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BIG IDEAS FOR SMALL SPACES

Do you have a small home AND a small budget?

If physically adding more space, like a bonus room or a second floor, is not feasible, there are many ways to make your home look and feel bigger. Here are a few ideas to give your home a visual facelift, magically adding more space without physically adding an inch!

Consider using benches instead of chairs at your dining table. They can be fully tucked under the table when not in use, and the lack of seat backs gives some extra visual space. If your home is very small, and you do not host a lot of dinner parties, a smaller table could work perfectly well. Perhaps a Mid Century Modern Hideaway table, with dropped leaves and chairs that collapse and are tucked away, is the answer to the occasional larger dining gathering.

Utilize your windows by adding a cozy window seat, with pillows, turning this into a space where you can curl up with a book. Add a sturdy wooden shelf above your window that will house low profile books, helping you create less clutter. Make use of corners with a corner hutch for storage or a corner sink in a small powder
room.

Open shelving in a kitchen, for example, is visually less heavy than cabinetry with closed doors. However, open shelves look great only if the space is not messy or too cluttered. This shelving can be an efficient and pleasing way to store and display at the same time beautiful pottery or dishes, colorful cookbooks, coffee mugs, wine glasses
and a few decorative pieces. If you have a few deeper kitchen drawers, using a peg system will keep your dishes and bowls separate from each other and secure in their place.

Pullout organizers can be installed in deep corner cabinets, allowing you to use the entire space but still have your pots and pans easily accessible. Some older smaller homes have odd little niches, pockets of space that could be filled with a desk or made into a low, cozy reading nook. Dog beds or crates can be built in the empty space under a stairwell. In a smaller room, don’t use oversized furniture. For example, a low-to-the-ground coffee table will look a lot better than a big chunky one; wall sconces instead of floor or table lamps. Perhaps a Murphy bed that you can fold up into the wall when not in use will work for your space. Use a cute decorative chair as a side table, or perhaps a stack of big books with an interesting piece of wood placed on top of them. Be resourceful and have fun!

Consider customizing your space if you cannot find furniture that works. You could design a corner table and bench that will fit your irregularly shaped room. RWT has its own workshop, and we do custom millwork that is beautiful and will last your lifetime. Have fun with your small home! There is an abundance of clever and pleasing options and suggestions for how to maximize your home’s smaller proportions, turning it into a cozy retreat, a home in which you can live comfortably and well!