Everything Small Home Design

1. Welcome and Introduction: Hi. Hi, I'm Erica fold, woman, and I am excited to welcome you to my course on small home interior design. More than ever, many of us are finding ourselves living in small homes. Whether that's an apartment in Hong Kong, a studio in New York City, canal house in Amsterdam, or a row house in San Francisco. Where ever you are. I am so glad you decided to join me in my course that's been designed just for you. Now, I know that there are millions of us living in smaller spaces for a variety of reasons. Maybe you've embraced a smaller home movement. Maybe you're someone who's needed to or decided to downsize. Or maybe you just live in an area where small homes are the norm. Regardless of how you got here, there are many benefits and challenges to small home living. Obviously, I'll be covering most, if not all, the challenges of small home living from an interior design standpoint. But first, I want to focus on the benefits. And yes, believe it or not, there are many, first and foremost, small home living reduces stress on many levels. A smaller home results in lower utilities. A smaller home requires less money to furnish and fewer furnishings means that there is less to take care of and clean. A win win, win situation all the way around. Second, just because you have a small home, does not mean you have to sacrifice style, not at all. Small rooms and homes can be so beautiful like a little jewelry box. So what this means is that you have the opportunity to make a big design statement despite your small home. Third, and this is my favorite benefit of small home living because you'll have fewer pieces and less square footage to design. It's easier to invest in higher and pieces of materials, everything from wallpaper and countertops to artwork and fluorine. So now to some of the obvious potential challenges, a small home means less space for well, everything as a result. And as I'm sure, you know, nearly every design decision you make has to be well thought out as nearly everything needs to be functional as well as aesthetically appealing. You obviously also want to avoid any sort of cluster phobic feeling in your home. We are going for cozy, not cramped. In short, we have to be masters at maximizing our space. And that generally requires forethought and smart planning. And the more, you know, on the front end, the easier it will be on the backend, which is why I've created this course. To give you the information and tools you need to create a well-organized, stylish and functional home. Now, some of the most common challenges I hear are around clothing storage, space for dynein and entertaining and a desire to make our rooms look larger than they are. And they'll definitely get to all of that. But I'll be covering so much more as well. Specifically in the first half of this course, I'll be covering some of the most important issues with small home living, including the best planning strategies, where to go big and where to go small. Meaning what types of furnishings should you go bigger than you might think or smaller than you might think? Some of my favorite pieces that pulled double duty. Why open shelving is your small homes best friend, awesome storage hacks, innovative ways for separating open floor plans in a small home. How to strategically use colors and patterns, the best paint colors to consider for a small home and excellent lighting techniques. Then, using your new knowledge, you'll have an opportunity to figure out how to improve three small room designs in a guided activity. And half of the course we'll be talking about the best design approaches and techniques for each room of your home, including and three ways. Living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, master bedrooms, children's bedrooms, home offices, bathrooms, closets, laundry spaces, and outdoor areas. You'll then have an opportunity to create an actual room design for one of the rooms in your home using a five-page planner that I created specifically for this course. My goal is that by the end of this course, you'll have everything you need to design, redesign for, simply enhance your small home so that it becomes a place that you absolutely love to be. Now, just two quick notes. Some of the images you will see in this course are somewhat larger rooms. But if I've chosen the image, It's because it does a great job at illustrating the technique or approach that I'm describing. And I can assure you that it will work just as well in a small home. Additionally, this course is not about tiny houses. That would be a completely separate course. This course has been designed for apartment, condo, townhouse, flat, and loft dwellers, as well as those of us with small single-family houses. Finally, before we get started, just a quick introduction. I own my own interior design firm called Erica Don interiors. Whether working with clients or teaching individuals like you, my life truly revolves around interior design and I absolutely love it. I also recently downsize into a smaller home, and honestly, I couldn't be happier. That's also great news for you because not only do I have experience using these approaches professionally, but I've also successfully use many of them personally as well. So thank you very much for selecting this course. And now without further ado, let's dive right in. 2. 