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The woman who helped usher the interior design industry into full flower in the United States was prolific in putting out ideas that will help freshen up today's interior design business. Look at our latest Designer Monthly, Interior Design: Look Forward by Looking Back to Dorothy Draper.

Did you ever have a problem designing small spaces?  Take a look at how top interior designers solved this common problem in our latest Designer Monthly, How to Design Small Spaces at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House.

 

 

 

Wednesday
Jan302013

Designing for Small Spaces

(Bacall settee from One Kings Lane)Small spaces are challenging to decorate not just for homeowners but also for designers as well.  But I’ve always found that you can come up with the most interesting solutions without sacrificing style or comfort. It just requires an adjustment in scale and how you shop for furniture. 

First, eliminate those visions of sectionals and oversized couches.  While they’re great to lounge around on, they’re really meant for lofts or large houses. Instead envision settees, loveseats or sofas that are smaller in scale such as those here. Above is the Bacall settee, only 50” wide, great for those small living rooms.   

(Prescott coffee table from the Foundary) (Prescott table from the Foundary)Second, you should find furniture that does double duty or even triple duty.  For instance, the Prescott coffee table above has pull-out seating that also hides storage.  When not in use, the ottomans hide under the coffee table to become one compact piece. The Avery bed from Room and Board is a lovely platform bed with a hideaway drawer underneath to store away those thick comforters and extra sheets.

(Avery Bed from Room and Board)Another way to furnish a tight space is to lift the furniture off the floor and have them hang on the wall. If you need a desk, take a look at Prepac's floating wall desk.  With the advent of flat screens or laptops, you don’t need as much desk top. 

(Floating desk from Prepac)Also look out for furniture that can expand and contract to a small footprint.  The Span Gateleg dining table from Crate and Barrel is a great example of expanding furniture. When folded partially, you can use it as a desk and when you unfold it, you have a dining table for four people. It also folds completely to a small case that can be stored away if you don't need it.

 (Span Gateleg Dining table from Crate and Barrel)

 

Interested in learning more about space planning? Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design. At Sheffield, you'll learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.

Reader Comments (83)

Thanks for sharing this. I love the designs.-Dave
Many Law firms schools in India are teaching the students who all came to study the law like barandbench. They are learning legal cases how to face it and before the lawyer they should know about all the cases. The Lawyers should face many cases like legal and illegal cases.
May 6, 2014 | Unregistered Commenterbarandbench
goooood sofa

best article

Thank you for the important information

Worded Balhtravih

I hope to visit my site
May 8, 2014 | Unregistered Commentersofa orange
very nice article, and my inspirated day
May 9, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterMebel Jepara
I really liked the way you showed us how to organize the furniture.
loja de moveis
May 11, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJoel
World Level Education Providing only Trio World School in Bangalore.
May 13, 2014 | Unregistered Commentertrioworldschool
Rapid Office Furniture are one of the UK’s leading office furniture suppliers and installers delivering a range of office furniture solutions combined with expert advice and support for all your business office furniture needs.

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May 14, 2014 | Unregistered Commenteroffice furniture
These are some nice furniture ideas and I really like the computer room design a lot
May 17, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterRaffi Madison
Great ideas for small spaces. And nowdays, with city people living on apartments instead of big houses, the space optimization is a must.

Also joining living spaces with small offices for people to work on the laptop is a must for a living room.

I say this because at our company ( http://www.msjorge.com ) we see every day an increase of request for smaller furniture.
May 22, 2014 | Unregistered Commenterdoliveira
Decorating a small space is quite difficult as mentioned, but selecting colors in neutral tones will help. Having a natural light source in a space will also make the decorating task easier
May 28, 2014 | Unregistered Commenternafi
Great for small spaces allowing you to hang everything you can image on any wall in garage
http://www.myposterama.com/
May 29, 2014 | Unregistered Commentermyposterama
The dining table is great most people use very large dinning table making a lot of empty spaces on the table. Something like this would be perfect for a house with 6 people
May 29, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterGery
thanks for this cool article
June 2, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAlex
furniture is great....!!!!
I just wanna say thank you for your article because this article was very useful and helped me to learn.
June 12, 2014 | Unregistered Commenteralmaira
I really like the idea of lifting the furniture and putting it on the wall. We are working with a client right now and the space in the office is limited. I'm going to suggest a wall desk. It looks really cool.
June 18, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterForemost Interiors
usefull informations, I will trying for my new home :)
Nice topic, very informative... thanks...
http://www.hidayahfurniture.com
June 23, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterHidayah
wow awesome!! this design. Good. I like. thanks. http://pycacarair.blogspot.com
June 23, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterHasan Sadikin
wow awesome!! this design. Good. I like. thanks. http://pycacarair.blogspot.com
June 23, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterHasan Sadikin

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