Home Decorating Ideas For Small Houses

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When it comes to decorating, small spaces are probably the ones that cause people the most issues and they do require more thought than bigger rooms. It takes a little know-how and a lot of research to find ideas that you may not have considered before. Our Decoration Editor Ruth Sleightholme is full of knowledge for tackling small rooms; 'Eliminate awkward gaps with purposeful joinery,' she advises. 'Furniture floats more in a small room, because any gap between it and the wall is awkward and small. Instead, think about using built-in furniture to fit everything in properly. For example, make a dining nook with banquette seating (with storage underneath) that goes the width of a room, or build a box bed into the length of the room, making space for niches and cupboards.'

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With this kind of approach – of which there are many stylish examples in the gallery below – Ruth advises you have to 'lose space to gain space. You may lose a few centimetres of floor space to create a panel behind a built-in bed but you gain space when you're using it and have a bedside table built in, rather than one taking up floor space'. In compact bathrooms and bedrooms in particular, Ruth's advice is to keep as much off the floor as possible. Instead, consider, for example, a wall-mounted basin and towel rail and bedside tables that are built into a headboard.

'Look at all the different surfaces in the room and think about using spaces that you don't often notice,' says Ruth. 'It's something Beata Heuman does so well, building little shelves on top of radiators, or you can consider the inside walls of a window or the inside edge of a dividing wall and sides of a chimney breast and see if there's something you can use them for, like a little shelf all the way up the chimney breast, a shelf and cupboard underneath a windowsill, or little shelves along the inside edge of a thick wall. See things not as they look at first but in raw volumes and where you can access things from – look beyond it as it is now and be ambitious about what's possible and where you might be able to add storage or make what you have more practical. A good example is a small Paris flat by Marianne Evennou, who installed a washing machine into a corner cupboard in the kitchen, but the door is in the hallway. That way, the corner unit is used but in an effective way, so there is no dead space. It's not something you immediately think of, so you need to take time to look at all those possibilities.'

Design ideas for built-in furniture

'You have to solve the issue first and then apply your taste when you have the solution you need,' continues Ruth, who suggests building a bank of references about how to work with a chimney breast or bay window in a small space, for example, and rather than discounting something for its style, instead look past that at the tricks used to maximise space. Once you land on something that works for your small room, then go into the styling. 'One great thing is that you can fill a room with a single idea done confidently,' according to Ruth. 'For example, a small bathroom has far less space to decorate so you can afford to tile all the way up to the ceiling and it will look great.'

'Whenever you're dividing up between different rooms, don't interrupt the sightline from room to room - critall windows or glass doors will help both spaces feel a bit more large,' says Ruth. 'Try walls that can be moved in various different ways - curtain off areas, look at partitions that slide open and close between rooms and bifold doors that open out so can have one or two rooms. Small considerations go a long way in creating space, such as installing a sliding or pocket door that doesn't open into a room.' Ruth's final piece of advice on the structure of a room is to 'keep the woodwork the same colour as walls to dissolve the boundaries of the space.'

As for furniture, Ruth's words of wisdom extend to folding furniture and perhaps more surprisingly, antiques. Look to 'little folding chairs, stacking stools, tilt top tables and steps that fold into stools – things you can easily push out the way when you mop' for useful pieces, but don't think it just has to be mid-century and IKEA. Ruth's top tip? 'A surprising amount of antiques work well in small spaces - and a lot of antiques have folding elements so search for 'folding' on antiques websites. Hunt around too for slimline things; for example, Georgian sofas are generally good in small spaces as they have upright backs rather than something deep that projects further.' On that note, Ruth's last piece of advice for small rooms is to 'think about how far things project from the walls, not just with the furniture but also wall lights. No one wants to hit their head on one, so look for slimline lights as well as furniture.'

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From small living rooms ideas and small dining rooms, to small bedrooms, small bathrooms, small kitchens, hallway ideas, studio flat design and kids' rooms, or even just small space storage solutions, we've delved in to the House & Garden archive to bring you clever, stylish ideas for every room of the house from the best interior designers out there.

This first-floor laundry room is painted in Paint & Paper Library's 'Rouge II'. Tongue and groove panelling combines beautifully with the units, which were made by Howdens to Natasha Howard, the interior designer's, design. Checkerboard lino lines the floor, while a frilly pendant from Retrouvius provides a pretty finishing touch.
Take inspiration from Marianne Evennou's creative use of colour and choice of flexible furniture to enhance the proportions and maximise space in this Paris apartment. Almost everywhere you look in this apartment, there are clever storage solutions. The hot-water tank is concealed in a cupboard in the bedroom and, elsewhere, cupboards have been integrated under windows.

