Sutton - Centre Realty 3010 Boundary Road Burnaby BC V5M 4A1
Copyright © 2011 Arthur Armstrong All rights reserved.
EXPERT REAL ESTATE ADVICE AND KNOW-HOW
ARTHUR ARMSTRONG
604-240-8302
LIFESTYLE
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR SMALL SPACE
Not every home provides the luxury of space. In fact, in today’s market the spaces we find ourselves living in gets tighter and tighter. This can lead to design dilemmas, as a majority of furniture we have is built for larger homes and often we think of rooms as having a single function. If you think outside the box you will be able to make the most of any space.
Wall Space
When working with a tight space, you will have to find room that isn’t immediately apparent, which is often found on the walls. If there is an opportunity to build in storage spaces, you should take advantage of it.
Generally you buy based on square footage, but making use of the wall space can quadruple the amount of available space you have. Think vertical whenever possible.
As a simple math example, if you have a room that is 10 feet by 10 feet with an 8 foot ceiling, the floor will yield 100 square feet of space, where as the walls will give you 360 square feet of space. If you were to put floor to ceiling cabinets on two walls at one foot depth, you have reduce the floor space by 20 square feet, but you have also gained 180 square feet of wall storage. Clearly it is wiser to have a plasma screen on the wall as opposed to placing it on the floor, and to organized the storage around the wall mounted screen.
One Room, Many Functions
The second way to change the view of a room is to consider how each room can work for you in more ways than one.
Traditionally, we think of the living room, dining room and bedrooms as having separate functions. When you are dealing with a smaller space, you can consider how the rooms can have multiple uses.
Look at pieces of furniture that can serve more than one purpose. That ottoman can double as storage, and triple as a coffee table that can be used for dining or as a work surface for homework or a quick meal by the television.
There is no reason why the bedroom has to be solely for sleeping. A bedroom can double as your TV and home entertainment area or as a reading nook. Regardless, make your bedroom your haven for quiet time without interruption of kids or roommates. A spare bedroom can be your second living room, used as a home office or an exercise area, or even as a combination of all three.
Maybe it isn’t about think outside the box but thinking about how many boxes can be placed into the box you have.
