Furnishing a small flat: how to make room for personality

The classic advice for small homes is white walls, mirrors and as little as possible. Here's a different route: how to make room for colour and personality without the room becoming cluttered.

The myth that small has to be white

The advice is repeated so often it's become accepted as truth: small rooms must be painted white, or they'll feel cramped. But it's not the colour that makes a room feel cluttered — it's the number of objects and how little they have to do with each other. Ten different things in ten different shades create unease, whether they're white, beige or coloured.

Colour on a few, larger surfaces actually does the opposite of what you'd think. A coloured wall or a large rug in a clear colour gives the eye somewhere to land, while a collection of small, neutral things in the same room demands more attention than a single clear surface. Read more about it in Colourful decor: Against the boring white home.

Fewer and bigger things

The principle is simple: one big thing creates more calm than many small ones. The eye needs fewer stops to make sense of the room, and there's room for each individual thing to actually be seen.

• Swap five small vases for one big one — or choose small vases in the same colour, gathered in one spot instead of spread out.
• Swap a picture wall of lots of small frames for one big picture or one wall hanging.
• Swap three or four decorative objects on the same shelf for one that gets to stand on its own.

Use the height

In a small home, the walls are the space you have the most of, and which is usually left empty. Anything that can be moved from the floor and worktops up onto the wall frees up physical space and gives the room a lift at the same time.

• Væghvaser for flowers and branches without taking up worktop space — see also What is a wall vase?
• Wall hangings for colour and texture on a large surface
• Coat racks and knobs for jackets, bags and keys, so they're not lying around taking up space
• Wall decoration in general, see Wall decoration: How to style your walls

Hang things at eye level or above. It draws the eye up the wall, and the room feels taller than it is.

Things that do two jobs

In a small home, it's a bonus when an item does more than one job. It saves space, and it means you can have fewer things on display without compromising on function.

• Jars with lids for what doesn't need to be seen, but is fine to leave out
• Pot covers that hide a dull plastic pot while doubling as decoration
• Baskets and fold-up boxes that store and decorate at the same time — see Baskets and storage and Fold-up storage boxes
• A dish used for serving at the table and for storage the rest of the time

If you're renting

You don't have to drill to change a room. Picture rails and shelves can often be mounted at just a few points, and lightweight adhesive hooks hold jackets, bags and kitchen utensils without leaving marks on the wall.

The cheapest and most reversible trick is textiles. A rug, curtains or a wall hanging changes a room dramatically and takes five minutes to remove again when you move. Swap the ceiling lamp for floor or table lamps — it gives a softer light and makes the room feel less cold without you having to touch the electrics.

Zones rather than rooms

Not every home has room for more rooms, but it can definitely have more zones. A rug under the desk, a lamp marking a reading nook, or a group of items gathered on a shelf can do the same job as a wall — namely tell the eye where one function ends and another begins.

That's how you get a work corner in a corner of the living room, or a dining spot in a room that also has to work as a living space. The room changes character without you having moved a single wall.

Five tricks that don't work

Some advice gets given again and again, but rarely solves the problem it's meant to.

• Mirrors everywhere — they can add light, but they don't solve clutter, and too many just create visual noise
• Everything in white — it doesn't hide clutter, it just makes the mess obvious in a different colour
• Lots of small pieces of furniture instead of a few larger ones — more legs on the floor means more things for the eye to take in
• Storage that's so smart-looking you don't actually use it — so things end up out on display anyway, just in the wrong places
• Tucking everything away — the room becomes tidy, but also impersonal and lacking character

Summary

A small room doesn't become calmer from white walls, but from fewer and larger things and from moving storage and decoration up onto the wall. Objects with dual functions and zones marked with rugs or lamps solve more than the classic advice about mirrors and all-white. If you rent, textiles and light hanging solutions are the most reversible way to change a room. Together, these principles make room for colour and personality, even in a small home.

Read also

• Colourful decor: Against the boring white home
• Baskets and storage: Style and function in one
• Folding boxes for storage: Practical and pretty
• What is a wall vase? Definition and use
• How to hang posters
• How to hang a wall hanging