Tag Archives: small spaces

How to make your compact home seem bigger

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With urban spaces shrinking, compact homes are integral to city life. Even with restricted square footage, these abodes can offer ample opportunities to improve functionality by using every square inch of available space. With clever planning, one can enhance the sense of openness and prevent the space from looking cramped and claustrophobic. The most significant advantage of compact spaces is that they are easy to clean and can transform into a cozy zen retreat ideal for relaxation. Here is how you can trick the eye and live large within the limited square footage of space.

Consider Scale And Proportion

The scale of the furniture should be as per the size of the room. When selecting your furniture, do not go for oversized options, as bulky pieces of furniture look visually heavy and take up too much precious floor space. Instead, go for sleek and refined pieces of furniture with a limited footprint in lighter wood tones and natural finishes. Note that the space might appear smaller if you place the furniture against the walls. Keep some air between the furniture and the walls for a roomier look.

Designer: Homes To Love

Invest In Low-height Furniture

Choose furniture that sits close to the ground with exposed legs, allowing light, air, and space to flow around it and making the room feel more open. Another advantage is that the vacant space below the furniture can be strategically used for additional storage and keeping the clutter out of view. Some of the short pieces of furniture include ottomans, armless chairs, and low tables, to name a few. Instead of a plain design, choose pieces with intricate details, interesting curves, tufting, etc.

Tip: Invest in see-through furniture, such as a glass coffee table or desk. Clear furniture helps to make compact spaces feel more open and doubly function as a unique design element.

Designer: Daniel House Club

Add A Mirror

A mirror has the potential to open up the space as it allows the light to bounce. It is perfect for any room that lacks a window. Install a mirror on the wall, on the sliding shutters of the closet, or simply place an oversized mirror against the wall to create the illusion of depth. A well-positioned mirror reflects natural and artificial light and makes the space brighter during the day and night. If the mirror is placed opposite to a window, it amplifies the daylight, doubles the outdoor views, and creates a beautiful connection with the outdoor world.

Designer: LVSOMT

Use Breezy Fabrics

Avoid using heavy-weight materials and fabrics for the upholstery as they tend to absorb light. Instead, consider solid colors or printed patterns in a soft and subdued shape. Linen is one of the best materials that offers a sophisticated and timeless look. Dress the windows in lightweight mesh, cloth blinds, or sheer curtains that allow the light to pass. Complement the space with an accent piece of furniture that adds a pop of color and instantly lifts the space. Consider hanging curtains from the ceiling instead of the window frame to make the ceiling look taller.

Designer: Design Public

Go For A Cohesive Colors Scheme

One must coordinate the walls, furniture, and accessories with a cohesive color scheme when designing a small space. Also, paint the baseboard and trims the same color as the walls and ceiling. White walls and ceilings create a continuous space without boundaries, making the room appear tall, bright, and airy. However, an all-white space might look sterile, so add warmth with wood and introduce tone-on-tone colors in the woven upholstery, textured walls, and rugs. In addition, a combination of light and dark accent colors creates depth and the illusion of a larger space. Some colors best suited for compact areas include off-white, sage green, light blue, and gray.

Tip: Dark colors tend to recede, so a dark wall looks further away than it is and creates the illusion of a more extended space.

Designer: Albion Nord

Incorporate Stripes

A low-ceiling room can appear taller with vertical wall paneling or wallpaper with vertical striped patterns. Horizontal stripes on the narrow wall can make the space look wider. This is a great way to enhance the feeling of movement and flow. Select colors that go with the colors of the walls and upholstery.

Designer: Russell Loughlan

Clear Walkways

Move the furniture from the walkways so that it is clear and no one bumps into any furniture. As the longest line of any room is diagonal, you can place the furniture at an angle to create the illusion of a longer space.

Keep It Simple

In a compact pace, too much furniture and accessories might impart a cluttered and claustrophobic look. So let the walls breathe and decorate the space with just one or two large pieces of art. However, if there are some small pieces of art, then place them on a single wall. Finally, decorate the space with a few large and simple accessories. Sumptuous textures like sheepskin rugs, wool carpets, and velvet throws can keep the area cozy.

Designer: Bobby Berk

Get Rid Of Clutter

Keeping the surfaces clean as a tidy and orderly space always feels open and spacious and positively impacts the visual size of the room. Manage everyday clutter and periodically organize the cabinets, closets, or any other space that feels too full. Small knick-knacks can create a cluttered look and make the space feel more compact. So, limiting the décor to 3 or 5 items is suggested when styling vignettes on dining tables, dressers, or coffee tables. Neatly store and organize things on bookshelves, within cabinets, recessed niches, or behind table skirts. Do not forget to invest in vertical storage, which takes the smallest footprint.

