The Furniture Mistake You're Making That'll Make A Small Room Feel Smaller

The reality is many of us have to deal with tiny apartments and houses. Whether you live in an adorable tiny home in a rural area or a cozy one-bedroom apartment in the big city, making a small space truly shine is an art form. In the big picture, getting it right takes a good taste, creating harmony between the objects while welcoming the contrast of negative (or empty) space, the proper use of color, and a joyful amplification of all available natural light. But the biggest mistake that will immediately cramp up your already petite living room is populating it with the wrong furniture.

If you've ever seen or experienced living inside a chaotic-looking home stuffed with an explosion of unneeded objects, you immediately feel overwhelmed and hemmed in. You can unintentionally replicate that with the wrong furniture. When you're designing an already small living space with bulky sofas, overstuffed chairs, or low-slung furniture with short or no legs, that's a formula for creating instant claustrophobia. 

You might have moved from a more spacious home to a smaller space, and you simply have the furniture you have. But while squat, clumpy-looking furniture might be legitimately charming in a hobbit house; it's a major design flaw for a small area. It simply makes it look cramped and tinier. Survey your space to identify what you might like to change.

If any of your pieces — chairs, armchairs, love seats, sofas, or cocktail tables — are particularly low to the ground (a beanbag chair being the lowest), consider swapping out all or as many pieces as you can. Or if you're in a studio apartment and your living room doubles as your bedroom, a mattress on the floor completely closes up the room. Consider purchasing a sleep sofa or bedframe with elevated legs to make sure it won't overwhelm a tiny room. 

For a breezy, uncluttered look, get chairs, sofas, cocktail tables, and side tables with thinner, defined, and visible legs several inches off the ground. When you can see under and around your furniture, it will create an airy, contemporary look and a sense of ease and expansion for you and your guests.