Marianne often installs atelier-style windows between rooms: 'For me, they are just as important as the windows to the outside; I don't think they are used often enough.' Not only do they allow light to circulate more easily, they also allow the eye and the mind to travel. 'That way, you don't feel imprisoned in a room. And there is something poetic about them,' she adds. 'Your imagination can move from one world to another.'
Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler Design Director Emma Burns' London flat is the ideal pied-à-terre – richly decorated yet smart, efficient and full of clever solutions for small spaces. Sleek flat lacquered cabinets are the perfect choice for a sophisticated city kitchen, and give a clean, streamlined look. "From the sitting room, it looks more like a bar than a kitchen," explains Emma. "And the bits where the mess happens are hidden behind the wall, so you don't feel that you're sitting in the kitchen when you're on the sofa."
This tiny box room in a south London house by Studio Peake has a severely sloping ceiling, making it difficult for anyone to stand up at one end. Sarah Peake's solution was to put in a single bed below the window, and build out a nook up to the angle of the ceiling, using the space efficiently and making the room feel more spacious. Ottoline de Vries' 'Chintamani Trellis' wallpaper lines the inside, while the red is picked up by the Habitat lamp.
Panelling in 'Glass V' by Paint & Paper Library surrounds this sweet little nook in the former house of JM Barrie, reimagined by Sophie Ashby. The sofa is from 1stdibs and fits the space wonderfully.
Gallerist Tobias Vernon's cottage in Somerset is a study in juxtaposition, with white walls throughout providing a background for his creative arrangements of art and eclectic pieces. In the tiny kitchen, units painted in Farrow & Ball's 'Dutch Orange' contrast with 'Circa' industrial rubber flooring in forest green by Polymax.
The space under the stairs is a classic choice for carving out more storage, as Lonika Chande has done in her Queen's Park house, filled with colourful fabrics and carefully curated treasures that enhance its character and origins as a Victorian worker's cottage. In the book-lined nook under the stairs, the bench doubles as storage space.
No room for an ensuite? We love this room in an Oxfordshire cabin where the bath is tucked into the same room as a traditional iron bed and an antique military chest that serves as a desk.
'I love entertaining and I wanted the kitchen to feel open, with all my glassware and ceramics out,' says designer Emma Grant of the compact space in her Primrose Hill flat. Painting everything white and using a glass table helps to achieve that effect. The chairs are from Criterion Auctioneers. Bert & May supplied the marbleised cement tiles.
When the son of the interior designer Rupert Charles-Jones needed a place to live, the talented pair worked together to convert a narrow outbuilding at the Cotswolds family house into a character-filled home. The one-bedroom house features an open plan kitchen that blends seamlessly into the living room.
Fee Greening's house in Islington used to be a shop, and before that a restaurant. She made the most of a tiny space upstairs with an open-plan kitchen and living room and lots of bright white paint and neutrals to help it feel airy.
In her small London bathroom, Zoë Zimmer created a sense of space with a wall of mirrors, white tiles and adding plants to a clever shelf around the top of the room. Zoë was inspired by the combination of white tiles and black grout she had seen on buildings in Tokyo. The basin is similar to Lefroy Brooks' 'Belle Aire' design.
When thinking about her own house, decorator Sarah Vanrenen made the most of a small bedroom by installing a niche bed behind a curtain, in a room that also acts as a dressing room. By tucking the bed away, the rest of the room is freed up for wardrobes and a dresser.
Roses sit prettily on the bedside table of interior designer Louise Jones' bedroom. Louise has wasted no space here. The bookshelves - holding plently of bedtime reading material - have been built into the alcoves; they complement the striped wallpaper perfectly.
This owners of this London house gave architect Maria Speake of Retrouvius the go-ahead to make structural changes to give their family and business the space needed without having to move home. A shed has been made into a little studio in the vegetable garden, with a daybed that's fitted with storage underneath. The shed sits in a vegetable patch, beyond which is a communal garden that has been a labour of love for Henrietta who is one half of the gardening duo the Land Gardeners who run a thriving flower garden based at Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire.
This grey panelled utility room with a Sheila Maid is the perfect example of what to do with that strange little space in your home. The smart room clad in tongue-and-groove panelling belongs to a west London house designed by Clare Stevenson and Claire Sa from architectural practice De Rosee Sa.

Find a similar traditional Sheila Maid clothes dryer at Garden Trading. Raised and lowered from the ceiling with a jute rope, it is perfectly suited to small rooms with a lack of floor space.
This project, designing a shepherd's hut, was not without its challenges. 'The biggest hurdle was the special planning due to the tight dimensions,' says Top 100 designer Katharine Pooley. She decided to take on the task 'with the same approach as any other project' and created a space that would suit playing children and adults seeking a relaxing retreat alike.

Hand-printed fabric walling and selected antiques add character to the hut, which has a different design scheme to the main house. 'Complete with a sweet kitchen, wood-burning stove, artisan-fitted furniture and a bespoke bed, it has the perfect feeling of cosiness.'
This small kitchen in an eighteenth-century cottage in the Cotswolds is tiny 'but perfectly formed', with the same floorspace as a larger kitchen with an island would have, and it adequately suits the owners' needs. They cook on an oil-fired Rayburn, which stands in an alcove - '20 minutes and you can have boiling water,' says owner Caroline.