Designer: Black and Milk

Introduce Creative Lighting

A combination of natural and artificial lighting can make the space look larger and brighter. Make it a point to keep the windows open to bring in plenty of natural light. Note that multiple light sources expand the space and are perfect for areas devoid of natural light. Create a layered lighting scheme with an overhead pendant light with dimmable control. Beautify the space with wall lights that emit soft lighting. It draws the eye upwards and adds extra height to the room. A combination of floor and table lamps offers task lighting and evenly spreads the light around the room.

Designer: Vale G

Create A Focal Point

Make it a point to introduce a focal point or a star attraction that will draw the eye toward it. For example, introduce a fireplace, a statement chandelier, a console unit, a large piece of art, or a large window with panoramic views that can transform into a star attraction.

Designer: Matt and Jess (The Brain and the Brawn)

Go For Multifunctional Furniture

Sneak more storage into the space with multifunctional pieces of furniture that look aesthetically pleasing and save space. For example, incorporate built-in storage solutions with a sofa bed, a storage bed, or an ottoman with storage that can hide the clutter. With careful planning, the windows can be multifunctional too. For instance, design your window as a cozy reading with plenty of under-bench storage.

Designer: Good Idea Trade

‘Less is more,’ and using minimal elements is a brilliant solution to make the most of limited square footage. With little imagination, you can quickly transform a compact home into a stylish, functional, and comfortable space.

The post How to make your compact home seem bigger first appeared on Yanko Design.

This vacuum cleaner designed for small spaces breaks down into 4 parts to save storage space!

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H5 is a multifunctional vacuum cleaner designed for small spaces that can break down into four parts that fit into a compact charging bin for easy storage.

While living tiny is all the rage nowadays, it takes some skill to keep small city spaces clean. Especially when you live in an old apartment building or with pets, vacuuming becomes a daily chore. While vacuuming small spaces goes by quickly, storing a bulky vacuum cleaner becomes a nuisance just as quickly. To keep small spaces clean without the pain of storing big cleaning appliances, industrial designer Yipeng Zhu ideated a space-saving multifunctional vacuum cleaner called H5 that shrinks down to almost a ⅓ of its height.

H5 keeps an overall slim build when assembled and when disassembled so it doesn’t take up too much space in storage. When disassembled, H5 breaks down into four parts and fits into one charging case that can easily slip away behind any table or into the closet to free up floor space.

When users would like to use the vacuum, putting H5 together comes just as easily as putting together any other vacuum. The main pipe connects via telescopic tubing where the vacuum head also easily attaches.  Equipped with modular parts, H5 comes with three different vacuum heads that can be switched out for various cleaning needs.

A cylindrical brush is ideal for cleaning up dustballs and stubborn carpet stains. While the other two rectangular heads come in two different sizes to fit into tight corners and behind doors. Even the hose and pipe of H5 take on a narrow, cylindrical build to ensure it can fit underneath the bed and even under the refrigerator to pick up the dust that’s harder to reach with traditional, bulky vacuums.

A solid collection of electrical cleaning appliances is essential for tiny living spaces–especially when you reside in a big city. However, the majority of most electrical appliances are designed for large homes, prioritizing the small technical details over versatility and portability.

H5 is a vacuum cleaner that can tuck away into the smallest of crawlspaces (or literally wherever there’s room) when not in use and whose small assembled size allows it to get to the hardest-to-reach corners of your apartment when cleaning.

Designer: Yipeng Zhu

Intuitive controls and signals outfit H5’s entire build. 

H5 comes with three different brush heads to ensure the ideal tool for each cleaning job. 

The compact charging case is small enough to tuck away into any corner or closet. 

Shrinking down to what seems like a 1/3 of H5’s assembled height, the charging case is an ultimate space-saver. 

This bilevel tiny cabin comes with a 100-square-foot floor plan that cost only $10.5K to construct!

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Nido is a tiny cabin with a 100-square-foot floor plan to meet Finland’s zoning laws that do not require a building permit for houses with a floor plan between 96 and 128 square feet.

In recent years, designers and architects have interpreted the tiny cabin in countless ways. Depending on the location, building material, and layout chosen by the architects, each tiny home can serve a different purpose and take on its own unique look. Robin Falck, a Helsinki bred and born designer, let Finland’s generous building permit parameters guide his latest project, a tiny cabin called Nido.