4 Techniques to Make a Room Look Bigger & 4 Biggest Mistakes to Avoid: whether you are looking to design your small space from scratch or you simply want to improve the design you already have, I want to share with you four techniques that designers regularly use toe help a room look and feel larger and more spacious. I'm also going to share the four biggest mistakes I often see homeowners make in their small homes. Let's go ahead and start with the space expanding approaches. Now this first technique is definitely one of the most important rules for great room design, and that is the use of a focal point. Focal points serve multiple purposes, such as helping you to more easily organize the room design and to help you create a wow moment for your room in a small room. A focal point will also help to distract from the size of the room. One of the best focal point opportunities for a small room is the ceiling, so that it draws your eye upward and helps you to emphasize the vertical space. Some of my favorite ceiling treatments, regardless of the room size, include wallpaper, coffered ceilings, ceiling beams and a bold pink color. If you go with a dark pink color, make it an eggshell or satin finish so that it will reflect a bit of light, as opposed to the flat finish that we typically use on our ceilings. Eye catching light fixtures such as chandeliers, pendants and semi flush mount lights are also a great focal point for a small room. A large collage of pictures that go nearly to the ceiling is also a great choice as a focal point for a small room again because it is drawing the eye upwards. One quick note about collages in a small room. Collages always look best when they're taken close to the ceiling. Otherwise, it is better to simply go with a large piece of artwork along these same lines. My second design technique for you is to always think vertically in a small room. For example, when hanging curtains or drapes, hang them high and wide. For an average height ceiling, meaning no more than nine feet or 2.7 meters. You want toe, hang them within a few inches of the ceiling or crown molding. Also, be sure toe hang the inside edge of your curtains or drapes at the edge of your window. to maximize daylight in your room, which always helps to visually expand a room. Also use window treatments that are the same colors your walls. Keeping color consistent across the length of your wall prevents the room from feeling smaller. And perhaps interestingly, using window coverings are the same color as your walls usually will provide a higher end designer look Other ways to emphasize a rooms height is to use tall plans or hanging plants , tall bookshelves built in bookcases or a tall arrangement of open shelving. The three ladder approaches also have the benefit of providing extra storage to a room, always a plus for a small room. Third on my list. For designers, most commonly used techniques in the small room is the use of full length mirrors really any mirrors? But I particularly like full length if possible. There are three primary ways that I like to use mirrors in the room, particularly a small room. First, designers often use them in the location where you would typically have a window but don't such as behind a sofa or a console table. Miers, placed opposite a window, also helped bounce natural light around the room. My third favorite placement for full length mirrors is behind a piece of furniture, such as behind a chair or table. It will actually provide the illusion of another room behind that piece of furniture. Apart from these three approaches, using full length mirrors and al coves and at the end of hallways are also excellent placement options. One important point. Do be thoughtful with your mere placement, so you aren't inadvertently reflecting a problem area in your home. Fourth and finally, in nearly any living room design, keep your primary seating away from your walls. It seems to be instinctual and so common to want to push the sofa and chairs up against the walls. But floating your seating even just 12 inches or 37 meters or so, we'll make a big difference in how big or small your room feels. Now. Let's move on to four of the biggest mistakes that I see clients often making their small homes first, and there seems to be so much conflicting information out there about this issue. There is a tendency for people to use furniture and rugs that are too small for their spaces. I am firmly in the design camp that says you should avoid filling your small room with small pieces now. That said, you can obviously use a high number of large pieces in the small room, but you can and should use to larger pieces in each room design, while obviously ensuring that you have adequate clearance. I talked more about how to do this later in the course, but suffice it to say that a room filled with only small pieces will feel, well, small. The second mistake that inadvertently happens in many small homes is that every surface eventually gets crowded. I know we all have the best intentions, but let's be honest. Small homes off impose significant storage challenges, so clutter creep is a common phenomenon. But if you don't want your rumor home to feel smaller than it is, it's extremely important that you minimize clutter and avoid crowding every flat surface in your home. This holds true for any bookcases and open shelving as well. You want to leave some unused space on these areas, which unconsciously emphasizes how much space you have said another way. Unused space means that you have more than enough space and that your home is plenty big makes sense. Great. The third biggest design mistake I see many people making is using Onley, a single light source in their room. This is especially problematic for small rooms, So why is that? The main reason is that when you use a single light source, such as a flush mount light, it's typically not adequate lighting for the entire room, and it inadvertently leaves some corners or areas of the room with insufficient lighting in the small room, you want to ensure that you are illuminating all areas of your room, especially all of your walls and corners. This will definitely help your room to feel larger also by using multiple light sources of various levels of your room. You then create visual interest at all levels, which not only keeps your eye moving around the room but also emphasizes the overall space of your room. Finally, the fourth biggest mistake that I see clients make is not properly measuring their space before purchasing a large item, such as a piece of furniture or a piece of artwork. Obviously, smaller homes generally means smaller rooms and more chances to make mistakes by purchasing pieces that just don't fit. Ouch. And don't just measure your space. Measure your doorways and all access points to your home. For example, if you're purchasing a new king size bed for your bedroom, measured not only your room to ensure that you'll have adequate walking clearance around your bed, but also measure every doorway that the mattress and headboard will have to come through, including any doors to your building if you live in an apartment, condo or flat. Even professional designers have made mistakes in this area, and it's often a very expensive mistake. So my mantra is measure, measure and then measure again. 