Small Space Living: Live Big in Small Spaces [2023]

Introduction

Crafty Design Solutions for Small Space Living 

In small space living, every inch counts – much like the way traditional Indian families fill their homes with love, stories, and generations of memories. The concept of a home extends far beyond physical dimensions. It encapsulates traditions, bonds, and the warmth of togetherness. However, as urban spaces are developed, they often come with size constraints. 

Picture this: You have purchased your dream home in a fancy apartment complex with several amenities and are excited about moving in, but when you get the handover, the bedrooms appear to be as small as a matchbox! Now, how is your family of six going to manage in this small 2BHK flat? Fear not… with the ever-evolving world of smart space design, there is a diverse range of solutions to resolve this issue. 

What are the difficulties of small space living?  

Before we get to the solutions, it is important to identify the challenges that are associated with small space living. In cities, apartments and studios are commonplace with nuclear families as well as joint families inhabiting them. This can be a little overwhelming, so figuring out how to decorate your apartment and lay it out without cramming it up is key. 

Scaled-down furniture, smart storage, and clever planning among many other crafty hacks can award more room to relax. To ensure that your home does not feel like a dorm room, you can incorporate the small apartment ideas stated below. Once you have gone through them in detail, you will have brand new quick fixes in place on how to transform your apartment design from a tiny little hole to a spacious abode! 

Tips to enhance small space living 

In an era where population and urbanisation are growing, small space living has become a norm for many individuals seeking convenient and affordable housing for themselves as well as their families. While we can’t do much about the sizes of the given spaces, what we can do is actively implement hacks and tricks that can make living a pleasurable and cherish able experience. 

Top interior designing companies in Mumbai are coming up with innovative ideas to give their clients a luxurious living experience in a compact space.

Let us see how you can use these simple tips to uplift the size of your home:

1. Open layouts 

To begin with, the planning process is pertinent when it comes to creating space for your home. Interior design studios in Bangalore are acting their game when it comes to space planning. 

Effective planning is the foundation of a successful design. This entails maximising every single inch of available space, making every corner count. Let’s delve a little deeper into how you can do this.

• Efficient layouts: Create layouts that provide a sense of spaciousness, even though there might not actually be space, an illusion as it were. 
• Demarcate zones: Divide your apartment into zones — bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, and social spaces such as dining and living. A small living room design is essential in Indian families, where the inhabitants can spend time together. 
• Open up fenestration: Natural light is a great hack to visually enlarge a space, so keep those windows and doors open as much as you can and fill the entire home with copious amounts of daylight. 
• Eradicate walls: Break down unnecessary walls and make common spaces such as living-cum-dining, bedroom-cum-study, kitchen-cum-dining, etc. Walls tend to take up extra room and close-up spaces, something that isn’t prudent in the world of small space living. 
• Glass partitions: There are times when eliminating all separators is not feasible as one needs their privacy. In such cases, use glass or a mirror as glass tends to add transparency while a mirror reflects the space, making it look bigger. 

2. Multi-functional furniture 

With form and function all in one, multi-purpose furniture is making waves in the world of residential interior design. Pieces that save both space and money, this type of furniture will revolutionise the way your tiny apartment appears, converting it into a sizeable and generous haven to relax in, not just for you but for the entire family. A few popular options include :

• Sofa-cum-beds: Not uncommon, sofa-cum-beds are a common choice in many homes. These come in extra-handy when you are devising small living room ideas to make space for an expected guest over for a nightcap or for your children to sleep in when you want privacy. They can fold up into a sofa when not needed and morph into a bed without much effort. These are available in manual as well as motorised variants. 
• Foldable tables: Whether you are looking for extra space in your bedroom, kitchen, office, living, or dining room, your search ends with an easy-peasy fold-out table. Attached to hinges on a wall, this can open up when you need it and flap down when you are done. It can serve the dual purpose of being a study table, dining table, and even a dressing table, the options are endless. 
• Movable tables: Furniture on wheels is an effective solution to making the most of small space living. When movable, you can use the same piece for multiple uses. A side table in your bedroom can become a coffee table with a simple push. Similarly, the center table can be wheeled into the kitchen as a serving trolly. These products act as some of the best living room ideas for when you are expanding ergonomic space. 

