Small Space Ideas

In a small home, storage has to be seen. There is no spare room to hide it in, so anything you buy is also part of the decor. That is the whole problem, and it is also the whole solution.

Go up, not out

Floor space is what you are short of. Wall and vertical space usually is not. A tall narrow shelf takes a fraction of the floor a wide low one does and holds more. The same is true inside cupboards: a shelf riser doubles a tall cupboard that is half empty air.

Use the backs of doors

The inside of a cupboard door, a wardrobe door or the bathroom door is dead space in most homes. It is the right depth for shallow things: cleaning sprays, shoes, wraps and foils, hair tools.

Buy one size, not five

Mismatched containers waste the gaps between them. Boxes of one width sit flush against each other and against the wall of the shelf. It also looks calmer, which matters more when the storage is in plain sight.

Make furniture do two jobs

A bench you can sit on and open. A coffee table with a shelf underneath. An ottoman that swallows blankets. In a small room, anything that only does one job is expensive in floor space.

Leave a landing spot

Keys, post, sunglasses, the things that come in with you. If there is no tray by the door they end up on the kitchen counter, and the kitchen counter is the surface a small home can least afford to lose.

Keep the floor clear

Nothing makes a room read as small like things standing on the floor. Baskets on a shelf look considered. The same baskets on the floor look like a job you have not finished.

What to buy first

If you only change one thing, change the surface that annoys you most. Not the messiest one, the one you look at most often. That is where the calm is worth the most.

Not sure what fits? Send us the room and the measurements and we will tell you what works.