Smaller rooms can create big interior design opportunities.
Whether they’re tucked within an estate or an apartment they provide an intimate space for solitude and time with those closest to you. Pandemic living in open-concept homes has led many of us to yearn for smaller quarters to work or relax in.
It’s easy to style small spaces luxuriously despite their limitations, and they can be a showcase for beautiful but diminutive objects like lamps and figurines too easy to overlook when they’re in a cavernous living room.
Start out large
It sounds counterintuitive but putting a sofa or painting that seems a little too big for a small room often is the best way to anchor it. Subverting expectations with an oversized feature communicates the space punches above its weight with style and vigor.
An elongated desk, a sofa that almost grazes both walls or a painting that covers 75% of one of one wall will set the proper stage, but you’ll need to keep the rest of the furnishings more in keeping with the room’s dimensions.
Everything has a purpose
Make your space as versatile as you can with items that can pull double or triple duty, like an ottoman or bench with a storage compartment or a coffee table that’s strong enough to be used as additional seating.
Keeping a bar cart beside the sofa as an end table can store board games as well as entertain guests with drinks and snacks.
If it’s your office you can find all kinds of useful gadgets that are also decorative, from staplers to pen holders.
Light it up
It may seem like a small space doesn’t need that much in the way of lighting, but falling into that trap can end up driving people away from it.
Task lighting is just as important as ambient, and it’s easier to locate since the limited square footage makes it easier to know where people will want to sit, read and relax.
Using lamps with bases that can slip under sofas and chairs that can be directed as needed are one of the best options.