3. Go Vertical 

When your floor area is limited, go vertical! Volume is a highly important feature to consider in the process of executing your small space living. In fact, smartly using the walls and ceilings without compromising on the floor plan can seamlessly amplify the expanse. A few tips on this front are, 

• Full-height shelves: Place floor-to-ceiling shelves, generating maximum potential for storage as well as display. 
• Vertical perception: Play with your design patterns and textures in a manner that all seemingly go upwards, elongating the entire room. 
• Floating shelves: An ideal way to showcase personal belongings and curios without making a unit that takes up floor space. 
• Stack able furniture: Use stack able furniture that can open up to more pieces when needed. For instance, stack able side tables, stack able shelves, etc. 

• Vertical gardens: A wonderful way to enhance your walls is by implementing a vertical garden. While it adds an element of nature, which automatically weans the mind towards openness, it can also double up as a partition if designed in accordance. 

4. Subtle Colours 

A minimal colour scheme coalesced in your design narrative can create a harmonious sense of continuity and cohesiveness in a small apartment. Dark colours tend to give a heavier look, resulting in visually reducing the size, but lighter tones can immediately spruce up the entire apartment design. A few options are :

• Pastels: Pick mild pastel tones such as greens, blues, peaches, aqua, and yellows for decor items such as cushions, rugs, throws, curtains, lampshades, etc. If you are feeling experimental, you can also splash an entire wall such as the bed-back wall or the TV unit wall with your favourite subtle hue to bring a pop of vibrancy in a subtle manner.   
• Monochromes: Instantly expanding the surface it is on, a monochromatic scheme, which typically consists of black and white shades is apt for visually enlarging small spaces. The best way to incorporate this scheme is to use a majority of white or beige and accent it with stingy portions of black, uplifting the aesthetic, and creating an illusion of space. 
• Beiges: A popularly chosen colour palette is the play between different shades of beige. Wood is an integral material for such a colour scheme. You can play with variations of off-whites, ivories, beiges, and light browns, and create an elusive blend that seamlessly envelopes the furniture, walls, and other furnishings. 

5. Smart Storage 

Storage is a huge requirement, especially in Indian homes, so it is essential to get creative when planning your storage. There are many corners of the house or furniture items in which you never thought you could get storage. A few smart solutions to enhance small space living are :

• Under-bed storage: The area under the bed need not go to waste – instead, you can get a box bed that can be used for storing several items such as bed sheets, bed covers, pillowcases, and practically anything else you want. 
• Lofts: Use your ceiling space to add lofts instead of letting that area go to waste. This idea works well in kitchens above the overhead storage and in bedrooms above the wardrobes. 

• Staircase alcoves: The space under a staircase is a hidden gem for storing practically anything. It can be used as an open or closed storage, depending on the design concept and personal habits. 

Conclusion 

As the trend towards small space living continues to grow, implementing these simple, but effective solutions will revolutionise your interaction with the space you inhabit, especially if it is small and restrictive. Optimising every corner of your home by taking just a little extra effort will give you a larger-than-life aesthetic, which is both stylish and functional.

Of course, the key here is to assess your specific needs and design them in accordance. An expert can be really helpful in guiding and executing practical yet aesthetic ideas for small space living. Bonito Designs can be your perfect companion in this journey. 

Just because you live in a small home, doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your vision or compromise on functionality. All it means is that you have to get a tad more creative with multi-functional furniture, space-efficient layouts, clever storage options, and visual tricks.  

With the help of experts at Bonito Designs, your limited square footage will turn into a stylish and cozy haven that will be exclusively yours. 

Your home, your choice, your budget… Call Bonito Designs today!