Urban lifestyle has made peoples life busy and most prefer to live in smaller spaces but living in a small space becomes claustrophobic making the dweller uncomfortable and stressed, due to lack of storage and space. Just because you only have one room doesn’t mean your decor can’t fulfil all of your hopes and dreams as functionality of space is the key to designing the space.
In every room of your house there is always a better way to maximize the space you are getting out of it where for some areas it may be as simple as decluttering, or throwing away unneeded items. In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Charu Gupta, Director of L’ Institute De Dessins (LIDD), revealed that with colour, strategic furniture buying, space planning and interesting lighting, your small space will feel spacious with all needs and storage you imagined. She suggested the following tips:
1. Artifacts – Give your artifacts a little structure by grouping style colour and height. Dramatic art pieces feel more spacious. Choose art pieces that are large and bold. Glass and acrylic accent pieces provide an added function of not taking up too much visual space.
2. Bathrooms – Vanities in bathrooms and protruding mirrors with storage behind them, are great space savers.
3. Beds – Box beds and headboards with hidden storage give ample storing. Wall hung night stands with draws adds storage. Hanging pendant light over them, saves space and gives an artistic look to the room.
4. Chair – A classic colorless acrylic chair provides necessary seating but visually disappears.
5. Colour – Dark ones are definitely design-friendly, but they make a room appear smaller. Paint your walls, fret panels and other detailing in different shades of same color, like white, off-white and beige to expand a room. A dark ceiling creates depth, creating the illusion of height. Use light colors or neutrals throughout; as they are space expanders and provide a neutral background for furniture and artwork.
6. Daybed – In home office/guestroom helps create an illusion that the room is a lounge. Mostly these come with inbuilt storage.
7. Dining – tables that are small or that have drop leaves, which allow it to become smaller when not in use are ideal for small areas.
8. Doors – Remove as many doors as possible architecturally to increase the sense of space.
9. Drapery – Skip dark color drapes and leave your windows uncovered. This will depict depth and bring the outdoors natural landscape inside. If your room requires some privacy, try translucent drapes for an airy feel that will keep prying eyes out. When adding draperies to the room, keeping them in the same color and avoid contrasts. It is best to avoid unnecessary details, such as ruffles in furniture and window treatments. Use simple panelled draperies or shades. Using smaller prints or plain color fabrics and rugs will create a single, unified effect and visually expand the room. Use a clear shower curtain or a glass divider in shower area will open up space in a tiny bathroom.
10. Furniture – Breathing room around your furniture lends the appearance of more space Try angling or floating the sofa in the living room with a skinny console/side table behind it. This can be the divider and storage for dining and living.
11. Mirrors – Are the quickest way to make a room appear larger. Wall-to-wall, full-length, wall hung or multiple do add style, glamour and statement to the room. Opt for mirrored closet doors in dressing rooms are dual purpose.
12. Niches – and awkward corners – Covert them into bars, book rack or storage cabinets. Maximize vertical space take advantage of wall height by adding tall bookcases, cabinets or shelves.
13. Stairs – Make excellent space for storage. Instead of regular treads make it into pull out draws.
14. Stripes – Elongate the space. A striped rug will make your room appear longer. Place the stripes to go the length of the room that is the longest for optimal effect. Rugs make amazing space separators.
She advised, “Investing in furniture that serves many functions is a simple way to streamline a room. Ottomans, wall hung bars, small wine rack are all space savers yet practical and elegant. Folding tables are multipurpose they can be used for ironing, service stations. If there’s no space for a separate office, turn an armoire into one.it looks like an added decorative piece once not on use. Whatever your reason for living in a small space, you’ll undoubtedly have to make some compromises in your decorating, get really organized and make some adjustments to your lifestyle in order to live efficiently.”
Sapna Aggarwal Creative Director, ANSA Architecture and Interiors, asserted that when it comes to space saving in small houses, every square inch of space is vital hence, pre-planning plays a very important role is maximum utilization of space. She recommended some ideas to save space in a home if your are planning a renovation this New Year 2023:
1) It is a smart idea to use convertible furniture. A series of ottomans that can be joined to make a bed; or a sofa that can be converted to a bed.
2) Expandability is another point to en-cash on. Design furniture so that it can be extended. For example. A centre table that can open up to become big is size if required. A series of descending sized peg tables that are ducted together and can be pulled out to become 3 in number. A 4 seated dining that can be converted to a 6 seated on a simple pull of shelves.
3) Dig inside the wall. In a small house it is a good idea to create smart niches inside the wall and put them to utility. Instead of having an accessories shelves protruding from the wall, one can create niche and utilize it for putting accessories.
4) It is always advisable to keep the floor area clean. This means for example, you can hang a breakfast counter from ceiling and keep bar stools beneath it, than occupying the floor area. This will make the room look visually bigger.
5) Incorporate storage where ever possible. A bay window can host set of drawers’ up to sitting height and then have cushion to form a sitting corner. Build the wardrobe from the flooring without leaving skirting and make a shoe drawer on the lower end. This will save you from wasting 4” of skirting area and also make space for all your shoes. Give storage in the bed, in the loft or wherever your house permits without adding a bulk visually.
6) Go vertical. Since a small house has limited floor area, it is advisable to utilize the vertical space available. Cupboards to ceiling heights, bunk beds, tall standing wall cabinets; all work on the same principle.
7) Sliding wardrobes are definitely a space saver than compared to their open able counterparts. To reduce the circulation space on floor is a thumb rule to space saving. Similarly hydraulic open able storages in bed are better that pull out drawers.
8) Put your partition to use by either making them storage or by using them as display cabinets. A little flexibility in your design will be of great help.
9) Use make-shift arrangements. This means instead of laying it in stone, think of material and ideas that can change with changing needs. A bed room can be converted into a home theatre lounge with simple use of sofa cum bed and camouflaging wardrobe with walls. Add a centre table and switch on your projector to see cricket match.
10) You can use wardrobe to act as partitions between two rooms. This will reduce the area wasted by wall.
11) In kitchen, the thumb rule is a place for everything and everything in place. Add S hooks, tube rods to hang paper napkins, cutlery, spices, foil papers etc. Keep the counter clean. Use pull down hydraulics for mixer, grinder so that these gadgets do not occupy space on counter. Also add tall ladder if possible to take care of all your storage
12) Glass, mirror and reflective metallic colours are in and have taken up the important role to give your home a larger-than-it-is look. Keep the flooring throughout a small space the same for visual continuity.
13) Last but not the least, organize your wardrobe. Use accessories like pull down hangers, tie holders, belt drawers, and trouser pull out, sectioned drawers and so on. The capacity to hold stuff after using these accessories increases multifold.