Seven Clever Solutions for Small Spaces
With the trend of houses and dwellings getting smaller to be more efficient and sustainable, comes the inevitable question of “but where do we put our stuff?” This question creates a challenge for both designers and those dwelling in smaller houses to get creative with organizing their belongings within less square footage.
If you are interested in living in a smaller but don’t want to deal with the headache of sorting through (and getting rid of) your things, we have collected the following seven smart solutions for designing and living in smaller spaces:
1. Sliding doors and walls:
(images from houzz.com and dezeen.com)
These are great for smaller homes and apartments and allow rooms to be hidden or open to each other when desired. Spaces can be contracted and expanded and storage (or rooms) can be concealed behind the sliding element when not in use.
2. Furniture with drawers:
(images from inhabitant.com and dwell.com)
Utilize the open space beneath your furniture by adding sliding drawers below. Instead of being a dust bunny party, the space below your bed or sofa can be a useful place for clothes, linens, books or toys in a child’s room. These examples are well thought out pieces of furniture that incorporated the drawers into the design.
3. Use the space under the stairs:
(images from freshhome.com)
Stairs are often one of the elements of a house or flat that take up the most space. If the stairs are existing, then there are ways to add custom furniture elements to help create additional storage below or if you are building from the ground up, then utilize the space for shelving, drawers or even a mini-library or reading nook.
4. Storage walls:
(images from dwell.com and decoist.com)
If you are going to use a wall to divide a space, why not make it useful – create a wall using a free-standing or built-in shelving unit! It gives you another place to store art or books and allows smaller spaces to still feel relatively open and connected to main spaces.
5. Tech out:
(images from thelaundrypod.com and google)
Get gadgets that help reduce space! Check out these small appliances; a laundry pod and counter-top dishwasher that can be used to make small apartment or house living easier.
6. Hidden bed:
(images from dwell.com and apartmenttherapy.com)
In general, beds take up a generous amount of floor space. So if you are trying to live in a smaller dwelling, they can seem a bit cumbersome. Consider a bed that can be stowed away when you are entertaining or practicing yoga, but can be either folded out or shifted down when you need to sleep.
7. Kitchen efficiency:
(image from designboom.com)
Check out these modular kitchen units that transform depending on your cooking needs and take up relatively compact amounts of space. They maximize efficiency in tiny kitchens and can be moved to new apartments or houses (or even sold like any other piece of furniture).
(image from dezeen.com)