Several times in our life, we have to work with restricted space. The space seems a lot less than what would be adequate to meet our requirements. While we are trying to fit all our possessions within the available space, it looks like the area is just not enough for all those belongings to fit in. Having an apartment meet our needs at the price we can afford seems like a lost cause. But more often than not, this sense of lost is from our own lack of judgment, not the insufficiency of space.
Below are some great tricks to make better use of your available space and meet the spacing needs even with limited capacity.
1. Use mirrors appropriately to create illusion of more space.
Strategic placement of mirrors in a room can help a long way to create the illusion of more space. Placement of mirror across a window reflects light in the best way, which makes the room feel larger. Similarly, insertion of a large window behind a trunk gives the appearance of having a huge space placed behind it.
2. Paint or put wallpaper on ceilings to make the room seem taller.
When there’s something to draw the eyes upwards, it creates an illusion of having a larger room. This can be achieved by painting the ceiling with some eye-catching color or decorating it with elegant wallpaper designs. This is a great trick to make seem a room larger than it actually is.
3. Color the walls and floor with light colors.
When darker colors are used in a room, the colors absorb light instead of reflecting them. This makes the room feel significantly smaller. On the contrary, with the use of lighter colors on the floor as well as on the walls, the room has the air of having plenty of spaciousness. So, it’s best to opt for light colors while choosing painting options.
4. Make wise use of multi-purpose items.
The use of multi-purpose items is a great way to avoid having to stuff a space with numerous items and hence, cleverly make use of small spaces. If same item can be used for multiple purposes, there’s no need to buy further furniture to meet the needs, which ultimately helps tremendously to make more room available to put other stuffs. One example is to use a trunk both as a seat and as a storage.
5. Use hidden spaces available in the room better.
Wise use of hidden spaces also helps a lot to exploit spaces available in a room, even if they are limited. The space available inside furniture could be used as storage. The same can be done with empty space available under the bed or on the top of the shelves.
6. Use single large items than several tiny items.
It’s a common convention to use many small pieces of furniture to fit in the small spaces available in a room. However, use of a single large furniture instead of all those tiny pieces is a much better thing to do. This decreases the appearance of mess and makes a room seem substantially larger.
7. Leave windows uncovered to add to the room’s depth.
More light gives a space the look of grander depth. One effective way is to leave the windows uncovered. If there’s any concern about privacy, use of shades or blinds instead of curtains can be a great way to achieve privacy without any crowded appearance and thus cleverly make use of small spaces.
8. Buy more glass pieces.
Glass items are not just beautiful to look at but they also provide added functionality of not consuming too much of visual space. Being transparent, they blend easily with the room. So opting for glass pieces instead of wooden objects as decorative items really helps to create the illusion of more free space.
9. Use furniture with exposed legs.
Instead of using a couch with a skirt or boxy seats, it’s better to use larger pieces with open legs in a small space. They leave more of the space empty and hence, add the feel of spaciousness to the room.
10. Try to make a room multi-purpose if possible.
While one is living in a limited space, it’s not a good idea to have different rooms for different purposes. It only requires more space than what is actually needed. To cleverly make use of small spaces, it’s wiser to make a room multi-purpose. An idea could be to use the same room as living room as well as library.
11. Make use of appropriate roller blinds.
Use of roller blinds doesn’t only serve for the decorative purposes in a room but also for creating extra space. Roller blinds consume lesser space compared to curtains which helps to make a little more space available in the room and also gives open look to the room. Check out this site to see the different ways you can use roller blinds to enhance your space.
12. Buy only those things which are absolutely necessary.
Well, the best way to make a room seem more open is to actually stuff with less goods. And, probably the finest way to achieve this is to buy only those things which are needed the most. This removes all the headache of trying to fit in things into a room and one could do with even limited space.
13. Give away items you haven’t used for extensive time.
Being generous doesn’t only help one to win friends but also create more room for themselves. So giving away the possessions which haven’t been used once in a while might be a great idea to add extra yard or few to the room. One could get rid of items that haven’t been used for more than two years unless they’re precious gifts or family heirlooms.
14. Use transformable pieces of furniture.
Furniture pieces that can be transformed across multiple forms can be another valuable aid to dwellers in small spaces. These pieces ensure one doesn’t have to make a lot of space available for different items as a single piece can serve the need for all those items.
15. Use furniture with storage spaces inside.
With the extra storage space available in furniture, one doesn’t have to find extra room to store possessions. Furniture with storage space inside are thus great way to significantly make a room more open.
16. Hang flat screen TV on the wall.
Hanging flat screen TV on the wall makes a room look much elegant on one hand while helps to create an extra space on the other. This is because they avoid the need of space on table which would otherwise be necessary for flat screen TV with stands or other round screen TVs.
17. Elongate the space with use of striped rugs.
Just as vertical stripes on clothing give a person taller appearance, use of striped rugs gives a room the appearance of being longer than it actually is. Thus, it’s great to orient the stripes on the rugs to go to the length of the room, which produces the optimal effect of spatial illusion.
18. Avoid overhead lights.
Use of intense overhead lights at a point on the top groups all the light in one space. Compared to this, if several small lamps are used all over the room, light is spread in a more uniform manner. As this draws light all around the room, the room feels relatively larger.
19. Use rugs to separate a room into smaller spaces.
The use of different types and colors of rugs in a single room creates the feel of having multiple spaces within a larger one. This enhances the apparent size of the room significantly as such technique creates the illusion of having more space available than there really is. So it’s good to opt for rugs to separate a room into smaller spaces.
20. Keep the space clean.
Keeping the space clean, scrubbing the floors and walls will not only add allure to a room but also make it seem much more spacious than it really is. This is because when a surface is clean and everything are put in an organized manner, the space seems taken by only few things and looks really spacious.
21. Use furniture that blends with floors and walls.
Using furniture pieces whose color blends with the floors and walls helps a lot in creating extra visual space. As the furniture blends with the surroundings, it doesn’t look like it has taken much space and as such, even the limited space looks much roomy.
22. Hide unused items.
Storing less than often used items in the closet and hiding larger pieces that are seldom used at the current situation is a great idea to add extra yard or few to the room. Often, we place all our possessions across the room. But mostly, only few of the items are used regularly. So it would really help a lot to create extra space in the room if unused items were hidden somewhere.
23. Make use of vertical space.
Exploiting vertical space is another great idea to use small spaces better. Instead of several small storage furniture pieces scattered all across the room, if one were to use a single taller piece, it would dramatically reduce the visual space occupied, all the while also serving the purpose.
24. Use door backs.
Door backs are the other remarkable idea to make better use of available space, which are often overlooked. Using hooks on the doors of closets, room or even cupboards, we can meet the need for the space to hang clothes. This avoids the need to buy hanger and other pieces, which frees up the room.
25. Let your imaginations go fluid.
The imagination and creativity of a person cannot be encapsulated in a list of few points. So the ultimate way to use small spaces cleverly is to turn towards one’s own ingenuity and dexterity. Improvising the available space and trying to create extra space wherever possible, all the while trying to meet the necessities will surely do the magic.
Featured photo credit: Bedroom: As good as it can get via home-with-interior.com
