Choosing Furniture for Small Spaces
Keep It Skinny
Furniture that is trim and fit will suit your small spaces best. In choosing a sofa, for example, one with fat rolled arms and a multicushion back will seem too inflated. Pick one with skinny arms and a tight, upholstered back instead. Elsewhere, look for slender legs on dining tables, and stick to beds with simple headboards.
Add Secondary Storage
Typically, small homes are short on places to stash things. That's why it's so valuable to find furniture with storage included. Look for tables with drawers or shelves and ottomans with hidden compartments. Trunks make excellent coffee tables. And you can tuck a lot of stuff, even luggage, under extra-tall beds.
Take It to the Edges
Whenever possible, tuck furniture around the perimeter of the room to avoid taking up precious floor space. Attach bookshelves to the wall, build a bench under the window, and mount the television. Some pieces even hover off the ground (or appear to), which creates open space that visually expands a room.
Free Up Sight Lines
Choose furniture that doesn't block your view from one area to another, such as open-sided bookcases, glass coffee tables, and chairs with slender profiles. Airy pieces such as these will fill your room with comfort and utility without making it seem congested.
Consider Off-Label Uses
Just because a furniture item is considered a dining room piece doesn't mean it can't perform and look nice in other rooms of your home. Using a dining room sideboard in the living room, for example, gives you cupboard storage as well as surfaces to display books and collectibles. A garden bench can be extra seating at the dinner table, and a vanity table makes a compact laptop desk.
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Build a Mudroom that Fits Anywhere
Locker-style storage is ideal for an entry area or mudroom. Convert an ordinary bookcase into something extraordinary with these easy add ons. Store off season items up high in lidded boxes. Note the contents of each box with miniature chalkboards. Use a classroom-style display rail to hold reminders and notes. Remove a few shelves from the bookcase and add hooks. Hang coats, books, and bags. A cafeteria tray is the perfect spot to drop wallets and sunglasses. Paint one side of the cabinet with high gloss paint and leave messages using dry erase markers. Hang keys from labeled hooks. Attach a magnetic memo board to the side of the bookcase for important bits of paper. Stash odds and ends in a three-drawer office supply caddy. Pull-style tabs let you label the contents of drawers and re-label them as your need change. Dry shoes and boots on metal cooling racks that rest on top of a large plastic tray. Make locker-style storage a part of your on-the-go lifestyle today.
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