GETTING YOUR SMALL SPACE SORTED
Combine comfort and functionality with a little bit of imagination and innovation
If you're currently living (and working) in a small space, you're not alone. It's the norm for many these days, with property and rental prices being what they are — not to mention the pandemic's disruptive impacts on traditional places of work.
The good news is, with some innovative home design, you can be comfortable and functional in small digs, says interior designer Tiffany Leigh of Tiffany Leigh Design. Leigh would know: she lives in a 700-square-foot apartment with her husband in downtown Toronto.
“I definitely understand how to maximize small spaces,” she says.
The first thing to do is assess any problem areas in your home, says Leigh, such as space by the front door where your coats and shoes pile up, overstuffed closets, or paper where it shouldn't be.
The next step, Leigh says, is to use your home's vertical spaces — go up as much as possible.
“Take the cabinets all the way to the ceiling, or utilize the space above cabinets. If you don't have the budget to renovate, you can use baskets for off-seasons items,” she says.
Leigh says she has wall-to-wall shelves in her home office, where she and her husband store accessories and files.
This year, with both of them working from home, Leigh says they decided to turn their small den into a fully functioning office space. They added a long workbench, with room for two people to sit and work, and installed two large Ikea Pax units, where they store office supplies, some pantry items (their kitchen is small), and some off-season clothing, Leigh says.
“They hide the things we don't have closet space for, here in the condo,” she says.
If you're living in a small space, don't forget about under-bed storage. There are some beautiful beds on the market that have storage components. And with closet space being at a premium, Leigh says she stores clothes they're not currently wearing under the bed.
The other area of her apartment she tackled this year is her small balcony.
“I wanted to maximize our outdoor space,” she says, noting the impacts of COVID-19 on social gatherings. “It's only about five feet by 12 feet, but I was able to create an outdoor seating zone. There's a little eating area and a small bar cart that I used to plant a small garden.”
Rethinking how you're using the rooms in your home can often free up a lot of space, says Vancouver interior designer Gillian Segal of Gillian Segal Design.
It used to be that people had a casual breakfast nook, a formal dining room and a separate living area, but some of these rooms can go relatively unused. If you open things up and have one dining area that's used by everyone all the time, that allows for other living areas to be used as office space or room for kids to play.
Segal advises her clients to buy appropriately sized furniture when they are furnishing small spaces.
“Everyone wants a big sectional, but often in a small space, they're not the best choice because they kind of consume the entire area. Look for furniture that's appropriately scaled to the room. If you're in a small area, don't put two massive occasional chairs, but something with a smaller footprint,” she says.
Segal adds that people often select a sectional because they're looking for maximum comfort and seating. She says the truth is, it's not the size of the furniture, but the design and materials that make a sofa comfortable.
She recommends choosing pillows with some down component. And even with a large sectional, she says, you never really get more than three adults sitting there at once. Instead, Segal recommends a three-seater and two occasional chairs.
“It makes the space feel bigger because you have more pieces, rather than one massive piece of upholstery eating up your whole room.
“You're able to comfortably seat five people, and each person feels like they have a little bit of breathing room, and you're not squished into an awkward sectional corner between two others,” she says.