Caroline and Fatimah's collection of pottery bowls and jugs is displayed along the stone window sill next to the Rayburn, where seating makes huddling up next to the cooker inevitable. A narrow gap beside it has been used for extra storage, while S-hooks are used to hang pans off a rail overhead - a classic way of organising a small kitchen.
To open up the space in the kitchen, Gabby replaced clunky wall cupboards above the sink and work surfaces with open shelves. The shelf brackets are made by The Good Shelf Company and the new design allows more light to flow into the compact space.
Former House & Garden editor Susan Crewe relocated from the top floors to the bottom of her London house, and completely reassembled the space in the process. In this bedroom, the panelling behind the bed does several jobs: bedside lights are wired into it, nooks have been carved out to serve as bedside tables, and the shelf above is both decorative and useful. 'Harvest Hare' wallpaper in chalk white from St Jude's sets the palette; the design came from an original linocut by Mark Hearld. An oak leaf chandelier hangs above the bed.
A small space can be a great opportunity to go bold with colour. Sanderson's 'Mimosa Yellow' paint brightens this tiny bedroom in Audrey Carden's London house.
The architect and designer Giles Vincent has reconfigured the rooms of his west London town house to set off a rich mix of inherited and collected antiques. The smaller of the two spare rooms has a day bed upholstered in a discontinued Galbraith & Paul fabric. The bed's headboard wraps beneath the window, padding the whole side of the bed, and making a deliciously cosy nook.
The Weiland's London house may not be small, but the airy kitchen does feature a charming alcove where the sink is housed. The large pendant light brings a focal point to the space, which is also used to house the fridge. The dark blue units are from Plain English with open shelves above. The Holophane light was from 1stdibs.
Furniture designer Matthew King's houseboat on the Thames is a two-bedroom dwelling that feels so much bigger than the sum of its parts. As much as anything, it is a testament to the power of well-designed joinery. In terms of storage – there are drawers under beds and stair treads, concealed cupboards behind most walls and wave-proof shelving for life's bits and bobs – it is a Tardis.An alcove in the spare room frames a sculpture by Matthew in Carrara marble.
The vertical lines of the panelling in this Welsh farmhouse by Hackett Holland add height to the awkwardly shaped bathroom, while the window gives bathers a view of the sky. A sink curtain emphasises the country feel of the scheme and hides any unsightly pipes.
One of our favourite small room ideas. Known for their restoration of historic buildings in Scotland, conservation architects Nick Groves-Raines and Kristin Hannesdottir relished the challenge of saving Lamb's House in Leith, where they now live and work. In an attic room, the box bed is painted in Farrow & Ball's 'India Yellow'.
Jeanetta Rowan-Hamilton's restored fishing lodge in Sutherland, Scotland is like something from The Wind in The Willows. It is not that just the house is close to a river, but that she evidently shares author Kenneth Grahame's time-honoured view that interior decoration begins with a good log fire and a toasted teacake. The interiors of the tiny tin-roofed lodge are befitting of the architecture but still fresh and contemporary. Slate tiles divide the stove and sink from the dining room, while the original tongue-and-groove wall panelling has been sanded and varnished to a warm colour.
This small white and grey bedroom, on the houseboat of Plain English founder Katie Fontana, is painted in Farrow & Ball paint. The light colours make the space feel bigger while the navy bed linen adds an appropriate nautical touch to the scheme.
The living room belongs to designer and H&G contributor Ben Pentreath, it can be found in his Georgian flat on Great Ormond Street. Ben has chosen a soft pink, 'Calamine' from Farrow & Ball, for the walls. An inbuit bookcase - which emphasises the height of this small room - holds a colourful array of fiction.
In a spacious Hamptons home, the spare bedroom features a tricky sloping ceiling. The designer built a bed underneath it with in-built storage to create a cosy nook.
Interior designer Jane Taylor has taken an awkwardly shaped little corner of the dining room in her London home, and hidden it behind a bookshelf, turning it in to a miniature study for her husband Simon containing a desk and shelves. Height has been utilized with shelves all the way to the ceiling, accessed by a fold-away step ladder.
'Make the city guest room a place where people can have an escape of sorts,' suggests designer Veere Grenney, the creator of this jewel of a room. 'The fabric-covered walls and tented ceiling feel luxurious and exotic; it is hard to remember you are in the middle of London. A shelf full of good books is an imperative; here it is built in to the wall at the foot of the bed as there was no room for a standing shelf. It is the easiest way to give a room life and character.'
A corner of the sitting room in Tara Craig's small London flat is taken up by the kitchen designed by Tara with Marcus Ayshford Sanford of Archidrum. The apricot tone – which is bespoke by Papers and Paints – works seamlessly with the blue of the living room area and helps to create a sense of separate spaces in the flat.
Walls in a bespoke khaki gloss by Papers and Paints establish a Georgian feel in the hallway, which connects the living area to the bedroom. The large window helps make it feel airy and wider.
In Tara's tiny bedroom, she has created a cosseting atmosphere by covering the walls in Marialida's 'Urbino' cotton in azzurro/antique white from Tissus d'Hélène and adding a bespoke eiderdown to pick up on walls. The blind is in 'Banyan' by Bennison and the custom-made plaster chandelier above the bed is by Collier Webb.
This small conservatory in a restored weavers' house in Spitalfields is an awkward size, too compact to be a real living space but too large to be a snug. The owners have perfectly worked it into something in the middle, adding a huge skylight to flood the space with natural light. That, coupled with the array of mismatched, comfy seating options make for a lovely reading room.
A great small bathroom design idea for a studio flat or a guest annex. Interior designer Suzy Hoodless has added a bath and sink to a bedroom in this Notting Hill House. Geometric tiles create a division between the bathing area and the main bedroom. Graphic curtains made with fabric from Madeline Weinrib add colour to the white walls by the bed, while a Fifties Swedish chair upholstered in sheepskin sets the tone by the free-standing 'Vieques' bath from Agape.
With a characteristic respect for the fabric of this eighteenth-century house in Bath, designer Patrick Williams has carefully transformed it into a welcoming home and B&B. The family bathroom continues the triumph of aesthetics over modern-day convenience. All pipework, as throughout the house, is copper: even the shower rail was dechromed. A Bathstore loo that cost just £99 is cleverly disguised - Patrick took the push button apart and connected the cable to a brass bell pull that flushes the loo.
Interior designer Virginia Howard had no intention of moving from Knightsbridge to Pimlico, until a balcony flat in a nineteenth-century garden square changed her mind. In the dining area, Virginia created a workspace cleverly tucked inside a wall cupboard.
This living room is really a paradise for book lovers. The bespoke shelving, designed and built in around the large windows, houses architectural designer Charles Rutherfoord extensive book collection. Rutherfoord says he designs rooms for living in rather than showing off, but that seems like he's doing a disservice to his own impeccable taste.
A masterclass in making a small living room feel spacious yet warm and cosy with the use of colourful decoration - pinks and yellows - in a west London town house featuring plenty of antique treasures. The plaster and marble fireplace was designed by owner Giles Vincent, who was inspired by the work of artist Oliver Messel. Giles also designed the bronze wall lights to echo the shape of the gourds in the still life painting by Louis Valtat.
Light streams in at the front of a tiny Paddington flat designed by Beata Heuman, opening up this clever dining area. Wall lights from Clippings provide light to eat (or work) by, while not taking up any space.
Designer and furniture maker Jeremy Pitts has built a one-room cabin the woodland near his house in Sussex. 'I wanted to demonstrate how many functions could be accommodated in a small volume,' says Jeremy. A bunk bed doubles as a sofa, and there is a wall-mounted folding table made using a single board of oak from the same tree as the floor. Of course, it is also an example of what the designer can create for a client.
In Irene Gunter's cleverly designed flat, the bed in the main bedroom sits against a false wall, behind which is a useful area, and there are floor-to-ceiling wardrobes and window seats with integrated drawers
In Alexandra Tolstoy's Chelsea house, bunk beds have been designed to provide space for three children this bedroom. The room is full of charming things to engage young imaginations, but free of the whimsy and bad design that so often characterises nursery furniture.
In Gabby Deeming's Bloomsbury flat, the bed takes up the width of the room. The window has a linen half-curtain made from a vintage tablecloth as a concession to privacy. The lack of other curtains or blinds mean that the attractive curved tops of the windows are still visible. Of the canopy bed she says "it feels so self-contained, a bit like a ship that's going to set sail with me in it, which I love. It's a very good bed for daydreaming."
Walls in Taubman's 'Mandarin Orange' create a sunny feel in the small main bedroom of Anna Spiro's Brisbane guest cottage.
A small bedroom in an Oxfordshire cottage is decorated in shades of green with a patterned wallpaper that draws the eye down and creates the allusion of a larger room. Furniture is kept to a minimum to allow maximum use of the space. A geometric rug from Graham & Green contrasts with 'Mr Men' wallpaper in clover from the Thimble Prints range by Howe at 36 Bourne Street. A bolster in toning linen adds to the fresh green and white scheme.
The same house features a small kitchen with units fitted to be as ergonomic as possible. Two large windows filled the white-tiled space with light, which always helps create a larger feel.
Beata Heuman opened up a galley kitchen in a Paddington pied-à-terre by removing a section of the wall and layering yellow walls, a marble feature and green cabinets for perspective.
In Rachel Chudley's East London home, an Aston Matthews bath is set off by an iroko-wood surround that centres it in the narrow space. Her wardrobe also lives in the bathroom so as not to overcrowd the small bedroom.
Situated on a leafy street in Manhattan's West Village, Jos and Annabel White's six-storey town house has been extended, gutted and completely renovated to create open-plan interiors tailored for family living. Underneath the main entertaining floor on the ground floor is the heart of the house, a huge basement family room devoted to eating, playing and lounging that opens on to the garden. 'We have lunch in the nook,' says Annabel. 'Which gives a nod to old-fashioned American diners with its curved green banquette and neon sign - and dinner at the table. 'For the kitchen, Jos and Annabel were inspired by the fittings in their friends' New York restaurant The Fat Radish. This dining set up uses the space between the wall and cupboard to increase the seating capacity around the small round table.
In this small sitting room, the walls and woodwork have been painted in 'Murrey Red' from Papers & Paints. Designer and antiques dealer Adam Bray deliberately chose a light gloss finish to encourage light to bounce around the space. The nineteenth-century alabaster light was chosen to impart a touch od sophistication. The bookshelves fit neatly and elegantly into the alcoves either side of the chimneyplace.
Hannah Cecil Gurney's west London pattern-filled flat is a feast of luxurious colour, texture and pattern - little surprise given that her father founded the handmade wallpaper company de Gournay.

