Small rooms aren’t as hard to work with as I expected
This school year was my first year living out of the dorms and in an apartment. When my roommates and I first toured the apartment, we realized the bedrooms were pretty small. My room, in particular, was very oddly shaped because it’s proportionally longer than it is wide. So, the summer before moving into the apartment, I researched how I would go about furnishing my room. Much of this research included furniture ideas and tips to make my room appear bigger. Now that my time in that apartment is ending, I am reflecting on the many little things I have learned about working with small spaces.
Furniture choice is the first and most important aspect to consider when working with a small room. While living in the dorms, I noticed that the university-provided furniture, for the most part, was very bulky, making the already small room feel even smaller. I knew that I should go for furniture with a sleek/minimalist look for my room. I also think it’s important to pick mostly light-colored furniture, as dark colors tend to make the room appear more filled in. I ended up buying most of my furniture from Ikea.
Below I’ve attached the links for the desk, bed frame, and felt drawer dresser I bought:
- https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/slattum-upholstered-bed-frame-knisa-light-gray-80450126/
- https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/linnmon-adils-table-white-s29932181/
- https://www.amazon.com/s?k=felt+drawer+dresser&crid=3SF5EM1FTMESN&sprefix=%2Caps%2C233&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent
These furniture pieces are very simple and basic, making the room appear dull. To remedy this, I used my creativity to add fun decor pieces, dressing up the simple furniture. I was able to find much of my decor from HomeGoods and picked up a couple of fake succulents, a candle, pastel-colored sheets, a small yellow rug and desk organizers. I found that the succulents and yellow rug brought life to the room because they made up for the lack of color in the furniture.
Another way to maximize space in a room is to add a full-length mirror. This gives the impression of openness in the room; where you were once looking at a blank wall, you are now seeing the whole of your room reflected back at you. Once again, it’s important to opt for a mirror with a sleek frame so that the frame doesn’t overpower and defeat the purpose of having a mirror in general. My mirror was from Ikea, which was a rectangular mirror with rounded corners and a thin black frame. Ikea has many great options for a sleek mirror!
I also suggest investing in some nice organizers to store your belongings because the less visible these objects are, the cleaner your room will look. I like the fabric bin organizers from Target because of the color, variety and size options. These bins fit most of my things and look so nice. I also really like rolling trolly organizers because they have multiple shelves where you can add small containers to store your belongings.
Trying to figure out how to work with a small room may seem stressful, but I found the whole experience to be a fun, creative challenge. With only simple furniture, I was afforded many options on how to decorate my room. After living there for the past few months, I can safely say that I really like my room. It turned out to feel more cozy than small. Working with a small room can be challenging sometimes, but once you figure it out, you can do so much with it!