A lilliputian-sized room doesn’t have to mean having to forgo big style. In fact, with a little creativity, small spaces can wow. If you’re currently residing in cramped quarters and wondering how to maximize them, consider these seven pulled-from-the-pros small-space hacks!
RELATED READ: This NYC Home is Small Space Perfection
Put a Desk on Display
If you’re short on space, don’t refrain from factoring an office into a public space like a living room or den. For a small home’s on-display office that the firm Wade Weissman Architects designed, the firm shows the secret to pulling it off: design it similarly to how you would a living room. Forgo clunky office hardware like file cabinets, and factor in flex pieces like credenzas instead. Pieces that lend a decorated feel like rugs, draperies, and even upholstered seating can also help. Similarly, an architectural desk or floating desk can read more like a sculpture than a workspace. That’s a boon for an office that can’t be concealed behind doors after hours.
Make it Multi-Purpose
When you simply don’t have room for both a table and a credenza, sometimes the best tactic is to cross-pollinate the two. For a beach bungalow, the firm Crowell + Company Interiors dropped a multi-functional table-console hybrid behind the living room sofa. When working with cross-functional pieces, don’t skimp on the details. Seat cushions crafted from a sea foam-colored, geometric textile make the set’s chairs look intentional and prevent the room from looking too clinical or stark.
Place it on a Pedestal
Designer Eero Saarinen famously created the pedestal Tulip Table to “clean up the slum of legs” that riddle most tables. For small spaces, pedestal tables can be particularly useful. Their narrow base means they take up little floor space and can be tucked into the types of corners and nooks that would be considered no man’s land for traditional four-legged tables. Use pedestal tables as Studio Palomino does in the petite kitchen above, or draft two for use as nightstands in a small bedroom.
Drop It Like It’s Hot
If you’re an entertainer who’s constrained by a small space, drop-leaf tables can be a saving grace. Although extendable tables have lost a lot of their luster in recent decades, they’re worth resurrecting in small spaces where a ten-seater dining table just isn’t in the cards. Designer Martin Young shows how to make a hinged table look especially purposeful and chic in the dining room above. Notice how he coordinates the table’s silver-hinges with silver cuff-wrapped chairs.
Tuck It Under a Console
You’ll often see designers drafting waterfall consoles or Parsons consoles for small spaces, and there’s merit as to why. Tall consoles without shelving underneath create stash space for everything from ottomans to storage baskets to umbrella stands. Designer Andrew Brown employed the trick in the above entryway, creating a stunning scene that also acts as a clever docking station for a catch-all basket. Try this trick if you’re in need of covert desk space, as well. Just take care to choose a console that’s a few inches below average.
Co-Opt a Canopy
Trying to figure out how to insert personality into a postage stamp-sized bedroom? Take a page from designer Jenny Wolf’s playbook and drop a canopy bed into it. When the walls appear to be literally closing in on you, a canopy bed can help by filling a room with architectural detail, without having to actually fill the room with anything else. Syncing your bedding color to the wall color can make a small bedroom feel bigger as well. At first glance, monochromatic walls and bedding makes it difficult to discern where one ends and the other begins.
Acrylic It!
In a narrow room where two furniture pieces will need to practically touch, opting for acrylic can create the illusion of more space. For a small living room, designer Iantha Carley elected to anchor a seating area with an acrylic coffee table. The acrylic table prevents the cozy arrangement from looking cluttered and also helps to reflect light in the room—never a bad thing when it comes to illusions that make a room look larger.