'Lining the kitchen walls with gold leaf and painting the woodwork turquoise has made the tiny cooking space feel like the inside of a delicious chocolate box.' The room was designed with cosiness in mind; it is the only space where the celing was not restored to double height and the wenge worktop was chosen specifically to be 'more cosy and warm than stone'.
The spare bedroom of Ben Pentreath's home in Dorset is housed in the attic. The apex is clad in tongue and groove panelling and the walls have been painted a creamy white - a shrewd choice for a small country bedroom. The twin beds are covered in a blue and white Indian block printed cotton.
A concealed wardrobe with a sliding door is the perfect solution for smaller bedrooms, where traditional hinged doors can cause an obstruction. The lights here are from Emery et Cie.
No room for a dining table? Utilise a corner of your kitchen with smart banquette seating, the perfect dining room set up for a small space. A view of the living and dining area from the kitchen in the innovative one bedroom home of property company CEO, Edo Mapelli Mozzi. The high, arched windows let in a wonderful amount of natural light and the yellow velvet is a gorgeous, rather luxurious touch.
This twin bedroom can be found in the attic of a timber-framed inn in Suffolk. The curtains are made of crisp linen tablecloths. The pretty pink of the bed linen accentuates the sweetness of twin beds. This bedroom really is a dream one true!
if you have a small kitchen it is sometimes wise to cut the clutter and keep things minimalist. The clean-lined kitchen of Johnny Holland's London flat has white units with push catch doors for a sleek and modern finish. The hob has a carrera marble splashback and the peninsula is made from Corian.
If you have a small bedroom matchy-matchy can work a treat. In architect and designer Ben Pentreath's Bloomsbury flat, Soane's delicate 'Seaweed Lace' wallpaper has been paired with a roman bilnd in the fabric iteration. The bold striped blanket is from Pendleton.
Edo Mapelli Mozzi downsized to a flat housed within one spacious room of a Victorian house in west London. Every inch of the space is used - the inbuilt dining nook has banquette seating upholstered in Linwood's 'Moleskin Velvet'. On the wall behind the seat Edo has empolyed the oldest trick in the book for making small spaces feel more spacious - mirror. The entire back wall of the banquette houses an enormous mirror that reflects the living area beyond. A trio of Michael Anastassiades pendants hang from the ceiling, past a mezzanine of bookshelves.
The original maid's room in this converted London mansion flat designed by Johnny Holland was the smallest, and considered the short straw when it came to designating bedrooms. However, by moving the door, Johnny was able to transform the space; he also designed a mezzanine bed reached by its own private staircase.
In this small bedroom, belonging to architect Johnny Holland, a corner has been hived off to create a walk-in wardrobe which has been papered in a tropical wallpaper design from Ananbô. This has been overlaid with a grid of panelling to give it added depth. The colour scheme is dark and sumptuous and the chair, bedcover and carpet all have the texture of plush velvet.
When the architects of the Barbican, the Grade II-listed Seventies London landmark, drew up the kitchens, they had the clever idea of bringing in Brooke Marine, a firm of yacht designers. They figured the one place where space for a kitchen was always at a premium was on board a boat. It wasn't the only ground-breaking idea: Chamberlin, Powell & Bon also decided the kitchens should be placed at the rear of the flats and be windowless, so that the living area and bedrooms could enjoy the available window space instead. However, the design ran afoul of council bylaws requiring a window or ventilation in the kitchen. The solution? The kitchens were named 'cooking areas' that were considered part of the living room and the designs were approved. Canny.
In our columnist Rita Konig's London flat, a feeling of space has been created by removing any barriers between the kitchen and the open-plan dining/living room around the corner. From the living room the kitchen is neatly out of sight, but still within easy reach.

