Define Your Space in Your Studio Apartment

In our last blog, we talked about living more functionally and efficiently in the luxurious studio apartments at The Edmund. Once you have decluttered your life and mastered creative organization, the next step in efficient living is to make your space LOOK bigger. We have put together a list of tips and tricks to help you make a less than 1,000 square foot space look and feel like a grand ballroom.

Scale it Down

When choosing furniture for smaller spaces, it is all about proportions. A good rule of thumb is if a piece brushes up against the boundaries of the room, either up and down or sideways, it is too large. To create a sense of roominess, always leave a little air in between the sides of your furniture and the walls. Also, avoid heavy, weighty pieces that take up too much of the usable space in the room. For example, a sleek sofa or chair will give you as much sitting room as an overstuffed couch but will take up much less of your room.

Show a Little Leg with your Furniture

Creating the illusion of more space is all about creating a sense of openness and movement. Furniture with exposed legs and room underneath allows light and air to flow over, under, and around it. This type of furniture can almost appear to float in space. Evermore popular mid-century modern furniture is typically leggy and low, providing even more openness.

Optical Illusions

Mirrors are your new best friend in a small space. They bounce around light and seeing the reflection of your space truly does give the illusion of it being larger. Instead of one large mirror (which can feel overpowering and is very 1990s) try for repetition of a few mirrors. A collection or gallery wall of smaller unique mirrors can create a much more interesting and thoughtful look.

Ditch the Drapes

Similar to mirrors, this step has to do with tricking the eye. Curtains stop the eye from taking in the view outside, even if they don’t cover the whole window. Additionally, draped and curtains add more “stuff” to the room and eliminating them keeps the space sleeker and simpler.

If you do feel the need for drapes, there are two best practices to keep in mind. First, you should avoid using heavy materials that absorb light and weigh your room down. Linen is a perfect example of a lightweight material that will increase the sense of airiness in the room. Next, if curtains are a must for your, use a curtain bar that extends far beyond the window frame so you can fully expose the window. 

Emphasize the Horizontal

The idea here is to focus on the horizontal lines in your apartment to create a sense of movement. Like the leggy furniture that creates a sense of dynamism, or the mirrors that reflect light and view back into the room, anything that causes your eye to travel around a room in an intentional and orderly fashion will make it feel larger. I say “intentional and orderly” here because a cluttered room with lots of distracting elements will also cause your eye to travel, but in a haphazard fashion.

Clear a Pathway

When dealing with a small space, one naturally wants to maximize the space by pushing all the pieces to the edges. This can actually have the adverse effect of creating a hectic space and enhancing a claustrophobic feel. Sometimes it is better to group the furniture on one side of the room. This has two benefits. People can pass through your space uninhibited, and it helps create a sense of division among different areas of the room.

The tips and tricks listed here to optically increase the space in your studio have a similar bottom line to our previous article—you must be intentional about everything that goes in the room. Utilizing the advice provided in these two articles can make each and every one of The Edmund’s luxurious studio apartments look, feel, and live much larger than the square footage says.

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