Living small does not equate to having a cramped house. Small apartment living has its own set of benefits — it’s cost-effective, cosy, and a great opportunity to exercise your creativity. Grappling with how to decorate your BTO without boxing it in? Consider these nifty solutions.
1. Start With Lots of Light
Interior Designer: Expand Livings
Having a well-lit room creates the illusion of space. Relying on overhead lighting is not enough; a room should have at least three different light sources — overhead lighting, task or directional lighting, and accent lighting. Short on floor space? Opt for mirrors or wall-mounted lamps.
Interior Designer: Third Avenue Studio
Hanging lamps direct attention to the use of vertical space while natural light eliminates shadows, making the room feel larger. Avoid blocking out sunlight with bulky or design-heavy curtains and stick to sheer drapes or blinds instead. Installing your curtain rods higher will also help maintain the illusion of space.
Interior Designer: 82
Another way to illusively expand the size of the room is through the strategic placement of mirrors. These not only create a greater illusion of depth but also enhance the reflection of natural light. Placing them opposite or near a window helps to increase the brightness of a house while placing them at the end of a hall, on a storage cupboard, or even as a mirrored wall helps to lengthen the room.
2. Create Storage Space
Interior Designer: A.RK Interior Design
There are two ways to maintain an uncluttered space: keeping your storage space entirely hidden from view or having it fully exposed.
As contradictory as that sounds, exposing your storage space by using open/floating shelves gives off a sense of openness. They not only highlight the use of vertical space but also function as additional design elements. They are also great for displaying curated collections or as a shelved pantry.
Interior Designer: Dan’s Workshop
If you don’t like open shelves, consider built-in storage spaces instead. Rather than getting cupboards or drawers that take up more space, built-in storage spaces like platform beds with depository compartments, and built-in storage walls and cupboards prevent a cluttered view.
Interior Designer: ELPIS Interior Design
Tip: It’s sometimes worthwhile to rent out an external storage unit that would serve as an extra storeroom away from home. That way, you don’t have to deal with the problem of having too many things and too little space!
A plus point? Storage providers, such as Work+Store, offer a fuss-free valet service, picking up your items from home, to the facility.
3. Opt For Clever Colour
Interior Designer: De Lab
Apart from enhancing moods, the colour scheme of your house can also contribute to its spaciousness. Learn from the Scandinavians and keep the colour scheme light and bright. An easy rule is to stick with white — it creates a clean (read: tidy and uncluttered) atmosphere and helps to reflect light.
Interior Designer: Jubilee Interior
Playing with tone-on-tone colours also helps create a better illusion of depth, but note that having too many colours in a room will add to visual clutter!
Love a bold pop of colour? Clever placements of eye-catching colours, such as accents or artworks, help to guide the line of vision to vertical space and distract from the lack of space.
4. Find Furniture That Fits
Interior Designer: Starry Homestead
Scaling down the proportions of your furniture helps with increasing spaciousness — it guides your line of sight towards vertical space rather than limited floor space. Low furniture like compact chairs with low-backs and low tables create a sense of openness as it leaves more room for vertical space.
Also keep an eye out for furniture with smaller or streamlined legs, which gives the illusion of a light atmosphere.
Interior Designer: Corazon
To keep things visually interesting, pick pieces that are of a curvier shape or tables made of glass or acrylic, which have less visual weight and keep the house looking less angular.
Tip: If you need to customise your furniture, find a variety of customisable tables and curtains to wallpaper at PickJunction, a multi-brand furniture collective that carries renowned independent labels like Ethnicraft Online, For The Common Goods, and Excelsius.
5. Get Your Priorities Straight
Interior Designer: Aart Boxx
Most importantly, it’s always good to plan and prioritise. Consider the functions of the furniture and your purpose for wanting it — do you really need it?
An easy method is to think about transforming storage into décor. Rather than have a standard coffee table, why not substitute it with a chest that doubles as a storage space?
This post was contributed by PickJunction, a home design and lifestyle community located at the Singapore Handicrafts Building. PickJunction champions great ideas by independent businesses, connecting the design savvy crowd to a world of exceptional quality and craftsmanship through e-commerce and an Experiential Centre for a first-hand impression of the products.
