A simple guide: How to make the most of small spaces

Small spaces can be incredibly tricky – a few too many objects and they can start to look cluttered and cramped very quickly. It doesn’t take much. It’s a fine balance between stuff and space – you need lots of good quality storage to hide things away, enough room to have the items out that you need, and some space left in between so that you can still get around everything. You also want to give the eye some clear, resting space – too many things and you can start to feel a bit hemmed in (unless you’re a Maximalist who likes a lot of stuff, but then I don’t think this blog is really for you!).

Through figuring out solutions for my home and helping clients with awkward spaces of their own, I’ve gathered lots of space-saving tips and tricks along the way. For me, it’s as much about maximising every inch of space and thinking cleverly about practical, functional storage solutions, as it is about giving a certain feeling to a space. There’s a lot that natural light, calm tones and the careful use of materials can do to make a small space feel brighter, airier and more welcoming. Here’s what I’ve learnt:

Plan the layout first and choose furniture wisely
– Try to zone a space so areas have a clearly defined purpose and use; like above, there’s a space for sleeping, a place for relaxing and an area for working. There’s a reason behind each one; sleeping in the darkest corner, the sofa in the lightest spot and the desk under the shelves. Zoning helps bring focus to a small space and makes the area you’ve got work more efficiently for you.

– Choose furniture with a lightweight appearance rather than heavy, chunky designs. That means simple sofas lifted off the ground on narrow legs, coffee tables with slender tops and chairs with fluid, slender profiles  – being able to see the floor running underneath a piece of furniture will give a greater illusion of space as it will stop the base of the furniture looking like it’s cutting off the room. Likewise with a dining table, pick a design where the legs have been reduced down to the minimum – a round table with one fluid leg, for example – to prevent a space looking too cluttered and confused with lots of lines once everything else like the chairs are added. Shelving systems and tables that lean against the wall, needing just two legs on the floor, are great for saving floor space too.

Less, but bigger
– Instead of lots of small objects that can start to look fussy, go for fewer decorations and pieces of furniture that are bigger. For instance, one big L-shaped sofa instead of two smaller sofas or one larger rectangular coffee table in place of a couple of side tables. Especially with rugs, go bigger than you think you need them to be – you want to a rug to feel large and expansive rather than shrunk and floating in the middle of the room. I like to place furniture partially on a rug to help ‘ground’ and zone the space (read more tips for rugs here). It draws the eye beyond the furniture and helps unify a cluster of objects together into a cohesive, well-thought out space.

The space in between
– The negative space around an object is as important as the object itself. Give pieces of furniture breathing space and pull them away from the wall. The temptation in a small space is to push everything back as far as it can go, but having a gap between the furniture and wall tricks the eye into thinking that the wall is further back than it is, and therefore believing that the space is bigger than it really is.

– Similarly when you’re styling shelves in a small space, cluster objects of different heights together and leave some space on some of the shelves without anything to make everything look clearer and more considered.

– Choose designs, such as coffee tables and side tables, made of glass or perspex so you can see through them and beyond them. Glass designs look less heavy and seem (to the eye) to take up less space than solid objects.

Bring in the light
– Look to open up spaces and add as much natural light into a room as possible, especially if they’re dark, windowless rooms – think of Crittall style windows in place of solid walls or inserting a glass panel into a door. If you can, do away with doors and create an opening instead – we did that for the door between the hall and the kitchen; it would be open all the time anyway, and this way it lets more light into the hallway and gives an interesting viewpoint when you look from the kitchen to the stairs and the gallery wall going up the stairs.

– Leave windows as uncovered as they can be to maximise the amount of natural daylight that can get in. In a bedroom that might mean unobtrusive black-out blinds, in a living room that could be sheer curtains and a minimalist curtain pole.

– Radiators can often get in the way and really complicate a furniture layout. There’s lots of narrow, contemporary designs now that can fit into tight spots, ideal for compact kitchens and tiny bathrooms. Try Best Heating.

Flexibility is key
– Look for adaptable, multi-purpose furniture that can serve different uses and maximise storage. In a small space you’ll need to think of clever ways to hide things and clutter you don’t want to see all the time. This could be a bookcase that has a desk shelf for working at the laptop, an extendable table for when friends come round, a bar cart on wheels that can be wheeled out when needed or an ottoman bed that lifts up to store blankets and clothes you’re not using; I’ve even seen a footstool that conceals a single pull-out bed for a guest. The key in a small space is flexibility, so it can change quickly and easily to your needs.

