Filling up the small spacesBy
Audrey Merket said she didn’t think slanted ceilings were a problem. That is, until her husband, who is about 1 foot taller than Audrey, moved in.
“He’s hitting his head on all the corners, and he can only walk down the middle of the hall because of how tall he is,” Audrey, a junior in English education, said.
Noel Merket, a senior in English education, said the 357-square-foot apartment he lives in with his wife has its ups and downs.
“We have a garage to hide things so that helps,” he said. “But we can’t invite a lot of people over.”
Decorating and organizing small spaces is often a challenge during college years while living in rooms or apartments the size of a normal family room. There are still ways, however, to show personality, comfort and organization, all of which can help a space feel a little bit bigger and a little bit more like home.
Darrin Brooks, assistant professor in interior design, said a common mistake of decorating small spaces is buying furnishings that are oversized.
“They end up eating the space,” Brooks said.
Since most apartments do not allow residents to paint the walls, Brooks said great artwork can help decorate the walls and help a room feel more inviting. Other things such as the right bedding, lamps, a shelf and the way books are organized can also help a room seem comfortable. Each apartment blueprint is different, however.
“Ask yourself how you can make it intimate, warm and inviting,” he said.
Audrey said the hardest part of decorating such a small space is trying to hang pictures on slanted, limited wall space. Since nails aren’t allowed in the walls, Audrey said they use “tacky stuff” to hang posters.
KayLyn Jack, a senior in elementary education, said filling up her white walls with pictures has helped her apartment look cozier.
“I think a lot of pictures help, especially if you have the space to fill up your walls,” Jack said. “I even made paper construction decorations to put up.”
The best part, Jack said, of living in a 400-square-foot apartment is that it requires little cleaning time especially since she and her husband do not have a lot of clutter. Inviting people over, however, is a different story. With only a couch, bed and table as their main pieces of furniture, Jack said entertaining people can be difficult.
“If we have lots of people over, we can’t really use the table, so we just use the living room and have people hold their food,” she said.
Like Jack, Audrey said entertaining is often difficult. With only three regular stools and one camp chair, Audrey said only three people can be invited over at a time for entertaining.
Brooks said eliminating a lot of the clutter is what can help make a small space appear efficient and clean. Mies van der Rohe, an architect from the early 20th century, used the philosophy of “less is more,” Brooks said.
“We like stuff,” he said. “We buy too much stuff.”
Editing and “paring down,” Brooks said, can help create a more open space. Asking if a piece is truly efficient or multifunctional will help determine the level of use that it has, Brooks said. If people need a nightstand and more storage space, Brooks said they should think about “looking as smart as (they) can” and maybe doubling things up so the end product is a filing cabinet that doubles as a nightstand. Now with more retail stores maximizing the look for the money, Brooks said shoppers are prone to find better-looking things that may also double as something else.
“A higher coffee table could double as a dining room table,” he said. “Think long term. Buy things that can transition well. Invest in a good thing you can use and re-use in regards to space.”
Another great way Brooks said to help make a room look larger is to use mirrors in corners.
“It’s a great thing to fool the eye,” he said.
And accessories, Brooks said, can make or break a room.
“It’s all about the accessories at the end of the day,” he said.
Jack said she tries to keep the walkway clear and squeeze things into corners so the room will look bigger than it is. And since Jack said her parents store some of her stuff, it is easier to keep the clutter down. Otherwise, Jack said it would be “too hard to fit.”
Having space in the middle of rooms is what Audrey said helps make rooms look bigger, so she sometimes pushes random pieces to the sides of the wall.
“It isn’t bigger, but I feel like I have room to move so it isn’t so claustrophobic,” she said.
Designating space for clothes is what Audrey said she is most proud of. All of her shoes are stored in almost one laundry basket in the closet. Noel said his shoes, all five pairs of them, fit just fine in the remaining space on the closet floor.
With storage compartments under the bed and half of their food stored in the bathroom as a makeshift pantry, Audrey said organizing gets creative. Their apartment is also easy to clean since there is not much room for big messes.
“It limits the amount of crap I have,” Audrey said.