5 Practical Tips For Buying Furniture For Your Small Home
Furnishings
Published on: January 11th, 2021
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5 minutes read
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8694 views
5 Practical Tips For Buying Furniture For Your Small Home
With so many of us living in small apartments in Singapore, it’s time to rethink how we buy furniture. Living with limited space doesn’t mean having to sacrifice your sense of style though. We share five secrets to shopping for the small home.
1. Scale Matters And Here’s Why
Interior Designer: Renozone Interior Design
Scale is perhaps one of the hardest things to pull off when renovating and decorating your interior. You don’t want to get furniture that’s too small and have your home feeling empty. Neither do you want too-large furniture that overwhelms the space. Like Goldilocks, you’d want your furniture to be just right. One way is to go for furniture with slim profiles, such as slim arms — or no arms! — on the sofa. Alternatively,
consider tapered legs for your seating options, tables and consoles. Tapered legs lift the furniture off the floor, a small gesture that adds a lot of breathing space to the living area.
In the bedroom, make sure that there is room for movement. So, allow sufficient space around your bed on all three sides, particularly for double beds. Another option is to leave more of the flooring exposed as you enter the room, so consider pushing the bed against a wall or window. Given the smaller floor area in the bedrooms, it’s crucial to pick small accessories like table lamps and side tables.
2. Mount On The Wall
Interior Designer: Starry Homestead
Inject openness into a small space by making use of the walls. Instead of a floor-standing side table in the bedroom, have a slim wall-mounted drawer. Storage can also be incorporated into the living area, study and bedrooms by way of wall-mounted cabinets. If you have plenty of seldom used belongings, go for overhead cabinets above your feature wall, for example, in the living area. With customisation, you can also have wall-mounted storage units that are raised a foot or so off the floor. Eliminating legs from your furniture aids cleaning, and is a subtle yet effective way of enhancing the sense of openness.
3. Adopt Light Colours, Mostly
Interior Designer: H20 Interior
The jury is out when it comes to the colour palette. A simple rule of thumb is that you can’t go wrong with a light palette for the home, be it for your walls and flooring, and your furniture. But there’s no hard and fast rule here. Bold colours can be judiciously added to the small home — think the Scandinavian home — without cramping its style. Others, however, might opt for large furniture pieces like the sofa to be in a dark
colour. The dark hue contrasts against the light background, creating room around it.
4. Go Multifunctional
Photo Credit: Ikea
Whether you live in a shoebox apartment, a two-room HDB flat or a four-bedroom condominium, every home can benefit from multifunctional furniture. Many furniture pieces, such as coffee tables, ottomans and beds, come with hidden storage. If you’re customising your furniture, consider asking for storage to be incorporated into them. Some great places for introducing storage are your dining room bench and platform bed.
5. Less Is More When It Comes to Accessories
Interior Designer: The Wooden Platform
How much should you accessories your small apartment? As the saying, popularised by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe goes, less is more. It’s easy for clutter to take over the small home, so keep accessories to the minimum. Limit to two throw pillows on the sofa and go for well-defined shapes for your accessories for a tasteful look.
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Folding beds and convertible furniture are also great ways to save space but they tend to be UGLY. Anyone know where I can find beautiful convertible furniture? Thanks.