'I find the kitchen - and where people choose to position it in a house - very interesting,' Rita muses. 'Women, having spent years fighting their way out of them, are now manacling themselves to these enormous kitchen islands, while their children sit in the drawing room playing computer games. I still have a sense of open plan without ever having to look at the kitchen sink.' Every inch of space is utilised for storage, with the walls between the rooms fitted with shelves. Friendly and remarkably practical.
Masses of walk-in storage space, plus an enviable laundry and additional bathroom in the basement, make Rita Konig's London flat a highly functional, enviably modern family home. 'If you don't have good storage, your life is a mess. It is expensive, and people don't like to put it into their budgets, but it's crucial,' says Rita. When asked how she did it all, she reels off a long list, which includes losing 12cm off the length of the sitting area to make room for the full-length bath in the bathroom.

Playing on the lack of natural light in the bathroom, Rita had the bath area covered in horizontal and vertical boards, painted in a high-gloss 'Deep Brunswick Green' from Papers and Paints.
This iconic wallpaper is Scalamandré's 'Zebra' in masai red, famously used in Wes Anderson's film The Royal Tenenbaums. A great small room idea, it creates an intimate feeling in this small bathroom, which was boldly designed by Beata Heuman. The decorator has perfectly demonstrated how to choose one bold colour for a tiny space. Mirrors also help - they encourage light to bounce around, making the small space seem larger.

The interior of this fun, colourful home is a highly original space, unapologetically theatrical and oozing energy. 'The owners are both artists. They have quite wild tastes and they love strong colours,' says designer Beata. 'I was told by the wife that her childhood dream was to have a house with a series of rooms each with its own distinct personality - Chinese, Japanese, American and so on. That would have been too much, but I did want to give the house variation and changes of mood.'
A pair of Robert Longo lithographs, bought from the Brooke Alexander Gallery, anchor the compact living room of this Manhattan apartment, made to feel more spacious with a white ceiling and white walls and furniture. A Dee Briggs sculpture is suspended from the ceiling in front.
The bedroom is large enough to just fit the owner's bed in this Manhattan apartment. 'It is the size of the original bedroom – literally the size of a mattress,' he says. It does not feel confining, however. 'I have a huge window in here, so it's like a beautiful cocoon.' An artwork by El Anatsui hangs above the bed, with built-in storage under it.
This small living room corner has been used to display books, ornaments and artwork with shelving that surrounds a comfy red and white sofa. The shelves are painted grey to match the walls and papered at the back with a geometric pattern to reflect the sofa fabric.
In this small bedroom, a wrap-around headboard takes on the appearence of luxurious wall panelling and makes the small space look bigger. Naomi Paul was commissioned by Studio Ashby to make the beautiful hand-woven, offset wall and table lights.