In Finland, homes with a 96 to 128-square-foot floor plan do not require a building permit, which opened the door for Falck to construct his very own “compact getaway” deep in the woods of Sipoo. In building Nido, Falck maintained a sub-100 square-foot floor area and took to local recycled building materials to construct his tiny cabin. Working with such a modest floor plan and recycled building materials made the entire undertaking a lot more affordable, clocking in at just around $10,500. Falck was also able to champion the home’s construction work on his own, only needing an extra set of hands for carpentry work on a window and door frame.

The cabin comprises two levels and keeps a low profile exterior, with unstained wooden siding and white painted frame elements that tie the cabin together with a touch of elegant simplicity. A bare ramp walkway composed of wooden planks leads to the tiny cabin’s entrance and connects to the cabin’s side deck. Inside, angled, expansive windows drench both floors with natural sunlight and compliment the home’s natural wooden interior and soft hues of the Nordic-inspired color scheme found throughout the cabin.

A micro-kitchen and living area fill out the cabin’s first floor, while the second floor keeps the bedroom and extra storage space. Meaning “bird’s nest” in Italian, Nido is the ideal cabin getaway for the snowbird in each of us who just wants to get away from it all and hide out in the woods.

Designer: Robin Falck

The tiny cabin’s side deck merges with the house’s unstained wooden exterior, creating a seamless look.

Robin Falck describes his approach to design as, “tactile, simple, and strives to tidy things up as elegantly as possible.”

The interior’s Nordic-inspired color scheme is brightened by the natural sunlight that pours in from the home’s large windows.

A micro-kitchen and living area comprise the first floor, while the second floor is dedicated to the bedroom.

Falck constructed Nido on his own, only requiring extra help for the windows and door frame.

This transforming robotic furniture going from bed to home office desk is the 2021 investment we need!

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This past year has seen some pretty innovative work from home office solutions. Space-saving answers to tight office corners like desk setups that double as workout stations and retractable office cubicles that lean on a modular design to keep your living spaces decluttered only just scrape the surface of what we’ve seen thus far. Sustainable furniture design studio Ori adds a WFH apparatus called the Cloud Bed to the mix, merging an office and desk setup with a cantilevered lofted bed that descends to the floor to really hone in the mutability of working from home.

In its initial form, the Cloud Bed features a working desk and table beneath a lofted bed. Built for hospitality interiors and personal spaces, this space-saving work from home solution was designed to cover a small footprint inside the home. UL certified to ensure the bed remains lofted and close to the ceiling during working hours, the desk area folds into itself, merging with the floor as the bed descends from its raised position. While it might be tempting to hop up to the top of the bunk bed and sleep from such a high height, the Cloud Bed, Table Edition comes equipped with an internal mechanism that lowers the bed to the floor once the workday is done. With the push of a button, the mattress and wooden bed frame lower down from its elevated post in time with the desk folding inwards toward the floor. Requiring a minimum ceiling height of eight feet, six inches, the Ori Cloud Bed was designed to be integrated into smaller living spaces to make the most out of the space we have for working from home.

No one likes working in the same room we sleep in, let alone eat in. Without losing any living space, the Cloud Bed can come in either Queen or King sizes with a built-in table that sits up to five people. The Cloud Bed, Table Edition also comes outfitted with storage space, three outlets, voice and phone controls, as well as dimmable LED lights.

Designer: Ori

Presenting as an office desk for the home, Ori’s Cloud Bed doubles as a WFH solution and cantilevered bed.

Once the bed is lowered down, no trace of the office desk can be found.

Raised above the desk, the lofted bed requires a minimum height of 8’6″.

Designed as a hospitality and space-saving solution, the Ori Cloud Bed can fit into hotels as well as office spaces.

The Ori Cloud Bed appears as a contemporary, Scandinavian-inspired bed frame when lowered down.

When the Cloud Bed is raised to its top height, the integrated desk can sit up to five people.

Integrated motors and internal monitor systems ensure the steady descent and ascent of the Cloud Bed.

This tiny home panelled in corrugated steel was built in ode to Tokyo’s ever-changing cityscape!

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Tokyo is a city known for mixing the old with the new– architectural relics still stand planted where they’ve been since they were built centuries ago, while ultramodern skyscrapers and towers bloom between temples and the cracks of ancient pavement. Tokyo is as resilient and ever-changing as ever a city can be. An ode to Tokyo’s multifarious and evolving landscape, Unemori Architects constructed House Tokyo, a 50m2 tiny home stationed in a narrow alleyway.

The house was built with an aboveground main floor and lower basement stationed one meter beneath the ground. The home’s simple floor plan keeps the bedroom and bathroom areas in the semi-basement, while the main floor opens up to the dining room and living areas, implementing high ceilings due to the extra headroom granted by embedding the basement beneath ground level. With such a large internal volume, the tiny home located in Tokyo’s side alleyways packs high ceilings that span from 1.9 meters to 4.7 meters in height.

