Thought I would chat about small spaces and in my opinion the easiest spaces to design as it’s more restrictive so not so many options to look at!! I sort of usually nail it in one hit but for most people they struggle with knowing what to do. This is down to the main focus being to make the space look bigger……wrong! Design it like any other space, firstly what is the room used for and then fill it, yes fill it with what is required. Don’t be afraid to use normal size furniture, one of the biggest mistakes is using teeny weeny pieces of furniture, it ends up making the space look wrong. A key elements is storage, if the budget allows a clever use of built in storage is great, lets say shelving unit going up to the ceiling for instance and wall to wall! A cheaper alternative is joining shelving units from ikea!
Almost everyone I talk to paints the walls pale, for me it’s a myth that pale colours make the room look bigger, it’s what you do with the space itself that counts!! so painting the walls darker will for sure give it a cosier feel but it won’t make the space look smaller, it will be far more interesting than boring pale walls. It’s then how you dress the walls, say one wall of storage then fill the other walls with pictures, a trick is to hang the pictures (lots of them) from floor to ceiling and add mirrors as the reflection is so much more important to make a space look bigger than going for pale walls. Another trick that I have done many times is hanging blinds from the ceiling hiding the wall above the window, this elongates the window and gives the illusion that ceiling height is bigger. Painting the ceilings the same colour of the walls also does the same thing but I know this is a scary move as many are afraid of bringing the ceiling down! but it does the opposite as it stops you from looking at the ceiling and doesn’t bring your attention to it. If this is too big a step, try jumping down a shade lighter for the ceiling.
And the last thing is using larger items, not all the pieces but at least one, my favourite is an oversized lamp, it will enlighten the eye and make you think this belongs to the space almost tricking the brain into thinking the space is bigger than it really is.
Some pics below, all mainly of New York pads as there ares o many bijoux apartments but the interiors are very cleverly designed.
Personally I would rather live in a home like this than a massive open plan room with little furniture and no atmosphere.
Right time to sell up and find a small pad! sorry kids!!