With more and more residents moving into townhouse complexes, space always becomes an issue.
Either you need to keep your house almost bare or it looks cluttered with all your possessions.
Here are some ideas to use your minimal space wisely.
Living room:
Avoid oversize furniture, which can eat up floor space. Include a mix of small to medium-scale furniture pieces. And remember that scale is relative, so what looks like a small couch on the showroom floor may be just the right size for your small living room. Always take room measurements when buying furniture.
Small spaces are quickly overwhelmed by large or overstuffed furnishings. Choose neatly upholstered pieces with compact frames and slimmed-down, leggy pieces without skirted bottoms that allow you to see through them to the walls and floors.
Kitchen:
There’s always more room for storage. If you find yourself running out of cabinet space, don’t be shy about open shelving. Add a bookshelf to your kitchen or pantry for your most-used items. The display doubles as decor this way, and you won’t need to dig through your cabinets to find your favourite coffee mug.
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Bedroom:
Tap into wasted space for storage in a small space. Drawers built in beneath a bed can be used to store extra linens, clothes and more. If built-ins are out of your budget, invest in a bed night frill and shallow plastic containers that can slide under your bed. The night frill conceals the affordable, but not always pretty, containers and the space beneath your bed now houses more than just dust bunnies.
Windows and mirrors:
Windows can be a strong tool in visually enlarging a small room because your eye moves beyond the wall to the outdoor view and embraces it as part of your living space. Take advantage of this liberating effect by leaving windows bare, or use curtains that match the colour of the walls to eliminate boundaries and open the space. For privacy, use simple blinds or netting curtains that can be pulled out of the way during the day.
Hang a large mirror with a decorative frame to create the illusion of depth in a small room. Even small mirrors expand the sense of space by reflecting views and light, but an oversize mirror will have a dramatic effect because it reflects a large chunk of the room.
Bathroom:
It’s an age-old decorating trick; light colours open up a room, while dark colours keep a space cozy. To give your room the illusion of spaciousness, paint it white. White surfaces bounce light around the room, keeping a small space feeling bright and open. In a narrow bathroom, white walls, a white bathtub, and an off-white vanity reflect light, giving the feeling of spaciousness. Dark tile floors ground the room. White grout lines break up the tile, ensuring the black tile doesn’t weigh down the room.
• Information obtained from www.bhg.com.
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