New York Today: How to Make a Small Apartment Feel Bigger

My tiny 1 BR walkup benefits from a loft bed, beneath which hangs my clothing, above several drawer units for folded things, all hidden behind a set of curtains matching those on the windows. This allows me to use the small built-in closet in the LR as a pantry/linen closet/home for the portable washer/spinner and collapsable laundry-drying rack. The LR includes a mirrored wall, in front of which is a small glass top dining table, with two chairs whose backs are see-through cutouts. A second, larger glass top is stored between the loft bed stairs and the wall, for when I have 2 or more dinner guests and require a larger table. I've mounted shelves above all the radiator units, draped in fabric to match the curtains, creating a display surface for knick-knacks in the LR, and for a vintage toaster, waffle iron, and scale in the kitchen, while hiding the ugly radiators beneath. And the Tetra countertop dishwasher by Heat Tech will complete my kitchen when it's released in December of 2018!

The print edition of this article has a photograph of a large kitchen that small apartment dwellers can only dream of...

Small spaces look small when they are small........even smaller when they are overpriced.

When I lived in San Francisco a friend of mine who lived in a tiny apartment in the Marina District had a floor scrubber she wanted to keep but had no closet or garage to put it in. So she cleverly, disguised it by putting it in its box with another small box on top, wrapping it all in a tight fitting white sheet, drawing a face on the top box, putting a chef's apron on it and a chef's hat on top and standing it in a kitchen corner. Cutest thing you ever saw!

I live in a 375 sf studio with bay window in an old (1880) tilting but sturdy brownstone in Washington Heights. I use F.L. Wright’s ideas: if it doesn’t serve a daily purpose don’t have it in the house. All furnishings are pushed against the walls and depth of any furniture but the bed is under 25”. There is always free space to walk around in, and though I have no hall, I cleared the whole entrance section for a more open expansive feel. Chinoiserie abounds, of course (how can it not?) but after eight years there is a unity and serenity that makes me live my home more now than when I first saw it, with its 7 wall niches, 4x5 ft. (!) kitchen, and two good closets. Color is everything, primary colors in small objects, everything else clay violet and white! My Dixie sleeps better without the chartreuse ceiling I tried once, and so do I.

"How to make a Small Apartment Feel Bigger". Visit Hong Kong.

Lucite: I have two Philippe Starck knock-off chairs at my dining table. They disappear unless someone is sitting on them. Also desk w/ lamp in my bedroom doubles as a bed-side table.

Two adults and two children in a 500 square foot studio sounds like a nightmare for the downstairs neighbor.

New York is an expensive joke. But it’s fun to visit from time to time.

I can't imagine Open Space and Airiness existing outside of one's head in a 500SF apartment with 2 kids and a spouse.

TOPSY-TURVY SAM Sam Carpenter, despite his name, Was a klutz and wood was not his game, So he took it as a deep affront That people could be cruelly blunt About his inability To meet the standards of carpentry. Vowing to prove no matter when No form of woodwork's beyond his ken, Sam lumbered to a junkyard nearby Intent on grabbing whatever he'd spy. This happened to be a decorative table, Mahogany, like a piece from a fable, Lust what he needed to prove to all That woodwise he was on the ball. He worked on the top with plane and chisel Until it appeared clean as a whistle And after twenty hours or so He examined his handiwork with a glow. He'd show those nincompoops who brayed, He'd demonstrate he deserved a parade! Et voilà! Here was a table no more-- Sam turned it into a toilet door

Mirrors are a good idea or art posters of windows. For example Dali’s Girl at the Window.

White walls and light is the key... and avoid drapes.

My trick is to live in a city where I don't have to live like a college freshman.

No skirted sofas? But then you lose all of that under-the-sofa storage space. I have an enormous amount of stuff stored there.

Rodney Dangerfield had the joke about how to look thin: hang around with obese people (he used a more derogatory term than obese). So way to make your apartment feel bigger: hang around with those people who live in a crawlspace. Suddenly your small apartment will seem like a mansion. And it won't cost any money.

A mirror will make a room appear larger. Look at them shine!

Less clutter makes space feel more spacious.

I created a sense of depth in my kitchen with a full wall image of the Swiss Alps printed on fabric. It is calming and tricks the brains into thinking the space is larger. I am about to put lights behind it to create another light source. I use a lot of mirrors as well.

I forgot a tip: Go for “warm white” light color temperatures in bedroom and living areas. This color most closely resembles incandescent lights and has a yellowish hue that best complements most complexions and is easier on the eyes for long periods. Choose “daylight white” in utilitarian areas like the bathroom, kitchen, or on desks. This color most closely resembles outdoor light or fluorescent lights of an office. If you want to splurge, do a combo of both in the bathroom. When doing hair, shaving, or makeup, this broader spectrum will give you the best representation of what you’ll actually look like outside in a variety of lighting situations. Use LEDS...cause 2018.

A small bathroom looks and feels bigger to me when I use a transparent so-called shower curtain liner as the shower curtain. Many apartment bathrooms don't have lighting in the bathtub/shower itself so adequate lighting is another advantage of the transparency. Also they are very cheap.

