How to Make Your Small Home Feel Larger and Work Better
/I was privileged to meet Journalist and Stylist Anna Tobin a few years back; when incorporating some of my cushions and lampshades within a country home scheme for 25 Beautiful Homes, for which she was writing a piece. This month I invited Anna to contribute to our website blog. Read on to glean some really useful tips on how to not only make a small home interiors work better for you but also feel more spacious.
The tiniest of homes can be made to function well and look lovely. I know because I lived in a weeny two bedroom cottage with my partner and two children for years. That’s how my website Don’t Cramp Our Style was born, it’s full of the tips I learnt from living there and advice I’ve picked up from my work as an interiors stylist for magazines, such as Ideal Home, Grand Designs, Homes and Gardens and House Beautiful.
Here are my top tips for making a small home feel larger and work better:
1. Keep the colour scheme light and bright
Dark colours draw the walls of your rooms in, making them appear even smaller than they are.
Light and bright colours – whites, soft greys and pastels and splashes of brighter primary colours – will help to push the walls of your home out and make your rooms feel more spacious. So, think light and bright when choosing flooring, walls and soft furnishings. Practically everything from the Seed Home Designs collection fits this remit.
2. Choose multifunctional furniture
In a small home, you need to make your furniture work that bit harder. So, where possible, go for furniture with more than one purpose. A dining table with drawers in it for storing crockery; beds with easy-to-access storage in their bases; a heated towel rail that also has shelves for storing spare towels; and, a pouffe that you can put your feet up on, use as additional seating when entertaining and that opens up so that you can store boardgames, toys or knitting within.
3. Raise furniture up off the floor
The more floor area you can see in your home, the larger and more spacious it will appear. In your bathroom, opt for a bathtub that is raised up on feet, so that the eye can see beneath it, and try to go for a wall-hung basin and toilet too. In the lounge, choose sofas, chairs and a coffee table that are raised up on feet and go for wall-hung furniture that doesn’t rest on the floor. In the bedroom, the bed and wardrobes should show a bit of leg too. The kitchen is the only room where it’s harder to apply this advice, as most kitchen base units sit directly on the floor, but you can go for a pedestal dining table, with just the singular support, to free up a little more floor space here.
4. Be reflective
By placing mirrors opposite windows and doors in your home you will reflect light further into your property, making it feel lighter and brighter and you will also make it feel that little bit larger too. This also works with reflective furniture and accessories. Glossy kitchen units, tiles and furniture, all add extra reflective surfaces, as do stainless steel taps, fridge/freezers and kettles.
5. Make use of every inch of your home
When you live in a little place, you want to make sure that every little bit of it gets utilised and this is often best achieved by going bespoke. It may cost a little more to get furniture designed and fitted to your rooms’ exact dimensions, but it’s worth it when you have more space to store stuff and the price of your home should reflect its bespoke fixtures and fittings when you come to sell. Get shelves built into awkward nooks and crannies, or a window seat with storage beneath crafted for an unusually shaped bay. And, build kitchen units and bedroom wardrobes right up to the ceiling, not only will this give you additional storage space, it will also reduce your dust traps too.
For more hints and tips on living stylishly and practically in a small home, visit Don’t Cramp Our Style and if you would like to show off your home in a magazine, check out Anna’s styling website
