There is nothing much worse than having a tiny apartment that’s too small and you can’t use it well due to limited space. A little studio apartment that is badly designed could be much worse because there is only one room there is nowhere else for you to run to. The only solution is to learn how to decorate your small studio apartment with the right steps.
In my thought, the best thing I think you need is to learn how you can customize and make use of that limited space well. To give you a direction, I will be talking about the Dos and Don’ts of studio apartment design that will help you improve your home and maximize the small space you have.
How to Decorate Your Small Studio Apartment
Over the past few years, I have reviewed more than hundreds of apartments so I’ve seen my fair share of good and bad designs which is why I created this blog to serve as a source of knowledge for those who are just starting. So we can improve our homes and our built environment together.
I hope you’ll stick around and don’t fall into the trap of using piecemeal mismatched open storage units like a lot of different carts and shelves.
Do Maximize Vertical Storage
If you have built-in storage anywhere, do take storage up to the ceiling. When space is at a premium, what you want to do is maximize the amount of storage space you have as much as possible, and if you get a chance to build your kitchen cabinets, don’t leave a tiny gap between the ceiling and the upper cabinets.
Instead, take it all the way up to the ceiling so you can also hide pots and pans and decorations that you have for when dinner guests come over.
Do Create a Relaxing Sleeping Area
Your bed should be your happy place, a place where you can lie down and rest and enjoy a good full 8 hours of sleep. To make it easy for you, make sure your bed is facing a very nice soothing view, that could be an armchair with a nice light or a TV where you can play some nature documentary or just the very minimalist facade of your wardrobe.
If there’s no alternative and your bed just happens to face something very messy like a kitchen, you should try installing some curtains around it or get a room divider. Think of a way to segment your sleeping space from the messy parts of your home so you can create a cozy snug area that’s away from the chaos of life.
Do implement having separate zones
You can use a mixture of design strategies to create separate zones in your home. This could be using curtains, you can use block painting to visually separate one area from another without physical barriers, you can use rugs as zone definers.
A well-placed rug can anchor space subtly signifying the transition from one activity zone to another, you can invest in a couple of movable dividers at a half height, this gives you the flexibility to create different zones in your home without completely blocking off the light to a space.
Do embrace Multi-Functional Furniture
When space is at a premium, get furniture pieces that work in multiple ways. You have the function without sacrificing the floor area. For example, you can get a convertible coffee table that can be raised up into a dining table for when people come and eat with you, and when you have an ottoman can it also double as storage and when you have a laundry basket can you also make it double as a chair.
Instead of having to get side tables, you can think about getting multiple stacking stools, you can put them together when you need them as a table and then spread them out so they can be used as chairs for when you have people over.
Do Maximize Light and Brightness
Our perception of space is not just determined by its physical dimensions but also by the sensory qualities including light levels. If you’re living in a small studio apartment with furniture don’t block the windows under any circumstances, try to maximize the amount of light it can get. You can also strategically add mirrors in dark places to reflect light, our brain perceives the space as being greater than it is.
Don’t use Open Storage In Small Space
I’ve said it before and I will say it again open storage is a lie, let’s stop calling it storage and call it what it is, and that is a display shelf because there’s nothing storage about it.
It’s designed as a place to catch your eye for you to hold things that only look good outside in the open, and not to actually hide your clutter, because if you look into your storage systems, all the things you put in there are probably looking pretty messy and cluttered and not something that you want to be out displayed in the open.
To keep open storage looking organized you’ll have to sacrifice valuable space to ensure everything that you put outside is aesthetically pleasing which in a small apartment is a pretty inefficient use of space.
So never design your home where the majority of your storage is out in the open, or out on display because it would just be very chaotic and messy and give you a lot of headaches.
What you want to do is have about 60 to 80% of your items hidden behind cover doors curtains or anything that makes it close and hidden from sights, not only will it make your life easier it will also make your space look cleaner. So when you scan the room your space it’ll somehow feel a bit more expansive.
Don’t place the Bed facing the Kitchen
To maximize your small space, positioning your bed in a way where it faces the kitchen is a no-go for many reasons. Cooking not only fills the air with aromas but also sends grease and food particles flying, some of which might end up where you sleep.
So if you place your bed with a direct view of the kitchen, it exposes your sleeping place to this unwanted cooking mess, believe me, you don’t want to sleep under a layer of oil.
Don’t Over-Divide Your Room
Don’t start dividing your room into a million tiny little spaces with curtains, I mean if your studio apartment is, in reality, a 90-square-meter massive loft then go ahead with experimenting with half walls massive bookshelves, and movable dividers everywhere.
You can reconfigure it exactly how you want, but in most cases studio apartments are just not that spacious, so breaking the space up into too many small zones may not be the best idea because when there are too many items going on in a small space, it can start to feel a bit cramped and dark.
Don’t use too many Furniture
In an attempt to make your home feel cozy and clean, don’t overcrowd your home with unnecessary furniture. Most people would rush to go buy furniture pieces that they think they must have a need for even when it’s not necessary.
I think a better way of approaching furniture in your home is by thinking first about who you are as a person, and what kind of activities you like to do. For example, if you’re an introverted person and you don’t invite friends around all the time.
I guess you don’t need to have a massive sofa and two armchairs in your space or if you never work from home, you don’t need that big desk, probably a tiny fold-away desk would be sufficient for you in a small home.
Don’t disrupt free movement
Just as we people have freedom of speech and freedom of movement, don’t deny yourself free movement in your space. Make sure there is enough space for you to move around and have enough clearance space between all of your furniture pieces so you can comfortably move around.
It doesn’t matter how big your apartment is if you put all the furniture pieces too close together or they’re just too large for the space so your circulation area is constricted. You will feel like you’re living in a very cramped space, so if you actually live in a small home make sure you don’t further emphasize this point by not giving yourself enough legroom to move around.
Don’t Overstimulate your senses
Don’t embrace moody dark maximalist interiors before fully considering the psychological effects. When you visit interior blogs, magazines, and books you will find that they are filled with Scandinavian design, old natural beige, and wasabi design.
Occasionally, at least for me when I see a very colorful bright or dark strong moody picture I get very excited because suddenly it seems so different and so creative, but these spaces do make a strong statement.
However, you must take note before going crazy over Instagram cafe and hotel designs, in my opinion, it’s important to think carefully before you implement something that’s not so classic and neutral into your home because you have to live with it.
People are different, and the kind of things that you prefer and spaces that feel good to you, are also different. Moody maximalist environments are high in stimulus load, they contain a large amount of sensory information for the brain to process.
High stimulus environments can lead to increased arousal and engagement which can be very positive, there are people out there who have a very high threshold for simulation.
This is why there are some people that love to live in cities and some people that are very chaotic and exhausting, some people would much prefer to live in the countryside.
My word
There’s no right or wrong, people just have different preferences. This is why you should just think about who you are as a person, what you like to do, and what spaces naturally draw you and make you more comfortable, you should then decorate your home in this way.
I hope you found this guide on how to decorate your small studio apartment interesting and I hope you’ll check out some of my other design tips where I talk about how to maximize a small space and also some stuff that you can use to customize your home.
