Sassy Mama Interiors: Tips For Making The Most Of Small Spaces

Mamas, your living space may not be as palatial as you’d like (and yes we’re all guilty of trawling the dubizzle pages for our ‘dream villa’), but there’s no reason that smaller spaces shouldn’t look, feel and work as fabulously as their larger counterparts. In fact, its often easier, and certainly more cost effective, to decorate and accessorise small spaces. Here are some tips for making small spaces work for you mamas.

Incorporate a light colour palette
Whilst I personally would never shy away from the use of dark, bold colours in any space, I think we can all agree that that lighter colours are more likely to make a room appear larger than it is. So, if a perception of large space is what you’re after, then light tones with clever contrasts is what you should aim for.
The Scandinavians are well known for the use of white in decor, which is no doubt a practice perfected by their familiarity with smaller living spaces. Black and white with splashes of colour makes for a chic and sophisticated interior colour palette. Grey and white with gold accents is another beautiful option.

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Multitask your rooms
When your home doesn’t have as many rooms as your heart desires, you need to apply some ‘double duty’ tactics to make your spaces work for you. For example, you can maximise space in a small bedroom or studio apartment by installing an elevated loft bed. It’s also a great way to make use of otherwise awkward alcoves.
If you need a dedicated home office as well as a guest room, consider a sofa bed or day bed in the office space. The day bed shown in the image below is available from Ikea and brings lots of extra storage to the party, so your guests can even unpack.

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Incorporate lots of creative storage
When space is less than plentiful, its really important to make practical use of every inch. A quick look around Pinterest will give you a mountain of novel ideas for storage in every corner of your home. I love the use floating shelves in any room and have actually used this narrow version of shelving to create display bookshelves in my kids’ rooms. The shelves are in fact Ikea picture ledges which allow the gorgeous children’s book covers to become part of the decor.

Another fabulous idea spotted in the same kids room is the Ikea shelving unit which has been placed on its side to to double up as a window seat. The open shelves below provide plenty of neat storage for kids toys. Sheer brilliance. 

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Select appropriate furniture pieces
Forgo cumbersome furniture that might overwhelm a small space. Swap a space-consuming coffee table for smaller side tables. Clustered tables look fabulous, especially if they are something a little unusual – statement pieces like tree stumps or bamileke stools look good no matter what their size.

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So there you go mamas – follow our decor tips for small spaces and get some really big results!

Mom of two, Kathryn is a design and interiors blogger at House of Hawkes. Born and bred in South Africa, she has a marketing background that spans South Africa, the UK and the UAE. Before the arrival of her kids, she headed up the marketing and business development team for The Grooming Company, parent company of the region’s leading grooming and beauty concepts, N.Bar, JetSet and 1847.

 

Top image sourced via Vogue