Colour tricks and tonal tips
– Use mirrors to bounce light around and give the illusion of depth. Mirrors trick the eye into thinking that there’s space beyond, in some cases where used well, whole rooms. Strategically position them to reflect the best views in your space – a beautiful artwork on the opposite wall for instance, rather than the coats hanging up in the hall or the ugly microwave in the kitchen.

– Lighter colours will make a space feel brighter, bigger and more generous. White paint reflects the light while dark colours can absorb the light and make a room feel smaller – great if you want to make a north-facing box room feel cosy, but not always ideal for south-facing living rooms or bedrooms. However I’d be wary of using white paint in a north-facing room as it can look cold and stark in the dull light – so you might be better off with a softer, warm grey or very light beige. In some cases painting a room all in dark paint can give the illusion of depth but that look really is for the brave! One application where I think dark really does work is if the hallway is enveloped in a very dark colour and then when you go into a very light space, the living room for instance, the contrast suddenly makes the brighter space feel bigger.

– Painting the walls and the ceiling the same colour will make a room look taller because it’s harder for the eye to pick out where the walls stop and the ceiling begins. Similarly, painting the skirting boards and the walls the same colour will give some added height. If the radiators and the window frames are the same too, it helps blend the surroundings into the background for a seamless finish.

– You can play more tricks with colour by matching your main pieces of furniture – your sofa or bed for example – with the walls so they blend in and don’t take up as much space visually. A navy sofa against a dark blue wall or a beige sofa against an off white wall would work. You can then use accessories to add accent colours.

– To create a feeling of balance and prevent a room feeling too busy, I’d stick to 2-3, max 4, colours – for instance 1-2 neutrals and a brighter accent colour. It gives a calm, harmonious feel and creates a sense of visual coherence.

– If you have multiple functions in one space, you can use accessories and artwork in similar tones and textures to help unify the different uses.

Displaying art and organising objects
– I think there’s two ways you can display art and objects on the wall of a small space to give the illusion of ceiling height. If it’s just one or two pieces of art next to each other, position them lower down on the wall so the space between them and the ceiling appears greater. If it’s a gallery wall with multiple objects, arrange them almost to the ceiling to draw your eye up the wall (read more tips for hanging and displaying art here).

– In a small space I would try to keep the interest or clusters of stuff (clutter maybe…) in set spaces, to give focus and purpose to the space rather than letting it spread out everywhere. I think this is particularly relevant in new builds where there might not be any original features or focal points like a fireplace. It also helps zone an open-plan space. You can create visual interest with some picture ledges on one wall, a gallery wall above a sofa or a shelving unit for kitchenware and cookbooks, but leave some blank space between them too.

– Utilise every surface you can. Use windowsills to display plants, add shelves between radiators like they’ve done below, or hook plug-in lamps to shelving systems so you don’t need standing lamps on the floor.

Look up and use the full height of a space
– Don’t just think of a room in terms of the furniture layout on the floor but plan also in elevation – look up and make use of the wall space. That’s what I did in our kitchen when I put an extra row of much-needed cupboards above the top units. Often that forgotten space is just left to gather dust and grease, but now we have five really useful pockets of space to store bottles, vases and the things we don’t use on a daily basis.

– Wall-hung shelves can help utilise the height of a wall for storage instead of having everything on the ground taking up precious space. You could place String pocket shelves above a sofa to display paperbacks, have shelving running up the full height of an alcove, or use otherwise wasted space such as the gap between the top of a door and the ceiling for a shelf (this is great in the bathroom for storing things like loo paper and extra towels!). If you don’t have much space either side of a bed, consider a wall-mounted bedside table or small shelf instead.

– You could also raise a sideboard off the ground and secure it to the wall, so again you can see the floor running underneath. Fitted, bespoke cupboards will make use of every inch of space, but IKEA’s customisable IVAR and BESTA floating cabinets are also ideal as they can fit into all sorts of tight spaces. Having the cabinet or storage unit the same colour as the wall will also help it blend into the background and prevent it from overpowering the room.

Finally, make it yours!
– Most of all, get inventive and have fun with it. It’s your space, so while it’s good to be aware of a few space-saving rules, you’re the one that’s going to be living in the space everyday. The most important thing I think is making a space work for your lifestyle, so really think about how you use a space, how you move through a room, what could make things just a little less complicated. Often it’s only through living in a space that you understand what you really need for your home.