Top tips
Super styling tips for small homes
Maximise your home with my space-saving tips for small rooms and décor ideas for dinky dwellings.
10th March 2023
If you have a small home, finding the right furniture and décor that compliments your space can be a challenge.
Choosing the wrong pieces for an area limited on space can make it feel cluttered and cramped.
Equally, unflattering designs can make a room feel confined.
In this article, I will explore space-saving techniques, furniture tips and decorating ideas, to compliment your petite properties, so you can make the most of your space without compromising on style.
Décor ideas for small homes
Decoration plays an important part in the look and feel of your home.
Carefully chosen décor designs can make a small space feel bigger, airier and less restrictive.
A few minor changes can make all the difference when trying to make a room feel larger and needn’t require drastic measures.
Here are some of my expert tips for making your home feel more spacious:
- Neutral colour schemes: It’s the oldest trick in the book, but a pale palette really works wonders for a small room. Using a neutral shade for your walls and flooring will make a space look lighter and brighter, tricking you into thinking a room is bigger than it is. Classic colours of creams, whites, beiges and even subtle hues of pinks, blues and greens will open up opportunities to play with fixtures, accessories and artwork, creating a blank canvas that you can change up with the seasons.
- Refresh and reflect: Adding reflective pieces to a space can instantly make it feel larger and lighter by bouncing light around a room, creating the illusion of more space. Think high gloss tiles or white lacquered walls to really make a statement, or opt for metallic materials, such as curtains, artwork and rugs to trick the eye. Our Aurora Rug boasts 12 striking metallic combinations, making it the perfect accompaniment to countless colour schemes.
- Match your skirting boards to your walls: Make your walls appear taller by painting your skirting boards the same colour as your walls. Having your skirting board a different shade divides the wall, making it look shorter, whereas extending the colour scheme to your skirtings will elongate your walls, making the room appear longer.
- Create a gallery wall: Gallery walls are a great way to add character and personality to a room, particularly if you have opted for a simplistic décor scheme. Displaying your favourite photos, prints and pieces of art in a concentrated area will create a focal point in the room, harnessing the attention. Try positioning the items in a central space, such as above the sofa or a console table.
- Large art: It is a common misconception that a slight space requires petite prints to make it look bigger. On the contrary. A singular oversized piece of art on a wall can save the space from looking too busy.
- Mirrors, Mirrors, on the walls: Mirrors immediately create the illusion of space by reflecting light around a room. Choose an oversized mirror for maximum impact or alternatively, create a quirky feature using a mix of mirrors of different sizes and designs.
- Light curtains: Maximise your natural light by dressing windows with some floaty voile curtains as opposed to thick light-blocking drapes.
- Oversized rugs: Adding an oversized rug that sits under the furniture will extend the room, giving the idea of more floor space. Here, our larger Ritchie rug runs under a corner sofa and small table, utilising the entire area and elongating the floor space.
- Mount your TV on a wall: Create more room in your little lounge by attaching your TV to a wall, such as above a fireplace. This massive space-saving technique will tidy up your living room and free up valuable space.
- Light up the room: Lighting makes a massive impact in any room and can be hugely effective in smaller spaces. Liven up your cosy corners with a floor lamp, make a statement with some pretty pendants, or pop some spotlights in the ceiling for an all-over glow.
Need some inspiration?
Take a look at our fantastic range of lighting.
Furniture ideas for small homes
Finding furniture that fits when you have a small home can be a challenge.
Choosing the right items can make a huge difference to the look and feel of any room, so it’s important to pick the right perfectly proportioned pieces to suit your home.
Here’s my advice for furnishing little lodgings:
- Choose floor-saving furniture: Foregoing bulky pieces for more slim-lined items will take up less room and give the illusion of more space by showing more flooring. For example, our Knightsbridge Nesting Coffee Table offers a minimalistic look with slim industrial style legs. It also offers the practicality of two tables, one of which can be snuggly hidden away when not in use.
- Double duty: Selecting pieces that have multiple uses will save on space (and possibly money). A sturdy footstool, such as the Hoxton Storage Footstool can be used as an extra seat, a coffee table and provide a stylish storage solution. Optimise a radiator cover by using it as shelving to display photos or decorative pieces, and double up on a dressing table or console table, such as the Lisbon Console Table that could also be used as a desk.
- Pull your pieces away from the edges: If you have a small area to work with, it could be tempting to push everything against the walls to allow space in the middle of the room. However, you can make an area look larger by bringing furniture away from walls, creating space behind them.
- Extendable dining tables: Extendable dining tables are a fantastic option if you have a large family or like to host dinner parties but don’t have room to accommodate a large table. With an extendable version, like the Cruz Dining Table, you can have the best of both worlds – sit the extended version in your kitchen or dining area when guests arrive and shrink it back to its smaller size for everyday use.
- Bigger but fewer furniture: Having space of small proportion can mean you may fall into the trap of thinking you have to buy smaller pieces of furniture. However, this can be counterintuitive as you may use more space than you realise with more smaller pieces than you would with fewer, bigger fixtures. Think about what you need in a room and then invest in just those items.
- Ain’t no shelving high enough: Shelving is a great way to eliminate the need for unnecessary furniture on the floor. Placing your shelves high up on a wall will draw the eye up, making the room feel longer.
- Nesting furniture: Nests of tables are a handy addition for any home. Taking up little space, nesting tables can sit neatly at the side of a sofa or hidden in a tiny nook; used when needed and put back into their hiding place when finished with. Boasting multiple uses, a nesting table could be used as a replacement coffee table or a bedside book rest.
- Cosy corner sofa: Open up a narrow living room with an L-shaped corner couch or chaise sofa. Although a larger option, a corner sofa is a more viable choice than two separate sofas if you need lots of seating. This sofa type will utilise corner space and create an easier flow to the room.
- Sofa beds: Whether you’re blessed with the smallest bedroom or living in a dwelling where multi-purposing rooms is a must, choosing the right blissful bed or sofa can create a challenge. A sofa bed could be the perfect solution. If your bedroom turns into a home office by day or the kids’ playroom needs to be converted into the spare bedroom for visiting guests, a sofa bed can provide the perfect place for a cosy night’s sleep and tidily transformed into a sofa by day. Take a look at our range of practical and comfortable sofa beds.
- Snug seating: Swap your suite for something more cosy and compact. A stylish two seater sofa, such as our Holly will add bags of character to a room which is short on space. If your room will struggle to fit a sofa, snuggle up on a love chair, like the charming County Love Chair. For seating that leaves space to spare, have a look at our ranges of two seater sofas and love, cuddle and snuggler chairs.
For more small seating inspiration, take a look at 10 of the best small sofas.
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