MAXIMISING SPACE: FURNITURE SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL APARTMENTS

If you’re living in a small apartment and feeling the squeeze, you’ll be keen to maximise space to prevent your rooms from feeling cluttered, and to create a brighter, airier environment that's a pleasure to spend time in.

If space is at a premium, get creative rather than feeling restricted by your choice of furniture. From multifunctional pieces to discreet storage solutions, you can ensure your apartment doesn’t feel cramped while still providing you with all the practical and ornamental pieces your home deserves. Explore our nifty solutions, and while these are game changers for smaller spaces, you can apply them to any home to free up extra floor space, too.

Elegant solutions for the living room

Because we spend so much time in the living room and entertain our guests here, it can feel frustrating if this area needs more space. As the largest piece of furniture in this room, think carefully about your sofa choice. A three-seater sofa could look too bulky in a very small room, in which case, go for a two-seater sofa, adding a compact accent chair to an unused corner for additional seating. A slimline sectional sofa that utilises the room's corners can also work nicely. If you can mount your flat-screen television on the wall, avoiding the need for a console table, you can add a larger sofa to your living room, as long as you don’t crowd the remaining space with bulky furniture items.

If a coffee table takes up too much floor space, choose a nest of tables you can tuck away when not in use. To keep your living room neat and streamlined, use clever multifunctional furniture solutions such as an ottoman with storage inside and a TV console table with shelving and drawers. Add storage solutions such as shelving to walls, and if this leaves you lacking when hanging up artwork, use contemporary, statement furniture to stamp your personality on the space.

Need a workspace in your living room? Use a pull-out desk incorporated into a storage unit and opt for a fold-away chair. If you love standing desks, a floating desk mounted on the wall is a great solution.

If your apartment lacks a guest room and you need your living room to double up as an additional sleeping space, choose a sofa bed or a sleeper chair.

Though you may think a minimalist hardwood floor would create the best sense of space in your living room, a rectangular rug (free from busy patterns) can fool the eye into thinking the room is wider than it is. Likewise, add mirrors to your wall to add light and depth.

Clever kitchen space savers

Because kitchens feature built-in units, it can be harder to reorganise the space. But you can implement several useful tricks to make your kitchen feel bigger. Use an extending table so that you only use additional floor space when guests are around for a meal. A round, bistro-style dining table may also allow you to create more settings in a compact space. If you have a window in your kitchen that feels like it is getting in the way of utilising the floor space in front of it, try adding an attractive banquette-style seat underneath (and all the better if it offers hidden storage within), then draw your compact dining table up to it and simply add a few more chairs.

No space for a dining table at all? Consider a small breakfast bar with stools or, if you have a balcony, a dining set with a parasol for al fresco dining in cooler weather. If you have more floor space in your living room, keep a fold-down table flat against the wall or tucked behind the sofa and bring it out as needed.

Remember, clutter will make your kitchen look smaller, so embrace kitchen storage solutions and remove mess from the countertops. Try hanging your pots and pans from ceiling hooks, freeing up cupboard space for other items.  

Better use of bedroom space

Though we all love stretching out in a super-sized bed, if your bedroom is small, move down a bed size and snuggle up in a queen-size bed. Use your bed as a secret storage spot, choosing a model with drawers in the base or a headboard with built-in shelving and nightstands.

If you can’t fit another wardrobe or dresser into the bedroom, use a clothes rail and place pretty storage boxes underneath. No room for a vanity stand? Add shelving or use the surfaces of your dresser to store your jewellery and cosmetics, and add a mirror where it will be hit by natural light for fixing your hair and cosmetics.

Making the most of your spare room

When your apartment is low on space, it’s easy for the spare room to become somewhere that fills with the items you can’t find a home for elsewhere. If you implement the space-maximising furniture solutions detailed above, you can make better use of your spare room. Often, the best use of this space is a multifunctional one. You can add a desk and use it as your home office while including a slimline sleep solution such as a chaise, a twin-size bed, or even a twin-over-twin bunk.

A loft bed with a desk underneath is an elegant solution in the smallest of spare rooms, and this style of bed can also work well if you'd like to use the floor space for working out.

Good things come in small packages, and with our range of space-saving and multi-purpose furniture models, you can implement the perfect plan for maximising space within your small apartment. Meet all your design aspirations and learn to embrace your space with these nifty solutions.