Maximizing limited space in your home

Room (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No doubt one of the biggest challenges with many homeowners, is how to get maximum space from a small room. Empty-nesters, and those downsizing are often overwhelmed with the task of trying to house all of their belongings and decor into a condensed area. With limited square footage, you have to literally think outside the box, and up the sides of the box, if you will. When we look at any space and what it offers we tend took at the limitations of the actual square footage, however, by simply looking "up" we may realize that the next available space may be at eye level.


Making the vertical leap
 
The walls of a small room tend to be the most under used areas for actual storage, however, they actually have the most potential. If you think about it, if you have a room with 8 foot high ceilings, and a room of average size, say 12' X 12" you will see that each windowless wall offers 96 square feet of possibilities. Now if you figure on installing shelving, you will have to subtract for the amount the shelves extend into the space but still if you have more than one wall that can add up.

Ways to make storage beautiful

Master bedroom with built-in shelving, George D. Oakley House, 2110 Kakela Place, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, on the National Register of Historic Places (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shelving, hangers, hooks, all serve a valuable purpose in a small space. However, they don't always look attractive. This is where you must be creative. and get a decorative element that serves double duty. Decorative baskets may be your best friend for shelving that is needed for storage. Shelving that can run up your wall and extend corner to corner offer you maximum space storage, but not necessarily attractive storage. Consider giving shelving character by painting and adding decorative trim work like molding to the edges. It will give your shelves a finished built in look, and with the addition of lovely baskets that can hide your books, extra blankets, etc. you can have extra space on the floor and this gives you and your home a more spacious feel.

Opening up the floor

Empty living room/dining room in an apartment in a 1920s apartment house, Los Angeles, California. The exposed brick wall is recent. The flooring is also recently added. A Murphy bed was once behind the door on the left, but now the narrow space is used for shelving. I posterized this image in Adobe Photoshop Elements. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Once you are trained to look to your walls for extra storage potential you will love the idea that your floor space is clutter free. If you are planning on selling a small home, with small rooms, buyers than can see a lot of floor space will actually feel like your home is bigger than it is and when it comes to selling a home, you are selling it by the square foot. The more the buyer can see, the more you're likely to sell.

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Decorating a small space

Image via Wikipedia

Small spaces can be
made to look big using light

Many times it is asked how to achieve a comfortable and spacious feeling in a room that is small. Though a challenge, the ability to maximize on the limited space can be achieved if you follow certain common sense rules. Most people will tell you the problem room in their home is often odd shaped, small and low light. These issues will be addressed to help you reverse that feeling, since the space isn't always possible to enlarge.

Odd shaped rooms
Odd shaped rooms are particularly challenging when a homeowner tries to decorate and furnish it. One key thing here to remember is the actual definition of the room. Rooms should always be defined by primary use. This doesn't mean it can't function as other things but the primary function of the room should be evident and prioritized. That being said, odd shaped rooms have to be treated like any room. For example, an "L" shaped room needs to be decorated as if it is a rectangular shape, since the predominating shape is still rectangular. The odd remaining space could be sectioned off, partitioned, or used for the secondary function the room may serve. By defining the primary shape of the room, you can focus on the positives and give the room a personality that overcomes the odd shape.

Rooms with little light
Most all rooms have at least one window. If the window affords little light it is a real challenge to bring the feeling of natural light into the space. Even in low light conditions, there is always usually one source of light occurring in the room. To find the direction of this light, look for items in the room that cast a shadow, the light source will be coming from the opposite side. This is best done in an empty room during the day with no lights turned on. Once you have determined where the source of light does emanate from, there are a few things you can do to capitalize on it. If your walls are in good condition, choosing warm semi gloss creams on the wall will bounce what available light there is.

Placement of mirrors in the rooms where they may reflect and bounce light is a good strategy as well. Don't think just because an area of a room is darker that a mirror won't work, in fact many times this is just what it needs. Mirrors and semi gloss paints bounce light around, forming criss-cross patterns throughout the room. If your ceiling is smooth, paint in a high gloss paint, which affords the most reflective ability. This will cast light downward into a dark space and also work with the other light that is bouncing around, real and artificial. If your ceiling is the standard "popcorn" ceiling, if possible, scrape smooth as this is well worth the trouble.

Small rooms
All the above plus this- always consider function, comfort and scale with small spaces. Once you have the function of the space defined the next question to address is the comfort needed to use the space. For rooms that are used only occasionally, comfort can be sacrificed a little in the name of visual appeal. If the room will be used daily, comfort takes the lead in the priorities and therefore, scale of the pieces need to be considered. With all cases of small spaces, you have to have the right scale of furniture to make the room comfortable and livable. Consider love seats instead of sofas, ottomans (with storage) instead of coffee tables,nice trunks are also smaller in scale and work nicely in a small space.

Consider floor lamps instead of end tables, and keep clutter to a minimum. Keep in mind that even if the floor space is limited, you can always maximize the vertical spaces in the room with shelves and shelving units. Sometimes the best way to maximize floor space is to look "up". The walls are also an important way to get storage. Just be careful not to cause too much visual clutter. One way to reduce visual clutter is to disguise it by storing them in similar items like matching baskets, canisters, etc. The eye sweeps across "like" items and always seeks out things that stand out. By minimizing what "stands out" in a room, you literally give the impression of more space.

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