My small space tips: 1. Create zones. Even in a tiny studio, you can and should do yourself a favor by creating some sense of separation between eating, reading/tv, and bedroom areas. Carpets, changes in texture or color (I like switching up metals), or furniture/shelves can all be used to create partitions. You can use actual partitions or curtains, but I suggest adding only elements that have necessary, practical application in small spaces. Plants and lighting can also do this. Think about hotel rooms for inspiration. 2. Wall planters are your best friend. Plants bring a sense of wonder and refreshment to spaces. But they often take up a lot of floor or counter space. Invest in a good, big wall planter that adds to your design schemes. The cheap ones will do, but be careful: in a small space, it’ll be seen regularly, get a lot of handling, and any imperfections can detract from the beauty of the plants. 3. LED Backlighting. Under the kitchen counter cabinets, behind bathroom mirrors, and more. You can give your space a quick facelift that will provide a luxurious feel while also reducing use of floor/counter space for lamps. Likewise, a dynamic lighting arrangement can be used to enhance a sense of “zones,” and add ambience.

We helped each of our kids with a variety of small living spaces and two parents each downsize into assisted living. The things we found made small living spaces most livable were these: --Mirrors. Big mirrors not only magnified the space, they magnified the outside light. There is scarcely anything that makes a small space feel smaller than being dark. --Floor-to-ceiling draperies mounted wide. Full-length neutral draperies not only softened the space, if mounted at the ceiling regardless the height of the windows they made the rooms look taller and more spacious. If mounted wider than the windows themselves they made the room look wider, and also let in more light when the draperies were open. Semi-sheer fabrics often provided enough privacy while letting in much more light. --Anything that drew your eye up. Large vertical artworks gave small rooms presence and made the ceilings look higher. Extra tall bookcases and armoires did the same and provided more storage at the same time. --IKEA. IKEA's showroom was filled with ingenious ideas for the efficient use of small spaces and even included mock-ups of apartments of 300, 600, 900 and 1200 square feet. We bought floor-to-ceiling natural-fiber draperies there for next-to-nothing. And lots of hide-the-clutter wall mounted cabinets that were modular and could be reconfigured when our loved ones moved into something marginally larger. Of course everything had to be hemmed or assembled--but only the first time.

My condominium does not meet small by New York standards. However, I have lived in my condo of 800 ft.² for 11 years and have learned a thing or two. Fortunately I have high ceilings so I commissioned someone to build me a bookshelf. I am not getting rid of all my books as they bring me comfort and warm a room. But I wanted to create something that gave me storage space for my books and also helped me solve another problem. The bottom three shelves are for books, the middle and higher shelf is for the TV and DVDs, the shelf above it contains audio components and the very top area is a closed cupboard. I purchased a ladder at IKEA and it hangs on the end of the unit. It is the only way I can reach the top cupboard where I store Christmas decor. I confess I stole the idea from a garage apartment where I lived before. Vertical storage was essential in that 400 square-foot apartment.

Trying to make the sensible advice easier to remember. Some of it at first feels counterintuitive, but it must be tried and true, if this is what the experts do for a living! Tune of "Off The Wall" (Michael Jackson classic on making life better) When our shoes are in the crisper When the oven’s where we store our socks and ties, When our friends drop by and whisper “God it’s such a dump, we can’t believe our eyes.” Since we’re apartment people, we assume All our stuff looks fine here in this room Great advice: If you share or have the space all to yourself, Go on, put up a shelf. Don’t have to move - If your standing units leave no room for you That junk’s not bad at all, Mounted on the wall Junk won’t look bad at all (Keep it off the floor) Put your stuff on the wall (Get it off the floor) -- (repeat chorus)

Mirror a wall! We have done it in two rooms and it creates an infinitely more open impression of that rooms space. Saved me from claustrophobia in both my tiny office and the bedroom.

Vacuum sealer bags to store out if season clothes, especially the hanging ones. Bulky winter coats can easily be shrunken down to take up a fraction of the space. Bed Box springs that come with storage built into them. Collapsible wall mounted desks that can go flat against the wall when not in use.

A recently found trick for feeling less closed in: $25 worth of colorful office-size folders. When storage space down the block became too pricy (it had gone from the bargain $60 a month to an intrusive $275 in under a decade), we brought everything to the apartment with no real plan. What I did as a key first step is put years of papers and put it all in colorful folders, and it helped. The papers had always been pretty organized to me, as I generally knew pretty much what was in what pile, even when they just looked like messy disorganized loose papers to others. Now they look more logical. (I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t reliably trust saving papers to a disk, after three back-up disks just could not be read after a couple of years, so I was glad I still hadn’t dumped the originals.) Now stuff still needs to be thrown out. But little by little...

Finally! A writer who acknowledges that convertible furniture may not be the answer for everyone! I'd rather pare back than have to unfold, refold and/or store and not everyday.

Edit, edit, edit. Declutter, declutter, declutter. Having a small studio demands as much. I lived in 300sq” studio on 17th St in DC mid-90s and that’s where I leaned that there’s virtue in drastically paring down.

Sometimes an apartment is so small that very little will assist. When Emily and I married in August 1968 (I was eighteen, she twenty-two) we had a basement apartment on Coney Island Avenue in Sheepshead Bay (dinners at Big Daddy's). It consisted of a walkway that served as a kitchen, and a single room used for sleeping and sitting to watch TV. One closet. The landlord lived upstairs with his wife and opera singing daughter. Fifty years later we still cringe remembering us having to turn sideways when the other wanted to walk past. No furniture arrangement would have assisted, and only newlyweds could have been okay with the place. I wonder if it is still rented out today?

Gate leg tables. The most surface for the least floor space. Ikea usually has one in light "wood". Table runners change the appearance when you move or for differing seasonal lighting.

Ghost furniture is perfect for a small space because you can see right through it. Creates less visual blockading of your space.