Small Spaces
Small rooms are not rescued by small furniture
The instinct in a tight room is to shrink everything in it. What usually results is a room full of undersized pieces that neither…
Small Spaces
Flats, rentals and rooms that have to be three things at once.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 2
Small Spaces
White paint does not make a small room bigger
The advice is repeated so often it has stopped being examined. What white does is reflect more light, and what makes a room feel…
Small Spaces
The top third of a small room is usually wasted
Floor area gets measured, argued over and paid for. The volume above head height is free, unused and capable of absorbing most of…
Small Spaces
In a small room, circulation eats the floor before furniture does
Plans are drawn as furniture on a floor, but a large part of that floor is route, swing and standing space that can never be…
Small Spaces
A balcony is a room that people treat as a shelf
Outdoor space attached to a flat is usually storing a drying rack and a bicycle. Treated as a room, even a very shallow one changes…
Small Spaces
A flat with no hall makes the front door part of the living room
Opening straight into the main room removes a buffer that a house takes for granted. Everything that would have happened in a…
Small Spaces
Platforms and mezzanines buy floor area and spend head height
Building upward inside a room converts unused volume into usable area. What it costs is clearance, and clearance is the dimension…
Small Spaces
Furniture that does two jobs usually does one of them badly
Convertible pieces are sold as the answer to small homes. Some are genuinely good, and the ones that fail all fail for the same…
Small Spaces
Drying laundry indoors is a moisture problem before it is a space problem
A load of wet washing releases litres of water into the air of a flat. Where that water ends up is what decides whether you get…