Hey, fellow design lovers! If your apartment is too small and don’t have enough space for a 3 metre sofa or a giant media console, you’re not alone. Those of us who live in urban neighbourhoods or small apartments, frequently find that space is at a premium. However, there’s almost always something you could do and look at your limited living space as a creative design challenge.
The key to living comfortably in smaller spaces is combining space-saving solutions while still expressing your personal style. There are many smart decisions and upgrades you could do to create a welcoming living room. Here are some tips to help you make the most out of your living space.
Open Up Your Living Space to the Other Rooms
If you have a small and very limited living space, it would be a great idea to make it more open and flowing. If possible, open up your doorways or walls so that the adjacent rooms blend together. You can make your living room a combination of a dining, living and kitchen space if you take down the walls that surround them. Similarly, widening your doorways and opening them up to the ceiling will give your space a larger and more open feeling. However, if making big structural changes is not quite possible, you can always just remove the doors to each connected space. This will improve the sightlines and light in each room and will enable an easier flow of movement.
Create a Focal Point to Express Yourself
Just because your living room is small, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t add some stylish decor features that represent you.
Take advantage of your living room’s small size to create a design feature. You can pick one aspect of the room and highlight it with something that has a meaning to you and is visually interesting. This standout feature will easily draw the focus whenever you enter your living room and there will be less accent on the room’s smaller size.
A great idea is to create an art wall where you can display your collection of wall art print designs in a lively manner. You can also design a feature wall behind your sofa using colour and texture. You can use a wall covering such as grass cloth, add a mural or add different framed wall art print on top of it.
Add Shelves and Built-In Furniture
Built-in furniture solutions and the proper shelving system that fits your space and needs can be an excellent addition to a small living room. You can have these pieces custom-made as you can size each piece of furniture based on your specific needs and your challenging space. For example, you can go with a built-in sofa that has useful storage space hidden underneath. If buying a custom piece seems too expensive for your budget, you can get creative and DIY. Consider adding a rollaway drawer under your sofa, or maybe floating a deep shelf with brackets on one of the walls as a desk.
Futhermore, instead of buying a custom-made wall unit, you can add a few shelves in an artful manner on a wall to create a media unit. When hanging the shelves, install them all the way up the wall to create a vertical pattern. Placing design features higher on the wall will help create the feeling of volume in the room.
Let the Sunshine In
Accentuate your home’s natural light sources to make your living room appear bigger and brighter. A sunlit room always feels more open and does not have shadows that make the area feel smaller. The most effective and easiest way to increase the natural light in your living room is by placing a mirror that reflects the light from a window. This will help create the illusion of more depth in your space.
If you have a favourite cosy chair that you enjoy spending time in, you should place it right next to that source of light so that you have a view of the outdoors. If, however, there’s not much natural light in your living room, you can install track lighting. Track lighting is very popular as it does not take up a valuable table or floor space yet its bright light and flexible track heads can act as a great substitute for direct sunlight.
Get Rid of the Overstuffed Sofa
Although this may be a rather obvious point, it’s important to emphasise it. Avoid adding oversized and heavy-feeling pieces of furniture to your living space. They will take over the space and can make your room feel smaller than it is. Instead, choose low-profile, streamlined furniture that’s minimalistic in design and does not overcrowd the space.
Low-profile furniture is the one that’s low to the ground, leaving a small distance from the floor to the sofa seat. From a design point of view, this usually means streamlined cushions, smaller legs and a narrow base. You can use the extra wall space that your low-profile sofa provides to balance the space with wall art that starts low and goes high. For example, you opt to hang a large-scale art piece or arrange a vertical row of shelves that draws the eye up.