Living Large in Small Spaces
Having a spacious home no longer requires having a large footprint…as long as you know how to maximize your square footage.
The Benefits of Compact Living
Bigger is not always better.
With oversized, difficult to furnish rooms, unused spaces and ever more costly energy requirements, exceedingly large homes – once popularized by builders and developers with pecuniary interests – are quickly becoming passé.
The latest European and contemporary design trends stress that petite is definitely in. Fresh, modern and environmentally conscious as a bonus - current home fashions are all about high style in uncomplicated, well appointed, small spaces. Craftsman bungalow plans, modest mountain homes and narrow lot urban retreats transform lofty real estate dreams into more affordable realities. The rising popularity of affordable cottage homes and truly fabulous contemporary house designs means that desirable neighborhoods and vacation homes are finally extending to less rarefied lifestyles.
Natural materials and sleek, minimalist finishes make efficient house plans personal, spacious, gloriously fashion-forward, and completely in vogue. Hip to the environment, smaller living spaces also require fewer utilities than larger homes and function with unparalleled use of space and energy-efficiency. With Efficient Living upgrades, a durable, sustainable, certified home will stand out as a masterpiece of its time.
Mixing the lower costs of building alongside incorporating all the ameneties of a larger home - our compact, extremely livable home plans offer the chance to be extravagent while maintaining your budget as well as pleasing your eco-conciousness.
Decorate for the size of your home
A smaller canvas requires keener focus, which is why some of the freshest and most eclectic designs can be found in compact homes. Decorating small spaces requires decisiveness and artistry; when furnishing small rooms we learn how to maximize available space and invent new ways to distinguish rooms with a few key, bold punctuations and room separations. Below are some suggestions and trends that help bring compact spaces up to style.
When considering a smaller room’s overarching design, we suggest thinking “cozy” rather than limited or cramped. Creating separate, intimate areas within the room – with dividing screens or well-positioned furniture pieces – affords the room with the livability and functionality of a larger space. Keeping the room clutter-free is vital: we suggest keeping your photos and knick-knacks on rotation and taking advantage of underutilized upper wall space. Go higher!
Furniture.
By carefully selecting one or two stunning, large-scale pieces (and keeping all other furniture in proportion to the size of the room), a small space can feel as stylish and complete as a larger one without overbearing its petite framework. Multi-functional furniture (with built-in storage) and glass-topped tables help make the space feel less crowded. Want to create the illusion of even more space? Mirrors open up a room; placing lighting pieces along the room’s perimeter helps draw the eye back.
Color
To make a small space feel larger, it’s best to avoid dramatic contrast in prints, styles and colors. Keeping colors on the lighter end of the spectrum helps establish an airy feel. If your color palate is exclusively light, we suggest taking the wall color onto the ceiling, which often allows a space to look taller and wider than it actually is.
Small homes need not feel unadorned. With a little spatial creativity and a few daring design choices, a modest space bears the potential to be even more stylish and more comfortable than a large room. In addition to the interior design challenges small rooms present, a smaller canvas means that compact space designs are often very thoughtful and sublimely unique.
