Small living rooms can be challenging to decorate. This is especially true if you feel that your room is small and boxy.
If you’ve struggled to make your small living room feel a bit roomier, using mirrors in strategic and creative ways can help to make your space feel bigger and brighter.
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Sometimes there’s a fine line between styling a shelf and overloading it. I recall one of the pearls of wisdom Coco Channel said, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take at least one thing off.” This advice applies perfectly to decorating wall shelves too.
It’s especially relevant for small, floating shelves. Their openness doesn’t provide much space to hide stuff. And, when you cram too much stuff on an open shelf, you know it right away because it feels heavy and unbalanced.
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I’m going to break down the top 4 outdoor fabric types and give you the low down on the durability, clean-ability, water resistance, mildew resistance and UV protection for each.
Depending on your home turf, you’ll have all the information you need to make a solid buying decision whether you’re looking to purchase a full outdoor seating area or if you’re in the market for accents like pillows and curtains.
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The outside patio dining area isn’t all that different from the dinning area inside the house. Many of the same rules apply to placing furniture so that you get the most comfortable and functional space possible.
And, now that we’re spending a lot more time at home, it’s even more important to have a space that’s just as comfortable and inviting outside as you have inside.
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Chances are the summer of 2020 will be nothing like previous summers. A global pandemic has many of our favorite theme parks, concert tours and any large gathering activities closed cancelled and shelved. But before you go and get all bummed out, this could be the year of the epic staycation!
If you can’t or are unwilling to brave the usual summer fun times this year, why not invest in a sweet outdoor space instead?
Take a look around the yard and see where you might put down some paver stones or have a small cement pad installed. Maybe you already have a small patio space that’s been neglected or under used over the years?
If there was a year to put a little elbow grease into that outside space, this is that year!
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Ah, the small house… It’s often described as charming, cozy and quaint. But what you don’t hear it described as roomy, accommodating or versatile. That’s because unlike larger homes with space to spread out and grow, smaller homes are finite, and you have to work with what you’ve got.
There’s no “bonus” room that lacks definition, or a great room in addition to the family room and living room. Nope, the small house is purposeful. Bedroom(s), kitchen, living, and bath are all exactly what they are intended to be with little wiggle room for any other purpose.
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Small living rooms can be a P.I.T.A. Especially long narrow ones. It often feels like you’re playing Tetris; trying to maneuver a beefy couch next to a an even beefier chair. You lug and push until you’re too exhausted to care and you just leave your furniture any old way to avoid more stress. After a couple of weeks of “living with it,” you look at it and you know there’s a better way to arrange it so, on you go again, lugging and pushing, micro-positioning and tweaking angles ever-so-slightly…
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Maybe you’re fed up with the lumpy sofa and you can go through one more Netflix binge on something that feels like you’re sitting on a bag of sand and rocks.
But, if your room has a tricky layout or architectural obstacles, you may be hesitating to pull the trigger on new furniture.
Whatever the case, furniture shopping has changed for the moment and making the right decisions from home, when you can’t see or touch furniture, is more important than ever for determining a good experience from a bad one.
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Small house living has a lot of positive implications: Cleaning can be a breeze, there’s usually lower utility bills because you’re not heating or cooling a huge house. If you’re well organized, then you probably have everything in its place and easy to find. Yes indeed, small house living can be awesome. But there’s always the exception, right? Like where will that third house guest sleep when you only have two bedrooms? Or, where do you put that mountain of shoes you just can’t seem to edit? Finding useful storage is the number one concern I get from clients living in small homes. The next is comfortable guest accommodations, followed by a myriad of functionality related questions. So, I thought what better way to cover some of these topics then by exploring some of my favorite ways to create more storage, comfort and function for your small house.
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It doesn’t matter if you’re making over a small bedroom or downsizing from a large bedroom to a smaller one, there is always going to be some give and take in order to make that space work the best for you. So, it’s no surprise to me that the most asked question I get is how do I make my 10’ by 10’ bedroom work? The second most asked question is how do I make my 9’ x 12’ bedroom work?, followed by 10’ x 12’ room…
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There’s a lot of reasons to consider moving into a smaller place. Most of the reasons involve a life change: the kids are grown and on their own. A partner or spouse is no longer with you. You find that you can’t or don’t want to maintain a large house and yard. No matter what the reason, the potential to go small can be very appealing.
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Sometimes it’s not the size of the room that can stop a redecorating project, it’s the path to get into the space. I love small houses! In my opinion, they’re efficient and clean up fast, which makes them easy to keep tidy. They also often have narrow hallways and sharp turns making moving furniture a real task. Many older homes have the enclosed, steep stairways going up or down. Sometimes the stairs to the basement have a turn or are positioned underneath the stairs to the second floor. That usually means a stepped ceiling where things can get easily wedged. I’ve been in countless homes where the front entry has a built-in closet or sharp turn right inside the door. That’s a tight squeeze for long furniture like sofas and dressers. There can be a lot of obstructions that make getting furniture in tough.
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Ahh, the dreaded long narrow living room… You love everything about your house but this space, am I right? Where is the TV going to go? Will everyone be able to see it? How can this space even work? It’s so weird! I hear these questions all the time. Narrow spaces can pose a challenge but, keeping a few key things in mind will help you figure out the best layout for your tricky space. Let’s nip this problem child space in the bud so you can get back to loving your whole house!
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Small space living can be tricky. If it’s a new space, it can be tough to figure out what to bring and what to leave behind. The last thing you want for your small space is to pack everything into it like Tetris and just live with it. A few times scooting past a sofa arm blocking a doorway or having to walk around a wide table in a narrow space will get old fast. With small space living, you must consider how you’ll use the space every day.
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Small living rooms can be tricky. You have a limited amount of space and you also want to have a room that looks great and functions the best way possible. I’ve lived in many small spaces and each one had its challenges and limitations. I’ve had lining rooms with multiple doorways, rooms that need to have dual functions: living and dining for example. No matter what, I’ve always used these 5 proven techniques to arrange furniture in a small living room and they work great every time. And, these techniques also work just the same for bedrooms, offices, dens and any other small space. Let me show you what I mean.
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Let me guess, you’ve been moving your sofa around the living room for days and you can’t get your room looking like Joanna Gains just left after waving her magic wand. Am I right? Well before you ditch the sofa and throw a bunch of pillows directly on the floor and call it done, let me show you how to get your small living room furniture arrangement right. Here’s six simple steps and a super useful freebie to get you going in the right direction – the direction of done! I promise that you’ll have a much better plan of attack at the end. Shall we begin?