea follows the same concept in fashions. The same way that a striped shirt can make a short person look taller a stripe drug can elongate a living space. Just make sure to orient the stripes to the direction of the room that is longest to achieve optimal effects.
9 Color Coding Your Shelves
Color coding your shelves creates a more structured look. Making your apartment look more organized and also makes it look bigger. Group items of the same size and color in your shelves to make it look streamlined. This can work on books, shoes and almost any other items that you put on your shelves.
10 Use Of Shower Curtain
Just as darker walls make a room feel smaller. So what a colored curtain makes your bathroom feel? Consider changing your colored shower curtain into a clear one. A clear shower curtain will reflect light and make your bathroom look more spacious.
11 Leaving Windows Uncovered
Consider removing drapes or curtains from your windows. Leaving windows uncovered creates the illusion of depth in a room. This is because more light would be able to come in and more light means more space. You can still have some privacy by using blinds instead of drapes. Just try to keep them open during the day.
12 Artworks
Consider putting up dramatic art pieces on your walls. Choose artworks that are large and bold to make your apartment look more spacious and also more expensive. Choosing large and bold art pieces is a similar concept to choosing fewer and larger decors. Smaller pieces always make a room feel more crowded.
13 Placing Glass Furniture
You already know that more light creates more space. Consider adding or changing some of your furniture to glass or transparent ones. Glass pieces take-up less visual space and reflect light, making your space look more spacious. They are also very classy so your apartment also looks more elegant.
14 Use of Lights
Instead of overhead lights use a few smaller lamps to create more space in your apartment. Top-down lighting focuses. Too much light in one space spreading smaller amounts of light draws the eye around the room making it feel bigger.
15 Use Of Rugs
You can also use rugs to separate one area of the room from another. This works great, especially in studio apartments. Doing this helps create the illusion that there is more than just one space.
16 Unify Your Interior
Instead of splashing all sorts of different colors around your apartment. Unify your interior design and use different shades for just one color per room. This will create a visual coherence that will make any space feel more open. Do this on your walls rugs and furniture.
17 Choosing furniture
Choose furniture with visible legs instead of those hidden underneath. Avoid sofas with skirts exposed. Create space between your floor and the furniture allowing more light to fill the room. This is perfect for small apartments.
18 Add Mirrors
Placing mirrors in different parts of the house is an age-old trick proven to make a space look bigger. But you have to strategically place them across windows so that they reflect light. A large mirror across a furniture set or an open space also creates the illusion that the apartment extends that way.
19 Floating Cabinet
Instead of a huge cabinet occupying a large space on your floor, mount a smaller one on the wall to create a floating effect. This reduces the feel of clutter in your apartment and makes space feel wider.
20 Using Spotlights
Since you can’t always have natural light to widen your space all day. You also need to use some artificial lights. The trick is to add small spotlights in the ceiling to illuminate corners. It will make your ceiling look higher and create more space in the room.
21 Flooring Style
Having different flooring styles makes space look smaller. If you have the same type of flooring all over the apartment it creates an uninterrupted flow effect making your space look larger. Of course, this excludes your bathroom and maybe your kitchen space.
22 Enlarge Your Space
Similar to the effect of striped rugs you can add vertical accents with decors to enlarge your space. This is all about tricking to the eyes. Add two cores that strengthen the vertical elements in the room such as vertical wood panelling to emphasize height.
23 Secret Storage Space
You only have limited space so if you’re going to add two cores it’s better to choose functional ones. Think of mirrors that open up to reveal a secret storage space the same goes with wall hangings.
24 Placing Sofa
This is especially important for sofas to never place an overstuffed sofa in a small apartment. The lowers it is the less crowded your living area will appear. So stick to low-profile sofas and do the same to other pieces of furniture in the area.
25 Decorating Walls
Stay away from contrasting colors when decorating your walls instead go for light shades. As always try to draw attention up into the ceiling. This is a great trick to make any small room with airier and more spacious.
