Making the Most of Your Space: Six Tips for Decorating a Small Apartment

For those living in a small apartment, wedging in all of your necessary possessions can leave you feeling as if you live in a shoe box. Tripping over boxes piled here and there, you may feel like you’ll never get your space organized and decorated. Here are six tips to help you use every inch of your limited space to its best advantage.

Decorate the Kitchen with Functional Items

There are some kitchen items, gift or family heirlooms, which you might want to have decorating the kitchen. These don’t belong stuffed into the oven or crammed into a cabinet while the walls remain bare. Carefully, and with full respect to the terms of your lease, mount hooks and display your kitchenware proudly.

Use the Space Under Your Bed

In a tiny apartment, the bed likely takes up a lot of floor space. Get some rolling bins or racks for beneath the bed and use it for everything from extra canned goods to off-season clothes. If you really want to get fancy, you can build a pallet for your mattress with drawers and shelving built right in. Not only does this look awesome, it gives you more storage.

Take Advantage of Your Doors

There are a wide variety of organizational tools that not only add storage to your doors but double as displays. You can hang an inexpensive organizer on the back of the door to hide away shoes, cleaning supplies and other bulky items.

Use Versatile Pieces of Furniture

Instead of wedging a small nightstand in the corner next to your bed, why not dispense with it and use a nice tray that can be slipped under the bed and out of the way when not in use? Instead of having a large ottoman taking up floor space, look for a nice storage box and place a long pillow on top of it. When it’s time for a new couch, look for one with storage built in. Not only will this add more space, it will give you more options for moving around your furniture into practical arrangements.

Downsize Your Climate Control

If your building lacks adequate air conditioning or heat for your apartment, buying a unit meant for a house is not only a waste of electricity, it’s a waste of space. There are several compact air conditioners and heaters available which are specially designed for small spaces. Janice Gallagher, an Edmonton air conditioner installation specialist from Cydcom Services Ltd, advises renters to look for these limited area units, as they are usually more than capable of heating or cooling an entire apartment.

Don’t Forget the Ceiling

A hanging clothing bar can not only add some additional space for clothing, it can add visual interest to an otherwise boring bedroom. Ladders and old banisters make excellent ceiling hanging racks, as do wrought-iron gates. If you don’t have laundry facilities on-site, this can be used as a drying rack for a few hand-washed items.

Decorating and organizing a small apartment can be a challenge. By following these tips, you can use up every inch of your space without living in a mound of clutter.