This modern city flat that has been transformed from a stark new-build to a characterful home. The use of a natural palette full of texture and earthy tones continues in this bedroom, creating a calm and peaceful space.
The green living room of Luke Edward Hall's London flat is painted in Leyland's bold 'Forest Storm', which makes the space cosy. Although there was initial concern about how dark it was, the final result is beautiful. The room fortunately benefits from two large sash windows, so it remains bright and light. Luke and Duncan's decision to steer clear of beiges is typical of their decorating approach. 'People spend so long thinking about paint colours, but you can very easily change them,' says Luke.

The 1960s tan leather Walter Antonis chair is a recent acquisition from Goldwood by Borris, a dealer in Belgium, and it is decorated with a vintage kelim cushion. A collage of framed prints and pictures surrounds the chair, including an oil pastel sketch and a print by Luke, a large Rene Magritte poster from the Penny Guggenheim Collection in Venice and a Pablo Bronstein print. 'We buy lots of old exhibition posters from eBay - they're great value and lots of fun,' says Luke.
Small spaces don't have to be white and minimal. Instead, embrace the diminutive size of a room and even emphasise it by creating a cosy nook (see how to create 'hygge' in your home).

The small bedroom in Patrick Williams' Victorian flat is entirely painted in Farrow & Ball's 'Lamp Room Grey'. It is a haven of calm watched over by a stone statue of the Virgin Mary.

Patrick enclosed the bed, hiding the original chimney breast and cleverly making use of the voids either side for a bedside shelf and walk-in cupboard. The patchwork quilt on the bed was made by Patrick's grandmother, while the painting is by his mother.
Low, gabled ceilings can make fitting furniture almost impossible. In this chalet designed by Todhunter Earle, custom-built shelves fit to the gables and storage boxes act as drawers (try Muji for similar), while a rail for clothes is concealed behind a simple curtain.
A muted colour scheme was chosen by Top 100 designer Katharine Pooley for her stylish shepherd's hut due to its limited space. Metallic accents were added with bronze- and copper-toned accessories. 'To finish the look, I used sisal carpet that was seamless and had a country feeling, complementing the choice of fabrics throughout the hut.'
Interior designer Beata Heuman has worked hard to achieve visual unity throughout her west-London flat by replacing mismatched flooring with engineered boards, and picking fabrics in large scale prints but soft toning shades. 'Less is more when it comes to colour,' she adds. Farrow & Ball's 'Pavillion Gray' on the walls gives a sophisticated evening mood. Above the doorframe she has used mirrors to reflect the light, and create an illusion of space and increased ceiling height.
Mirror is a vital tool in the armoury of anyone designing a small room. Use it to reflect light and create an illusion of space. Here mirrored Ikea 'Pax' wardrobe flanking the window emphasise the view on to leafy Brompton Cemetery in interior designer Beata Heuman's flat. The blinds are in 'Serafina' (white) by Marvic.
Small bedroom with no space for an en-suite? There is something undeniably charming about the tiny little free-standing clawfoot bath designer Ilse Crawford has used in this room of Stockholm's Ett Hem hotel, where panelling and rugs add warmth.

A warm, welcoming interior with a carefully curated mix of vintage and custom-made furniture gives Ett Hem in Stockholm the feel of a well-loved house, rather than a hotel.
'I planned this room around some old silk ikat I found in Istanbul,' says designer Jane Churchill of the two-bedroomed terrace house in London to which she downsized. 'I designed two chairs for it - without armrests but with curved backs for comfort, as there is no space for armchairs.'
Small Kitchen Mix-and-Match Storage Idea - Small Spaces Design Ideas

The kitchen in interior designer Jane Taylor's flat features storage ideas galore - including this clever corner which mixes and matches shelving to brilliant, space-saving effect.
This small office lies behind a screen of Douglas-fir panelling in a living room of a mews house in Notting Hill (see it here), designed by Jonathan Tuckey.
Interior designer Hugh Leslie transformed his nineteenth-century Chelsea studio into an airy, harmonious space. In the bedroom, he introduced some handsome joinery in the room, not least a cupboard-cum-drawer unit (left) which provides ample storage above and below.
Paolo Moschino chose a cabin-style bed to make the most of the limited space in this spare room. The designer has transformed this small, humble fisherman's cottage in north Cornwall into a light-filled home. A blue-and-white colour scheme is used throughout the property, inspired by colours of the sea, as well as giving continuity that adds to the sense of spaciousness.
Transforming this tiny attic room into a children's room for two required some ingenuity. Enter Kate Earle of Todhunter Earle who designed these overlapping bunk beds as a clever space-saving solution for a glamorous chalet.
How do you solve a problem like a 17m² studio apartment? If you're our decorating team, by using a whole lot of stylish space-saving ideas. One example: forgo a cumbersome wardrobe for separate storage crates and hanging rails, which can be hidden behind a decorative curtain.

There is no need to paint an entire small apartment bright white; colour can add real drama to small spaces. On the right, a feature wall has been created using Farrow & Ball's 'Charlotte's Locks'.

There is no need for discreet lighting either, as shown by this bold handmade glass-and-chrome pendant light, 'Flower', £3,620, by Valerie Wade.

