Guide: How to Make Your Studio Apartment Feel Bigger

Living in a studio apartment means you're faced with a challenging task of transforming one room into a bedroom, kitchen, living room, and possibly more. Arranging furniture is hard enough, yet imagine all of your things jammed into one single space.

Just because your space is limited does not mean that your design possibilities should be. If you live in a studio apartment and you can’t seem to figure out how to get started with your studio apartment floor design, here, we will share with you several ways on how you can make the most of your studio apartment floor plans.

1. Use a storage piece as a room divider

The biggest design error that makes a studio apartment looking like a dorm room is letting your bed occupy the middle section of your room for everyone to see. However, with the openness of a studio apartment, sometimes it’s hard to establish a defined floor plan. A great way to do this is to carve out an area in your studio with a storage piece like a wardrobe or a bookshelf.

In this 400 sq ft studio apartment, a chunky wardrobe helps to create the illusion that the unit contains more than one room—without actually cutting it into closet-sized rooms.

2. Create a hint of privacy with a folding partition

If you don’t want to over-clutter your petite studio apartment with too much furniture like a bookcase or a wardrobe, consider installing a folding partition or a glass wall as a room divider. It is a great way to keep your studio apartment bright and open while also providing a hint of privacy.

In this 455 sq ft home, the wooden partition partially sections off the kitchen bar and the bedroom nicely without taking up a lot of space. As the partition can be titled during the day, there's a sense of airiness and it allows for easy movement from section to section of the apartment.

3. Let your sofa ‘float’

To save space, some people forego the idea of having a living room when renovating their studio apartment. There’s nothing wrong with that if you’re comfortable with letting your guests sit on your bed. But if you’re not, then you should allocate a living area when renovating your studio apartment. You don’t need to invest in bulky living room furnishings, a basic 2-seat sofa should be enough.

One of the best ways to arrange a seating area in your studio apartment is by ‘floating’ the sofa in the middle of the room. This charming 549 square foot studio apartment, for example, makes the space feel larger than it actually, besides separating the bedroom and the living room with a grey sofa located in the middle of the room.

4. Tuck the bed at the corner of the room

An effective way to make a small studio apartment appear spacious is to use one corner of the space for sleeping.

Choose a corner in your studio apartment and position your bed there - as far away from the entrance door as possible. Since you’re occupying only one corner of the room for your sleeping area, there will be more space to allocate for a living and dining area, as seen in this Scandinavian home.

5. Hang floor-to-ceiling curtains

To make your studio apartment appear more spacious, add floor-to-ceiling curtains. These curtains draw the eye upward, making the room feel much larger than it is.

A good trick for picking curtains, especially if you live in a limited square foot space is to match the fabric to the wall colour as your eyes won’t be distracted by contrasting colours, like this cosy bachelor pad as an example.

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