Today I have to talk all about small apartments and I personally, am one that is very very well nursed with small apartments.
Because I have lived in multiple small apartments, I actually did have one big apartment so I can’t like to say I lived in them my whole life.
But I have been living in the Los Angeles area for about six-and-a-half years, now which is kind of a long time, and as many of you guys know Los Angeles is a pretty expensive place to live and I lived in downtown LA for five years, and then I’ve lived in like Hollywood area for about a year and a couple of months.
Now current apartment that I’m in right now is only about 800 square feet, which I know sounds a little bit large but it is a two-bedroom, so me and my roommate both live here I have one room she has the other room, and then we do share alike the living room, dining, kitchen space.
Of course, I and my roommate did actually share literally like a 600 square foot studio at one point and I’ve actually lived with her for almost my entire time in Los Angeles we’ve lived together.
But today I kinda just wanted to share my 10 top tips if you have a smaller space to just have a very efficient, clean, pretty, and livable space that just really represents yourself.
But it’s also very functional and very livable at the same time, I know I said that two times but you know that’s we’re going for a livable space that’s pretty and functional.
Let’s get into these ten hacks if you have a small space and you want to make it feel bigger look bigger those sound dirty but let’s just get into this.
Have an elevated bed to store things under it
I’m going in full force with the first one because this is probably my biggest tip for someone that has a small apartment and that is to elevate your bed.
I was in college I learned that I got bed risers under my bed I was able to store so much under your bed. Your bed is an area where you can literally put whatever junk you want under there and nobody’s going to see.
Especially if you have either a bed skirt or do need really long duvet that covers it, but the reason for this is that you can put either bed risers or just get a bed that is elevated.
I personally have a platform bed, so my bed kind of just goes up like this and then back down and also keep in mind that if you don’t have something like that you can get bed risers which give you an instant like eight inches of additional space under your bed.
This is a great space for storing anything like suitcases luggage and keep in mind if you do store suitcases under your bed, you can also put more junk in them throw it in a suitcase and put it under your bed.
Because no one knows where to put a suitcase in a small apartment, the under-bed space is very very key when you have a small space get it off the floor and organize it underneath.
Use your vertical space: decor, shelves, organization
Now what we want to do is build upwards, and what does that mean exactly is to use your vertical space to your advantage.
So as you can see behind me, I have a really large gallery wall this isn’t very a key for every single small apartment, that I do have space for a gallery wall in my personal apartment.
First what that does is when you walk into someone’s space instantly it draws your eye from the floor to the ceiling because there’s a lot of stuff to look at, and it makes your apartment just peer a lot bigger.
In my own bedroom, I actually have a full IKEA shelving system in front of my bed and I use this space to my advantage to store a lot of my decorative accessories, and a lot of stuff.
Now mine exactly isn’t the super organized or clean kind of have a lot more stuff than the typical person would that’s living in their space because I don’t have a storage room or an office to put all these additional items in.
So I like to keep these for styling purposes but building upwards definitely maximizes the amount that you can put on your wall, so you can have organizational systems on your walls with wall shelves to hold additional things like books, decor knickknacks bits, and bobs whatever you want to put on though.
Think about how you can use the space above your TV what can you put up there, the look can you use space above the door, for what can you use space above your kitchen cabinets, for there’s lots of room for using the space upwards that you might not think about.
Use light furniture rather than dark ones
You’re out purchasing furniture if you do have furniture try to think about getting lighter-toned furniture as opposed to darker furniture.
Because what that does in the face is it instantly brightens it up it actually bounces color, and reflects it off of furniture pieces that are brighter from the actual daylight, and then it kind of bounces off the wall and it gives you a whole little bright environment too.
In my first apartment with my roommate we really wanted to maximize the seating area because we always have people over but it was also very dark so we actually got three white leather couches which at the time we’re not the cutest, but on a college budget you know those are were okay and they actually added a little bit more life to the apartment in the space.
Because when you do have darker furniture it tends to sort of absorb light and make his face look a little bit more dreary and drab if you do not have a lot of natural light to start with.
When you’re in need of a new couch think about getting a lighter color as opposed to a darker one.
Put mirrors to reflect light and add « space »
If you are in a smaller space situation this work one kind of goes back to the last one about reflecting light and that is just to put mirrors in your space.
Mirrors are amazing having reflective elements, which definitely give a lot more light to your space, as well mirrors bounce back light everywhere.
So when you do have a lot of them in a smaller space, you get a little bit more of a brighter environment. I personally just think mirrors open up space so much more, and they make it appear a lot bigger.
I don’t know if you guys have walked into like a restaurant, before or a store before where that whole back wall is in yours and you’re like wow the store is humongous and then you end up walking to the mirror, and you’re like wow this is actually just a mirror.
I’ve done that so many times and you can do that with your space as well so having a really really large like IKEA floor mirror on one wall, l even just a wall mirror is great to have on the wall so a circular wall mirror.
I think that adds a nice little kind of round element to space.
Have plants, add life to your space
Halfway through it number five, but we are talking about keeping your space alive. This is one that not all of us are great at because I personally do not have a green thumb, I actually did keep a fiddly peg alive for two years.
Which I do applaud myself on I don’t have a green thumb, so I do actually have quite a few folk Lantz hence this one right here, plan for your best friend actually thinking definitely just liven up space instantly.
You can see the most dreary little like the small living room in the world but if they have a whole ton of plants in there, and you can have as many plants as you want, your apartment I just find clamps I have a very pleasing effect on myself.
