Interior Design Tips and Ideas for Small Spaces
If you have a small space, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be wonderful, beautiful and comfortable. Designing a smaller space is all about visual manipulation, and you need to be very clever and take advantage of every inch. Get interior design tips and ideas for small spaces in this D.Signers video:
Color Palette
The best way to start with a small space is with your wall color. Using light colors, especially white and pastels, in a small space is a very popular choice. A room with light colors feels bigger and brighter because the surfaces can reflect more light, making walls appear to recede, creating a bright space.
Avoid using different or high contrasting colors as they tend to break up a space and make it appear even smaller than it is. Your eyes stop at the line where the color changes, and it will create boundaries in the space that will make you perceive it as divided rather than unified.
Pieces of furniture that match the wall color are less jarring and tend to blend with the space, giving the illusion of a bigger room. Using the same color family is another great way to make the space cohesive. You can add a pop of color through smaller pieces.
Furniture
In small spaces, you should stick to simple and light objects to avoid crowding the space with too much visual information. When buying furniture for a small space:
1. Keep color and patterns simple.
2. Select furniture with legs as they feel less heavy in a space than pieces that sit directly on the floor. Since leggy furniture doesn’t obstruct your view of the floor, your brain will perceive the real dimension of the space.
Be careful with the scale of the furniture and maintain the proportions between your furniture and your space.
3. Choose light and transparent furniture that you can see through. Glass tables and shelving, bookcases without sides and acrylic chairs appear to take up less space. They don’t obstruct your line of vision, allowing you to take in the entire room and tricking your mind into thinking it’s bigger than it really is.
4. Multifunctional furniture pieces allow you to adapt your space to many situations depending on the activity. Think about purchasing a coffee table or ottoman with hidden storage; an ottoman can also serve as a coffee table.
Trick the Mind
Designing a small space is all about tricking the eye to believe that the space is much larger.
While many patterns can make a space look smaller, there is one exception to the rule: stripes. In face, stripes make a space look larger, so if you are decorating a small room, opt for striped curtains or a striped rug to maximize visual space and accentuate perspective and depth in the room. Just like vertical stripes on clothing, a striped rug will make your room appear longer; orient the stripes along the longest length of the room for optimal effect.
Use mirrors to give the illusion of expansion; placing a mirror near a window to reflect the outdoors is especially effective. Mirrors on the wall and glass tabletops will give your room a more open feel. The best place for a mirror is opposite to a window so that it reflects as much light as possible.
Cut the clutter and keep your room tidy and organized. There is nothing that makes a smaller space feel smaller than having too much stuff. Cleverly hidden storage is the best friend of a smaller space. Keep the floor as clear as possible.
Patterned rugs and furniture can also make a space feel smaller. If you want to make a room feel larger and more visually cohesive, stick to a single accent piece per room. Go for fabrics and rugs in small prints or plain colors to maintain the proportion between elements. Simplicity is the key; use simple patterns to avoid crowding the space.
