Space: a luxury only thought of as so when you no longer have it. Yet, however petite your apartment, with clever devices, flawless design, and intuitive thinking, you can create a haven of luxury. So before despairing over the fate of your favourite four poster as you downsize, take a look at our ten top tips for designing tiny spaces.
Declutter
What percentage of your belongings do you truly love? Department store items bought on a whim, holiday buys which have since lost their appeal, dated furniture that hasn’t quite crossed the boundary to antique. Our homes are haunted by misguided purchases. Embrace the catharsis and purge the excess. Of course, there will be some items you don’t love but can’t lose. The first armchair you bought for your first home, or the tatty teak table passed down from granny. In that case, consider self storage containers so that sentimentalism doesn’t suffocate style.
Light the way
Just like nothing makes the world feel smaller than a blanket of dark clouds, a home is shrunk by poor lighting. Mirrors are the oldest trick in the book for extending a small space, but to really create a mirage within your small home you need every trick of the light available. Adopt a light colour palette. Pay attention to every aspect of your lighting – the tone of the bulb, how natural their placement. Even the shades and mount make a difference to the ambience of your home. Opening up spaces, removing doors (or fitting them with glass inlays), will create a light flow that enhances every centimetre of your home.
Bring the outdoors in
You may not have a spacious garden, but that doesn’t mean you need to be isolated from nature. In cities where you pay through your teeth for every inch, the unlimited outdoors is your ultimate resource. Utilise it through fitting large windows, plants galore, or mimicking your local surroundings through lighting and material choices.
Make a statement
Just because a space is small, it doesn’t mean it can’t pack a punch. In fact, it is the perfect stage to make a statement. In a small space, it is much easier to concentrate the attention on one piece. Exposed brickwork or a striking chandelier can elevate any home.
Innovative space saving
Move over Murphy bed, it is time for some proper tech. Enter the suspended retractable ceiling bed. Bed Up Down have even created a bed which rises to reveal a jacuzzi. What more could you want from luxury small space living! Other innovative furnishings we love include foldaway treadmills, a dining table with a top revealing a pool table, and MADE’s lift top coffee table which allows your living room to become dinner friendly.
Multipurpose
Not all innovative space saving is high-tech. With a small home, you need to master multipurpose. Utilising a daybed in the living room to enable easy conversion to a guest bedroom, or finding a coffee table that conceals guest stalls, exemplify how your home should not be ‘one feature one purpose’.
Go bespoke
Not only does going bespoke add an air of polished luxury to your home, but it is a sure way to save space. Ditch that dark clunky wardrobe, sideboard, or stand alone TV. Install fitted storage systems and a media console, and create a spacious space tailored to you.
Create zones
No one wants to entertain guests when you can see your bed as soon as you walk through the front door. Unfortunately, this is often the reality of modern city living. A reality that with some clever tricks, you can obscure. Create zones within the smallest of homes, to separate work from play and restore privacy. A partial glass walls, fish tank, painted screen, or even a ceiling-hung painting are striking ways to split your space.
Supersize
What says luxury better than a supersized bed, or seventy-inch TV. If you reside in a smaller dwelling, you may write such indulgences off with a resigned sigh. However, illusions of grandeur aren’t the only benefit of supersizing. More important are illusions of space. Bigger, fewer, furnishings reduce the focal points of a room, and enlarge it to the eye.
Keep an eye to the sky
When you can’t spread out, spread up! For some this could mean literally creating more floor space through a mezzanine or loft conversion. But drawing the eye upwards is a great way to enlarge existing space too. High hanging artwork, shelving, or vertical feature radiators utilise the entirety of the space you forgot you had.