Living in small flats doesn't have to mean sacrificing style for drab storage solutions and "it's the only thing that will fit" furniture. It just takes a little creativity. To prove that small spaces can still be stylish, Gabby Deeming and Olivia Gregory took on the challenge of decorating a 17-square-metre studio apartment. Their ingenious ways of maximising space make quite an impact...

Plastic-and-steel storage system, 'Antonius', 180 x 124 x 55cm, £107.78 and polyester hanging shelves, 'Skubb', £7.99, both at Ikea. Forged iron curtain pole, 'Classic' (matt black), 2.5cm diameter, 19p per centimetre, at Jim Lawrence. Curtain, 'Sofienburg' (porcelain), linen, £75 a metre at Designers Guild. Laminated-paperboard storage box with steel corner protectors, 'Kassett', by Jon Karlsson, £9.39 for two, at Ikea. White and orange storage boxes, 'Inge', £13 each; and black DVD box, all at The Holding Company.
Sofa beds can be a surprisingly stylish (if not necessary) choice for a small space. This double bed is actually two sofa beds pushed together. (See the room in its 'living room' form here.) In the daytime, bedlinen can be hidden away neatly in a trunk.

Sofa beds, 'Melissa', 85 x 102 x 90cm, £1,690 each, at The Bolton Sofa Bed Company; covered in 'Moro' (mango), cotton mix, £71.50 a metre, at Romo. Visit here for full credits.
Don't think you have room for a dressing table? Try this idea from interior designer Jane Taylor's London flat. Here, a mirror-lined dressing table fits into the window reveal in the main bedroom. If you're extra short on space, the table can also double as a stylish desk.
If your room is lacking space for both cupboards and seating, take a leaf out of the book of the late Helen Green of Helen Green Designs. In her son's bedroom, smart storage space, with a recess for a small sofa, solves the problem. Spotlights have been added to the underside of the middle shelf to create a cozy, well-lit nook for reading. The tongue-and-grove effect on the walls, is echoed on the sturdy bunk-beds to the left of the picture.
Designer Mark Gillette makes careful use of colour and lighting in his flat, proving that even small spaces can handle a dark, dramatic palette of jewel-like amber offset with black and white. 'I'm not afraid of colour, but I like to keep it contained,' he says. The well-positioned light above the bed is useful for reading but also spotlights the white bedding, bringing light and space to the centre of the room. The clothes storage is also a clever design feature, both practical and beautiful.
For The Bigger Picture photo shoot, our decorating team took on the challenge of a 17m² studio apartment. They gave the main studio room an injection of personality with a graphic rug and toile wallpaper, while the high display shelf draws the eye to create the illusion of height. Best of all? At night, the 'chairs' - which are actually sofa beds - can be pushed together to become a stylish double bed. (See the room in its 'bedroom' form here.)

Sofa beds, 'Melissa', 85 x 102 x 90cm, £1,690 each, at The Bolton Sofa Bed Company; covered in 'Moro' (mango), cotton mix, £71.50 a metre, at Romo.
A cupboard kitchen takes the place of exposed kitchen units - a practical and good-looking alternative (you can see the kitchen when it's all folded up here). A drop leaf dining table can be discreetly folded against a wall when not in use.
Anne Fairfax and Richard Sammons own the second-smallest house in Manhattan, measuring just 1,200 square feet. Thanks to their clever handiwork, it has a sense of spaciousness that belies its bitsy façade. One of their space-enhancing ideas? The bar was once a boiler room - excellent design inspiration for a tiny kitchen (and proof that dark colours can work equally well in a small space).
Just because the room is small doesn't mean the bed has to be. We love the elegant four-poster from Guinevere, in this house in Cap Ferret designed by Guy Allemand and Jonathan Tuckey. Furnished sparingly, apart from the fantastically clever storage flanking the door; the lack of furniture makes the view of the sea beyond the balcony doors the main event.
Attic Bathroom, Small Space Design Tip - Small Spaces Design

The design of this small attic bathroom by Todhunter Earle for a chalet in Chamonix, is practically perfect (see the rest of the room here). A panel of mirror-glass that works with the shape of the room, makes the sloped ceiling feel higher and the room bigger.
If you don't have much floor space, utilise your walls. Space has been maximised in this tiny bathroom with built-in shelves.
Storage space is often the biggest hindrance when trying to make small spaces work. A problem which Clare Stevenson and Claire Sa, from architectural practice De Rosee Sa, have tackled with neat aplomb in the Victorian terrace house in west London. This storage wall, with masses of drawers and space for the television, is smart, cozy and useful.
A small workspace with space-saving pocket doors is cleverly concealed in a kitchen cupboard in this west London Victorian terrace house designed by Clare Stevenson and Claire Sa from architectural practice De Rosee Sa. This storage solution (it could be used simply to hide books or other objects) is stylish, inexpensive and can be easily replicated in your own home.
Make the most of the space under the stairs by turning it in to a walk-in larder like this designed by Plain English. Luxurious touches like a honed Carrara marble worktop, a wine rack and linen-lined baskets for holding fruit and bread make it a joy to use.
'The proportions of these houses are not particularly good, they are a little too tall and a little too narrow' says interior designer Cindy Leveson of the hallway of this nineteenth-century house designed in collaboration with Holloways of Ludlow. The rooms have been opened up and the hall wall removed and replaced by almost invisible sliding doors, which disappear into deep reveals. The elegant, painted corner cupboard opens to reveal a practical space for coat and boot storage - simple but brilliant.
'This cottage is now a part of us, an effortless comfort blanket,' says designer Caroline Holdaway of the adorable Cotswolds cottage she shares with her photographer partner, Fatimah Namdar, on weekends. The wall shelves in the spare room - along with providing storage - draw the eye up, making the cosy ceilings appear higher, while a chair provides double duty as a bedside table. An olive-stripe flatweave rug from Sinclair Till contrasts with a vibrant tartan rug from Toast used as a bedspread and cushions made from fabric pieces left over from projects.
Ett Hem, a hotel in Stockholm, is filled with great design ideas. A clever space-saver for smaller bedrooms is this bedside table, which is built into the panelling of the wall.
'In the main bedroom, there is only room for a bed, but one way to make a room like this seem bigger is to select a compact four-poster. It creates a feeling of grandeur and makes the proportions of the room seem larger,' says designer Veere Grenney of this bedroom in his Sussex folly.

