The Best Ways to Furnish a Small Living Space

The narrative is that Americans like everything big—our cheeseburgers, our SUVs, and, of course, our homes. But the fact is apartments have been getting smaller, dropping from an average of 941 square feet in 2012 to an average of just 887 square feet today. That’s 54 fewer square feet, or the loss of one whole small room from our lives. And it’s not just apartments—new houses have shrunk by 13% since 2015.

Whether you’re house-hunting or scrambling to afford an apartment, chances are you’re finding smaller spaces to cram your whole life into, an experience made more complicated by the rise of work-from-home arrangements. One of the biggest challenges to a small space is furnishing: If you’ve only got a few hundred square feet to work with, how do you get a comfortable bedroom, living room, home office, and dining area set up without resorting to child-sized everything? The keys are simple: Keep your floors clear, and double up on the purpose of every item you can.

Clear the decks

Small spaces need to be versatile. Every room has to pull double- or triple-duty; your bedroom must also be your office, your living room must also be where the dinner parties are hosted—and probably your home gym, as well. Clutter negatively impacts our mental health—and it’s worse when we’re living in the clutter. The key to making a small space work is keeping as much stuff off the floors as possible:

• Wall storage. Instead of piles of stuff on the floor, elevate it with wall shelving, hooks, and other vertical storage. Add built-ins if you can; shelving and storage built into walls keep your space clear and recesses it so you have less intrusion into the living space.
• Foldable furniture. Furniture that mounts to the wall and folds away is crucial because it allows you to transform the space in seconds and keeps your floor space clear. Dining tables, desks, and folding chairs or wall-mounted chairs vanish when not needed but can be deployed in seconds.
• Wall-mounted lighting. Having floor lamps everywhere clutters up a space. Moving your lighting to the walls eliminates the tangle of power cords and gives you more floor space to work with.

Finally, instead of trying to divide your small space into even tinier dedicated spaces for an office, dining, and other activities, try to remove as many dividers as possible to open up the space. When everything is stowed and folded away, the space will feel larger and brighter without sacrificing utility.

Double duty

The second key to furnishing a small space is to look for furniture that can serve double duty:

• Storage. Look for beds, sofas, ottomans, and other pieces that double as storage. You have to sit on something, after all, so why not cram it full of your stuff?
• Multipurpose. Furniture that offers more than one use allows you to reduce the number of pieces you’re trying to fit into a small space. For example, an extendable C-table can be a side table for your couch, a dining space, and an office desk all in one. You can also use an ottoman as a coffee table simply by placing a topper tray on it, getting three uses out of one piece if it also has storage.