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It doesn’t matter whether you live in a single room apartment or a three-story house, there will never seem to be enough room for all your belongings. Owning a bigger home will be a dream for many of you. However, unless you’re left a sizeable inheritance or win the lottery, you’ll be forced to make the best of what you’ve already got. Making the most of the space you’ve got is possible. Take note of the following tips, and your home will stop feeling claustrophobic and cluttered. Maximize the space in your home, and you and your family will feel free and comfortable.
Start by Decluttering
The best place to start,
before you start looking at the latest interior design trends and spending money, is to offload some
of the junk that is cluttering up your rooms. Over the years it’s amazing how
much clutter you can gather. Before you know it, you’ll be losing things, have
nowhere to sit and struggling to keep your home clean. If you’ve got kids, then
the problem is even bigger. Start in the basement, if you’ve got one, and work
up to the attic.
Maximizing Space in the Kitchen
A lack of space in the kitchen
can be very frustrating. It might seem like a good idea to have everything near
and close to hand, but when you’ve got a galley kitchen,
it can feel very limiting. All the utensils, pots and pans will be piled on top
of one another, and there will be no room
for anyone else to get in and help prepare food.
Brightening up the room
will make a difference, so consider keeping the window treatments to a minimum.
If there are no neighbors overlooking your property you could do away with them
all together. A roller blind could be an option if you’re worried about your
privacy.
Maximizing Space in the Living Room
Your living room should be
somewhere you can retire to when you want to relax. If it’s cluttered and feels
small, you’re not going to be keen on
holding dinner parties or inviting friends over to watch a movie. In a small
living room, you can make a difference by
choosing a few larger accessories rather than lots of smaller ones.
Look for a dining table and
chairs that can be folded away when not being used. Alternatively, get rid of
the giant dining table and choose a small, round dining table instead.
Have you mounted your TV on
the wall yet? If not, now’s the time to get that space waster up there and
reclaim some of your floor space.
If your living room is also
used as an office space keeping it organized can be a full-time job. Look for
multi-functional furniture and make good use of any storage space you have.
Maximizing Space in the Bathroom
The bathroom is often the
smallest room in a house and generally dark and dingy. Give the illusion of
more space with carefully positioned mirrors. It will also bounce the light
around, which will again give the illusion of more space. Using mirrors is the oldest trick in the book. Neutral colors are
also very useful if you want to fool the eye into thinking a room is more
spacious. You’ll need to add subtle patterns, or the space will feel very flat.
If there are a number of
people who use the bathroom, open shelving and baskets can be used to hold
combs, jewelry, small accessories, makeup, and
appliances. Make use of the space under the sink for storing cleaning supplies,
towels and toiletries.
Maximizing Space in the Bedroom
Did you realize you spend
almost a third of your life in your bedroom? Admittedly, most of that time
you’ll have your eyes closed, but nevertheless,
you still want it to feel warm and inviting not cramped and uncomfortable. If
you struggle to get a good night’s sleep, it could be the position of your bed that is the problem. To maximize space push your furniture up against the walls
and use shelving and storage units that are off the ground, so you’ve got more
floor space. Add storage boxes under the bed where you can hide away all your
clutter.
Space Saving Outside
While not as important as
having more space inside, the exterior of your home should still be inviting.
Keep your lawn cut, your flower beds tidy and free of weeds. An unkempt and overgrown backyard will feel like
it’s cramped and be unwelcoming. Increase the curb appeal of your home by painting your front entry a bright
and cheerful color.
Design Tips
- Use light colors – light and airy colors give a room a feeling of openness. Choosing colors that are very similar will have the same effect.
- Use stripes – stripes can be used to lengthen a room. Choose a striped design for your walls or add a long striped rug.
- Draw the eye upwards – this is a trick that is used by designers and will make your windows look bigger. Position your drapes above and a little wider than the edge of the window.
- Oversized art – it might seem counterintuitive but hanging oversized art on the walls will make a room feel bigger. You don’t need to go crazy. One or two pieces will do.
- Widen doorways – if you’ve got narrow doorways you can make them appear bigger by painting around the edges in a contrasting color.
- Multi-functional furniture – a smart choice will be to pick furniture that serves more than one purpose. For example, an ottoman that can be used as a coffee table or a bed that can be folded back and used as a sofa.
- Add some glass – glass has always been a cool addition to have in your home, but it also helps to free up space.