You can fit everything you need into a small room and still make it look stylish. Here are tips to help you maximize storage space, minimize your furniture's footprints, and brighten up your space so it appears bigger. Does this Spark an idea?
Use Your Wall Space
Wall-mounted shelves can help you free up space in a small room where standing bookshelves would take up too large a footprint. You can also integrate your lighting into your wall-mounted shelves, which will eliminate the need for free-standing lamps on tables or the floor. IKEA sells lighting you can clamp onto a shelf.
If you have no room for a shelf in a specific spot where you need one, hang a wall organizer. They come in several forms. In the nursery, they're often long strips of pockets made of colorful fabric. To save even more space, hang them over the bedroom or closet doors.
In a home office, instead of a desk with in and out boxes, use a wall-mounted office organization system. Pottery Barn has a fantastic one called the Daily System. Components include cubbies, pin boards, cork boards, key hooks, letter bins, whiteboards and daily planners. They come in various combinations, they're constructed from attractive stained wood, and they're all wall-mountable.
Concealed Storage
For bedrooms, choose beds with drawers underneath them to maximize your storage options. You can also buy sturdy boxes that are specially sized to slide under your bed and out of sight. They often come with casters. Where you'd normally put tables, use dressers with drawers. In the living room, use a coffee table with either a shelf or drawers underneath it.
Versatile Furniture
Consider buying a sleeper sofa or a futon that will double as a bed in a spare room or a bedroom. You could even build a Murphy foldaway bed. Dressers can double as tables, and vice versa. There are some good-looking foldable tables on the market that can tuck away to help you maximize space. CB2 makes the Stash foldaway coffee table and the Formosa foldable tray table. They are easy to put up and store away, and they don't look like trashy lawn furniture.
Keep It Light
Lighting a room well will help to create the illusion of more space. Make sure you light up any dark gloomy corners, and pay special attention to lighting if you don't have much natural light coming into the room. Keep the walls a pale color to make the room look bigger. Keep your furniture pale too, if possible. Don't clutter up the room with tchotchkes: choose your accessories wisely, and use them sparingly.
Tags: coffee table, drawers underneath, help maximize, more space, small room, They come, with drawers