Punctuating the uneven cubic roof levels are large windows that work to augment the home’s overall living space, providing views of both the open sky as well as the bustling city streets. Constructed from wood, House Tokyo features corrugated steel paneling on its exterior that gives the home a distinguishable industrial look. Inside, sunlight pours into the home through its many windows and brightens up House Tokyo’s interior walls made up of different finishes and coats.

Home to a couple of 40-year-old city workers, House Tokyo was built as a temporary abode to accommodate the pair before they return to the countryside where they will rejoin their parents in rural living. In Tokyo, the couple enjoys their city lifestyle, frequenting the public bathhouse and restaurants often. To grant access to Tokyo’s most urban wonders, Unemori Architects constructed House Tokyo to be both open and compact, designing the house for the couple to take full advantage of the city life before returning to the countryside.

Designer: UNEMORI Architects

Wrapped in corrugated steel panels, House Tokyo exhibits a distinguishable industrial look.

Inside, sunlight bounces off natural wood accents and off-white plastered walls.

Large windows and warm tiled floors complement the sophisticated minimal interior design.

The main floor above House Tokyo’s semi-basement keeps the home’s dining and cooking areas.

Multileveled roofs grant access to different terraces throughout the home that grants access to skylights and city views.

Downstairs in the semi-basement, the home’s residents can find the bathroom and laundry facilities.

Positioned right outside the basement’s bathroom and laundry facilities, the couple can find their main bedroom.

Make meal prep hassle-free again with this space-saving cutting board!

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One of the biggest lifestyle changes for me was meal prep, it eliminates the fuss of deciding what to cook every day and made grocery shopping so much easier. One of the best parts was I didn’t have to order out when I was at work and it made me realize how quickly “But it is just $12!” adds up when you practically do it every other day. Seems like everyone was riding this meal prep wave till we were hit with WFH and that sudden change the pandemic brought on derailed the most disciplined people. For me, I stopped meal prep because I was adjusting to working from home and doing chores at the same time. So I started snacking throughout the day instead of cooking a meal because who wants to clean after a perpetual Monday (that is what it feels like in quarantine)? Enter TidyBoard! It is not wearing a cape but it is here to make your life easier and get your good eating habits back on track!

TidyBoard was designed to encourage healthy eating and turn it into a sustainable lifestyle change instead of a trend (looking at you, juice cleanse!). It streamlines your prep with strategically placed strainers, catches, and containers on the end of the cutting board so there is more to eat and less to clean. It keeps food and scraps separate and allows you to strain hands-free. When you are done with the chopping and cutting, one swipe of your hand will clear it all. TidyBoard is constructed from bamboo which is antibacterial and durable enough to last for years making the wear and tear worth the effort. Bamboo also makes it lightweight and eco-friendly. “The TidyBoard was mindfully influenced by math and physics. Our board is engineered as a lever to stay steady even with a heavy load in the containers,” says the team.

The product is calculatingly made to optimize your counter space and the collapsible containers make it super easy to prep and store. It can hang off the edge of your sink which actually makes you use less of your countertop for prep and you don’t have to worry about losing precious produce or fresh pasta to your sink! The cutting board acts as a lever to help hold the weight of the catch – it can hold up to 9 lbs of food in its container while hanging off your counter (do you even lift?). The BPA-free Food Grade silicone containers are made collapsible to save 50% of drawer/cabinet space which makes it perfect for small kitchens or homes that don’t have a lot of storage. The large catch and containers have volumetric and measuring marks to aid you in your prep so that you are never short on a meal because of wrong calculations! The collapsible strainers are nestled into the end of the board for cleaning or straining hands-free. The kit includes snap-on lids so you can store them in the containers right after prep. The lids also have a vent which makes it easy to microwave so you can store and eat from the same container.

Gordon Ramsey will be very pleased with your kitchen work ethic because TidyBoard keeps it clean and clutter-free. Say goodbye to chaotic cooking and welcome spick and span prep…something Monica Geller would say and we would absolutely agree with her! So prep ingredients without any stress, strain pasta, store cuttings, soak fruits and veggies, compost scraps, and serve up a whole cheese platter too if you feel like! It is hard enough to sanitize everything all the time, work from home, do all chores, so the last thing you should have to worry about is your meals and cleaning up after you cook. Bon appetit!

Designer: TidyBoard

Click Here to Buy Now: $79 $99 (20% off). Hurry, only 3/3620 left, under 48 hours to go! Raised over $568,325!

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Click Here to Buy Now: $79 $99 (20% off). Hurry, only 3/3620 left, under 48 hours to go! Raised over $568,325!