And I know, a lot of you guys love plants as well and I think in a smaller space whether it be your bedroom bathrooms are a great place for plants, and there are a lot of indoor plants that actually don’t need to survive with a lot of light.
DECLUTTER your space, put things in baskets
So you can look into that clutter, is not your best friend, if you live in a smaller environment because what this does is just gonna make your space feel jam-packed.
I feel like we can all, definitely kind of sense this if you have a cluttered space if your coffee table is all completely cluttered if your consoles, cluttered if your desktop table whatever it might be that you have in your small space, your bed.
People clutter everything, these days you know it just happens, I can say that I have done this before as well, I definitely learned to kind of start putting my things away, as I go and trying to conceal them and just keep things off the top of surfaces as opposed to just like really cluttering my desk.
I used to do that all the time, it happily everything in the world on top of there including mail bills tax, information, pencils pins, staplers, all that form of stuff now it’s all in drawers.
And I try to conceal it and just keep my desktop nice, and clean, and so try to keep things a little left cluttered put things away from the storm, and boxes baskets, wherever you can put them organization systems underneath your bed as we talked about prior.
Separate your space to define areas: rug, wallpaper
So now sometimes in smaller spaces especially in like studio apartment which I’ve had experience with, in the past, it’s hard to kind of designate areas to specific things so when you’re in these space,s I definitely think breaking areas up either with pieces of furniture or rugs is a great way to sort of symbolizing different areas in your space.
So in my living room, actually have a really large rug because in my space there is almost sort of a dining room, and living room combined.
It’s just a little bit of a section, so what I did was actually place a really large 8 by 10 rug on the floor which sort of grounds in the living room space, and it has all the seating areas on top of it.
It kind of shows you that this is the living room, and then this is a dining room over here, where the table is my kind of wallpaper, that wall to section not off as well so if you are living with roommates in a smaller apartment.
You can section off areas to kind of give yourselves, your very own space isn’t to design what you like, and what you want to be living in, and there’s kind of what makes you feel happy at the end of the day.
Layer your pieces (for example cushions under the coffee table, baskets, storage…)
So this one’s just like a little miniature tip, and that is to keep extra seating under your coffee table, or under a console, and not even extra seating.
You can also keep baskets with like books, or blankets, or additional storage under consoles, or under coffee tables, you can maximize by layering which I think.
Is definitely amazing in smaller spaces, Kasumi do you have a coffee table in my personal apartment, I have a coffee table that actually has two additional floors, pillows underneath the coffee table, and a pouf underneath the coffee table.
So that just instantly adds three more seats around the coffee table, and on top of it. I think it looks really cute having a layered coffee table, look I can even probably add a basket to the other side.
Let’s say you had a console in the corner by your door, when you walked in or maybe you had a console with your TV on, it there’s a large space underneath it. I’m in there’s like a big gap between the legs and the floor or if it’s just like a console, that’s like a long leg with a tabletop.
Think about really utilizing that space underneath it and putting baskets, or additional storage, means underneath those items just because it’s gonna give you a little bit more to work with moving into.
Use organizational means in other designated ways: bathroom organization for your kitchen etc…
Tip number 9, and this is just to use organizational items, for maybe purposes they weren’t meant for in the beginning. So a lot of places when you go to them they have different organizational sections.
So there’s kitchen organization here, and then there’s bathroom organization here, or there’s office organization here, check all of those spaces out, and you can utilize different organizational, means for different spaces in your room.
Actually, have it right here, but you guys cannot see a blanket stand this is actually a bathroom caddy from Urban Outfitters a long time ago, I bought this and I’ve utilized it in a bathroom, in my bedroom, and also now in my living rooms.
If you’re shopping online, or if you’re shopping in-store, definitely check out every section of the organization, because you can find stuff that you never knew you needed.
Find an organization that you maybe never thought could apply that was a bathroom organization, that you can now use in your bedroom, or you can use in your living room.
Add texture: pillows, furniture, carpets, blankets…
And then the last tip, just adds life to space this is number 10, and notice to add text searching this is really really key for anybody that has a smaller space.
Because, sometimes it can feel very flat, and I think a great way to add texture is with your furniture, and your textiles, your pillows, what as you can see here, I have a really nice macrame pillow that has a whole ton of texture in it.
I also have a leather couch which adds another form of texture. I have a braided woven rug on the floor of a marble coffee table, I have a vintage wood box on top of the marble coffee table, and then on top of that, I have a shearling chair over here.
So instantly adding more textures to your space just gives it a more cozy environment, which is very inviting, it’s very warm, and it’s livable like we all want that in our space.
We don’t want a cold space, you know so if your space is super small already, you might as well make it just feel super cozy because a smaller space is easier to make feel cozy as opposed to a larger space.
Okay guys, so I feel like that was a huge mouthful and I hope that can help you out, if you do have a smaller space these are tips I’ve been coming up with over the past couple of days and I’ve been asked to make friends and family members.
If they thought that these were great as well and I and my roommate kind of just sat down and talked about these as well, because these are definitely tips we have applied to our apartment but maybe not all of them in this current apartment.
But they are tips we’ve applied to past apartments and there are tips that we are going to apply to a future apartment, so I hope that you guys did enjoy this article.
I think I will catch you guys on the next one have an amazing day give this article a thumbs up, and let me know what ships with your favorite in the comments section below, that was a lot and I will let you go now for that so have an amazing day, bye guys.
