Decorating small spaces

When it comes to making a cosy room feel spacious there are few designer tricks to adopt and apply: Choose big key pieces of furniture for a small space. We've been led to believe that a small room equals small furniture, but the opposite is true. Smaller spaces crave larger key pieces of furniture as they can make the room feel larger and more spacious, which tends to look more cohesive and interesting. 

We are inspired by the gorgeous apartment of Grant K. Gibson for this exact reason. At 92 square meters, Mr Gibson has evolved traditional ideas of apartment living without compromising on style by incorporating large key pieces into his décor.  Join us for a home tour of his elegant apartment.

(Clockwise R-L)
Bedroom: A large canopy style bed may seem like an extravagant addition into a small bedroom, but the height of the canopy draws your eye upward, extending the height of the room. 

Dining Room: By making use of an existing bay window as seating and with an obvious round table, you can easily add more chairs and comfortably seat up to 8 people in a one-bedroom apartment. Genius! 

Living room: A plush 2.5 seater sofa sits in the centre of the living room facing windows (and a pretty view) is the perfect placement in this open plan apartment. Floating furniture in the middle of the room, free's up your wall space which can accommodate larger key pieces essential for storage. We love his palatial biedermeier secretaire which doubles as an chic work area. An over-scaled Fiddle-leaf fig tree acts as another hero of this space with its lush greenery and perfect towering scale. One large scale plant will look much more at home instead of many smaller pots dotted throughout. A prime example of quality over quantity. 

TV room: A cleverly skirted table hides all the unattractive wires and myriad of media entertainment gadgets. A slighter longer style than a traditional entry size console not only fits in between the door nook perfectly, but offers dual purpose when used as a bar and TV console. 

Dominate pieces of furniture create focal points in a room and often help to ground the space. The height of a cabinet or bookcase can trick the eye into thinking the room is much taller than it actually is... so even with a standard heigh ceilings, you can create the illusion of higher ceilings with the right piece. 

Walls: Another designer trade secret is to use wall panelling to create height in a room. The clever addition of a picture rail not only serves as the perfect 'no-holes' way of changing your art and photography but when hung slightly higher than the conventional chair rail height, as seen here in Grant's apartment, it can do wonders to transform the sense of height and spaciousness in room.