This R2-D2 like personal refrigerator can stock 60 soda cans!

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If you live with roommates or siblings then at some point you will really appreciate having a personal refrigerator during this lockdown and it doesn’t hurt if the appliance looks like a modern version of R2-D2. Silo is a personal refrigerator that solves two of its predecessor’s biggest issues – either they take too much ‘personal space’ or they can’t hold enough of your stuff and this is no time to be judged on your snack stock.

This personal fridge is both, beauty and brains if I have to put it in the simplest terms. Even if you find a good enough mini-fridge, it will not look as cool as Silo with its sleek curves and minimal design. For its size, you will be surprised how much it can store in its 3 Lazy Susan shelves – 2 tubs of ice-cream on the first level, 36 soda cans on the second level and 15 wine bottles on the third level. It also has an in-built ice-maker that empty’s into a stainless steel bucket that can be used to keep your drinks cool when we are allowed to have gatherings like summer barbeque parties again! Silo gives us something to look forward to while making our time indoors equally happy.

Silo’s physical form radiates a joyful emotion about the product and makes you truly connect with it. The fridge itself is only 30 inches tall, which means it is tinier than R2-D2. The lights at the top and bottom diffuse effortlessly to add a touch of luxury to your surroundings. I am going to call this an essential appliance now. Silo’s cylindrical build optimizes space and storage for small living set-ups like New York apartments or college dorms. Silo fits seamlessly in any interior setting and probably even elevates it, it is a mini-fridge that you don’t have to hide but might want to if you have the best snacks.

Designer: Ken Kirtland IV

A modular cat tree for when your pet is also your co-worker!

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Okay, we can all agree there is never enough cat content (barring ‘Cats’ the movie) and we always want to give our pets everything ‘they’ (read: we) dream of. I know people who would buy furniture for their cat than actually getting a coffee table for themselves. And now that we all are spending more time at home with our cats, the territory that was usually theirs for half the day is now a shared space. Your pet is also your co-worker now so it is important to keep them occupied while you focus on work and since most of us live in shared apartments or small flats, it is important that we don’t buy a cat palace but invest in a more space-saving structure like Catssup.

This particular piece of cat furniture is extremely easy to set-up and seamlessly integrates with your current home setting minus the bulkiness of a conventional cat tree. In 2020, it is all about how modular the product is and that applies to pet furniture too. With Catssup you can create a DIY jungle gym by simply clamping the different parts onto existing furniture and changing the set-up whenever ‘you’ (read: your cat) need. The best part is that it doesn’t require any floor space so if you want to lie down and WFH – you absolutely can with the extra room!

The Catssup set includes a Dot Step, a Sleeping Pill, a Space Ball, a Cloud Lounge and a Climbing Tower – I would just like to say that I strongly believe human furniture should also have fun labels like this and maybe we would be more invested in it. The Dot Step is a circular attachment that lets your pet explore vertical places with the Cloud Lounge and Sleeping Pill are resting attachments. The Space Ball and Climbing tower are play pieces to keep your cat entertained, especially during virtual meetings. All you have to do is screw and clamp for rearranging the pieces suited to different functions. The C-clamp is adjustable so it will fit horizontal boards/surfaces easily.

Pet furniture > human furniture.

Designer: Catssup.

Tiny homes made of shipping containers for the millennial home owners

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Tiny homes are a fast-growing trench in the architectural world and why wouldn’t they be? The upcoming consumer is the millennial generation and tiny homes are perfect given the skyrocketing prices for real estate and avocados. Handcrafted Movement is a company that is here to bridge that gap between homes and budgets, in their words they have been created to create – what better motto when you build beautiful spaces right?

One of their projects that I absolutely loved was the Pacific Harbor model. The details truly show the team’s wanderlust and craftsmanship. It is built on a 30’x8.5’ triple axel Iron Eagle trailer – compact, convenient and classy. The interiors are kept light and breezy to manifest the feeling of spaciousness. The tiny home includes a downstairs flex area that can be turned into a bedroom or home office, a sleeping loft in the back, stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, and a Mini-Split System for air conditioning and heating. The exterior features Board & Batt, black-framed windows, cedar accents, a cedar post & deck system.

The house has lots of natural sunlight given the wide windows and a charming little table for sharing food on. The colors perfectly compliment the structure and make is inviting. It is a perfect set up for one or two people with enough space while saving space. Tiny houses always amaze me because they showcase the maximum optimization of every corner without ever giving you the feeling of “small” – in fact, they always make the heart feel bigger because of how thoughtfully they are made.

Designer: Handcrafted Movement