Making the Most of a Small Living Space
A small living space is often the price that many city dwellers pay for living in an enviable location close to their workplace and cultural hot spots.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to abandon all hope of excelling with your interior design style. There are still plenty of things you can do to set yourself apart, even if you are living in an apartment and being forced to combine your kitchen, diner and living room into one.
We have provided five handy kitchen-diner-living room ideas to help you make the most of the space that you have available, whilst also guaranteeing that those dream homes showcased in industry publications need not be just a fantasy.
1. Size Matters
The furniture that you choose can make a real difference when it comes to your perspective of the space available.
Firstly, you should always choose your home furnishings with the size of your room top of mind. Opting for wide sideboards and bookcases will simply use up much more of the usable space than what need be the case. It would be better to opt for tall and thin furnishings instead; utilising head space rather than floor space.
Equally, do you really need a coffee table? They are convenient and aesthetically pleasing no doubt, but also take up yet more valuable floor space. Opting to go without a coffee table can make small living spaces feel far less claustrophobic and much roomier.
2. Create an illusion
This one is a little less obvious, being in reality little more than a trick of the mind.
Did you know that opting for mirrored living room furniture can help to create an illusion of space? It may sound too simply to be true, but by reflecting the gap between the furniture piece and other corners of the room, the mind can be tricked into feeling as though there is more space available than what is actually the case.
This is perhaps one of the reasons why our Venetian mirrored furniture range consistently proves to be one of the most popular with Grosvenor Furniture customers.
3. Choose Colours Carefully
Here is another idea which is again little more than a trick of the mind, but did you know that the colour scheme chosen can have a dramatic impact on your perceptions of space?
Dark colours can feel warm and cosy, but do tend to absorb the light available and hence make the room feel smaller than what is actually the case. The opposite is true for lighter colour schemes which will instead reflect light which when combined with the mirror trick really can make a big difference as to how you feel about your living space.
For the best effect, it is recommended that off-white colours, as well as light blues and greens are utilised given their reflective nature.
4. Consistency is Key
We often get approached by customers looking for kitchen-diner-living room ideas where their initial plan is to adhere to very different interior styles for each section of the room.
The problem with this is that it will simply accentuate the problem that you are looking to overcome. By treating each section of your living space differently, you are simply highlighting that your kitchen-diner and living room are all residing in the same space. Attempting to take a different approach to décor in each section can result in confused messages for the mind. By attempting to evoke a different ambience in each section, you are simply negating the positive emotions that you are looking to evoke.
It is therefore important to remain consistent throughout, adhering to an interior design approach which you feel is appropriate for a living, dining and cooking spaces. Remember to go for light colours and to choose your furnishing wisely, taking into consideration how much room you actually have available.
5. Maximise Your Space
Very much on the theme of making the most of it, you should be aware that how you arrange your furnishings can dramatically alter the free space that you have available.
Don’t be frightened to mix things up a little. For instance, there are plenty of designers with kitchen table in living room ideas and approaches which not only maximise floor space, but also feel quite natural. This is where it will really pay back to be consistent with the style of décor and furnishings that you opt for in all three sections of your living space.
We always recommend that you start with a blank piece of graph paper, on which you can draw a scaled down version of your kitchen-diner-living room. You can then use other pieces of graph paper to cut out drawings of the furniture that you have in mind which is scaled down to the same degree.
Play with it to trial different layouts until you find the optimum solution. This is always a great way to work out whether or not certain items such as sofas will fit into the space available before you commit yourself to a purchase.