The elegant bed (painted 'Slate I: Stark Paint' by David Oliver's Paint Library, with curtains in a muted Veere Grenney fabric) and demilune table are both antique Swedish; while his crisp white bed linens are from The White Company, with sconces sourced from Soane.
In this London flat, Sigmar has done the opposite of concealing the television by framing it with a smart, simple cabinet. Behind the cabinet doors, there is ample storage space for other audio-visual equipment, books and objects.
With no floor space for a bookshelf, adding one over the bed is not only practical but also gives the wall an injection of interest and character in the way that only books can. The bright yellow colour on the walls adds warmth and light to a room which could otherwise be feel pokey and dark. A strip of Anatolian silk inspired the palette for this tiny bedroom in London's Barbican. Designed by Maria Speake of Retrouvius, the silk was used as a feature panel in the curtains, and the colours are echoed by the vintage Indian bedcover.
The study nook in Luke Edward Hall's flat is cosy, compact and functional. Luke's partner, creative consultant Duncan Campbell works from home most days with his business partner Charlotte Rey, and finds this micro-office 'a great place to work'. It benefits from good light due to the glass door to the right of the desk, which leads out onto a small balcony. 'People always ask if it's hard to work from a desk in our living area, but you don't feel like you are in the same room. There's also a lovely view from the desk out onto the trees in the square,' explains Duncan.

Duncan put the heavily laden bookshelves in when he first moved in, and has had to add a few reinforcements over the years! 'They were on the brink of collapse at one point,' says Duncan. The walls either side of the desk are covered with framed art, including fern prints found on eBay and a Paolo Bronstein print.
The spare room in shop-owner Alastair Hendy's restored Tudor home has beds under the sloped roof, creating a perfectly cosy small bedroom. For more inspiration, see our hygge design ideas and favourite rustic interiors.
Suede banquette seating from Alma makes for a perfect small space solution, shown here filling an alcove in a London flat designed by Keech Green. Such seating often has hidden storage too, making it ideal for awkward corners. In this scheme, a limited colour palette ensures the corner doesn't look too 'busy'.

Interior-design duo Keech Green reworked and redecorated this London flat for their young clients: the result pays homage to the house's Arts and Crafts heritage and also the couple's favourite local football team.
Green En-Suite

The artist owners of this fun and colourful London house called on interior designer Beata Heuman to create a family home full of distinctive design and strong colours. The en-suite bathroom is painted in an emerald green with smart black and silver accents, a bold scheme that makes a big impact in a small space. The black and white tiling, a glimpse of which is seen in the mirror, also emphasises the modern feel of the room.
This built-in niche bed with shelves and a curtain was designed by Beata Heuman, who was asked to create a spare bedroom that was dark and cosseting. To achieve this, Beata designed a built-in bed complete with curtain and 'Fretwork' bedcover from Oka. The small space is made even more inviting by the contrast between the rust-red interior, which is painted in 'Drummond' by Little Greene, and the dark blue exterior in Dulux '90BG 10067'.
The understairs area can be the ideal spot for a workspace, especially when you do not have the room for a separate study or want to create somewhere for children to do their homework. Either find a narrow desk that fits or, as is the case in this renovated Wiltshire farmhouse, attach a length of wood to the wall with brackets.
A tiny bathroom with big charisma in garden designer Butter Wakefield's London home. Flowers in a vase freshen up the small space while the decor perfectly balances quaint with chic, avoiding clutter.
Bed curtains and a pocket of patterned wallpaper give the feeling of a cosy room-within-a-room in a small bedroom at a modern country home designed by Veere Greeney. The bed curtains are in a wool felt from Holland & Sherry.
Cubby-hole shelving with wicker baskets provide storage in an awkward space at Vanessa Branson's Holland Park home. Trinkets arranged on top and hanging pictures on the exposed-brick wall behind add a whimsical warmth to the area.
The attic of Kate Earl's charming 1920s chalet in the French Alps is the children's domain, and though the rooms up there are small, they are every bit as thought through and sophisticated as the rest of the house. This tiny bedroom (the smaller of the two) with painted-pine ceilings features one bed ingeniously built under another, in an L-shape configuration.
Small bedrooms don't need to be boring bedrooms. Stick to a two-tone scheme (in this case, pink and white), streamline with clever and discreet under-bed storage and make a design feature with essential items, like books. In this thoroughly cosy space, skylights guarantee natural light and a few well-chosen necessities in bold prints (throws, cushions, etc) add personality.