There is plenty of pressure on the amount of urban living space available and that means you will often need to get creative when it comes to making the most of the room size that you have to work with.
Here are some ideas to help you get creative, including why it pays to choose your furniture carefully, suggestions for choosing the right seating, and how your choice of curtains can have a positive impact on your room design.
Choose your furniture to scale
One of the best design secrets that you can use to your advantage when faced with a challenging amount of living space is to carefully select your furniture so that it is in proportion to the size of the room.
It is also a good idea to take your time choosing furniture that is not only to scale but can serve multiple purposes too.
Use wall sconces to save valuable floor space and club chairs or tight back sofas are often good seating options without compromising on comfort.
Choose a focal point
Another great way of making your room appear as spacious and appealing as possible would be to concentrate on highlighting the room’s best features.
If you have an attractive fireplace in the living room, make that the focal point of attention and design the room around it.
If you are fortunate enough to enjoy a decent amount of natural light coming into the room, use a lighter color scheme to help increase the natural feeling of light and space that can be created with that combination.
One of the benefits of double glazing is that it allows you to keep the curtains open if you have natural light coming in without having to worry so much about losing heat.
Get creative with your seating
It can be very easy to conform to what is considered normal seating arrangements and arrange your furniture in this way, but if you are working with limited space, this might not be the best idea.
Try to think outside the box and get creative with your seating options. Think about using built-in banquettes to use up every inch of available space, and back-to-back sofas is a design trick that works well in narrow rooms.
Be bold with your use of floor space
You can be forgiven for being a bit too focused on freeing up as much floor space as possible in a small room and the automatic response to that line of thinking is to push all the larger furniture up against the walls.
Be experimental and try the idea of using a suitable piece of furniture in the center of the room. This can be a showpiece item that draws attention away from the size of the room or it might be a table that offers storage options as well.
A combined living and dining space
It might be the case that your living room has to serve as a dining room too, which creates a whole new set of challenges with the space you have available.
A small round cafe-style table might offer the sort of solution you are looking for, as it can be stored against a wall when it is only dinner for one or two, but can be easily pulled out into the room if there are more guests around the table for dinner.
Need to do some work from home?
If you have to do some work from home you will want to have some desk space to do that from, but you don’t want to take up valuable space with a desk and you probably don’t want the room to have an office feel either.
A good solution to this problem is to use a console that can have a lamp on it by day and is still wide enough to accommodate a laptop when you need to do some work.
Tuck an ottoman underneath the console and that will serve as a seat when you need it, without getting in the way while you are enjoying some rest and relaxation in your living room.
Create Zones
Even if you are working with a small living space you still have the ability to divide your room into zones by using rugs.
Rugs are a great way of creating visual separation from the room’s other functions.
Your eyes will be drawn to the visual clue that you are moving from one part of the room to the other, allowing you the luxury of creating dual functionality with the clever use of rugs.
Color schemes
You will be pleased to hear that a small room doesn’t always have to impose limitations on your color scheme aspirations.
When used in the right way, bold color schemes can actually have the effect of making your living room seem larger than it actually is.
If that is a step too far for you, another way of using bold and vibrant colors is to add some striking artwork or a brightly colored vase to add a real splash of color.
How you hang your curtains makes a difference
Curtains are an integral part of your furnishing plans and you can use them to create the visual impression that your room is bigger than it is.
Full-length curtains have the ability to draw your eye upwards, which automatically has the effect of adding height to your living room. Whatever height your ceiling is, a good trick is to hang curtains noticeably higher above the top of the window than usual and allow them to fall all the way to the floor.
Accentuating the length will make the room seem bigger.
The illusion of space using mirrors
It should never be forgotten how effective mirrors can be in creating the illusion of space.
You can either choose to have a large mirror that acts as a focal point and opens up space or you can use several mirrors and reflective surfaces around the room to make it seem like your living room is bigger than it is.
If you use some of these cunning design ideas there is every chance that you will be able to work some aesthetic magic and make the most of your small living space.