3. Form Follows Function: every time I sit down with a client at the start of a project, one of my primary questions is what activities take place in this room. Now some activities are obvious. For example, if we're talking about a home office, clearly one or more members of the household are going to be working here. But this could also serve as a guest room, a space for hobbies and or a place to meet with clients. So in order to design a room that's fully functional, we have to start with its purpose. And Aiken nearly guarantee that almost every room in the home has multiple purposes from living rooms and kitchens, two bedrooms and laundry rooms. So being clear on what activities take place there before you begin designing will result in a design that you are much happier with. In the end, it's also important to be really honest about how you live. Sometimes clients will, whether it's wishful thinking or not, downplay certain activities that take place in the room. Let me give you a common example. Maybe they'll say that their living rooms primary purpose is to socialize with family and friends and play games. But reality. Watching TV is really what happens primarily in this room. This is important because the ideal furniture arrangement for watching TV is different than the ideal furniture arrangement for socializing and playing games. Now you can certainly design a room that accommodates all of these activities. But if you're not honest about how the room is actually used, you may end up with a less than ideal functional design. In a small home. This becomes critically important. Oftentimes we may have furniture or other items that will be used for multiple activities, and thats fine. However, the primary arrangement in that room should serve the primary activity or activities that take place there makes sense. Great. Finally, once you know the activities, they're going to be taken place in each room. You can then move on to one of the most important steps in small home design, and that is the cluttering de cluttering and de cluttering again. Your goal is to have the fewest number of pieces that you need in a room in order for it to meet all of your functional needs. When you accomplish your functional objectives, you are also on your way to simultaneously meeting your form needs as well, meaning after you have the needed furniture selections. You are then generally just left with decisions around color schemes, artwork, rugs, accessories, etcetera. In short, I urge you do not skip this important step when putting together your homes room design. 4. Where to go "Big" and Where to Go "Small": as I spoke about in an earlier lecture. I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make with their small homes is that the only buy small pieces of furniture counterintuitively using Onley small pieces in a small space will generally make the space feel smaller than it is. That said, sometimes smaller pieces do make more sense, which can make it hard to know. Where should you go big and where should you go small? Let's start with where you should go big first. Your rug for a small family are living room. I will actually often go with the biggest possible rug, maintaining a 12 to 18 inch or 30 to 46 centimeter space between your rug in the wall. I generally go with 18 inches or 46 centimeters, but foreign, especially small room. I will frequently reduce that to 8 to 12 inches, or 20 or 30 centimeters. This means that likely all of your furniture will be sitting on the rug. But by doing this, your eyes expanded outwards by the rug, making your space feel larger. However, for dining or breakfast areas, all follow the same rules. Regardless of the space size which is to ensure the rug extends a minimum of two feet, or 61 centimeters from each edge of the table, so that when you pull the chairs back there still sitting on the rug for the bedroom, I will generally place the rug so that it sits in front of the night stands and extends at least two feet or 61 centimeters out from the bottom and both sides of your bed. This means that the rug will sit under roughly 2/3 of your bed for a small bedroom. This may mean that the rug takes up most of the floor space, which is just fine. Just make sure to have a minimum of eight inches or 20 centimeters between the edge of your rug and the wall next used to large pieces per room. This could be your sofa and wall art, or it could be wall art and a floor lamp or wall art and a coffee table. Usually the best approach is to have one larger piece of furniture meaning eighties piece of seeding or a case good item, and then have the other large peace be artwork or lighting. Specifically, you don't want a large sofa and the large chair it likely won't fit, and it will make your space feel cramped. Also, make sure that the pieces still fit your space appropriately and that you maintain adequate distance between furniture pieces and for walkways. This means 36 inches or 91 centimeters, from Maine walkways. 22 to 24 inches or 56 to 61 centimeters between furniture pieces and 14 to 18 inches or 36 to 46 centimeters between your sofa and the coffee table. Now you may be wondering what specific piece of furniture should I go big on? To answer this question, think about what's important to your space from a utility perspective. If you and your family like to stretch out while watching TV, a larger sofa, maybe the way to go L shape sofas in particular, often work well in small rooms. Whether they are a narrow room, a closed room or part of an open floor plan, they provide a lot of seating with less real estate than the sofa and two chairs will take , and placing a small ottoman stool or chair in the opposite corner is usually a winning combination. Now, if you live alone and you enjoy curling up with a good book, an oversized chair with ottoman, maybe the better choice If you need storage for books, a large bookcase or attack gerais may be ideal now. That said, here are some tips to visually minimize these larger items. For your sofa, I would go with a low profile sofa and one with visible legs. If you go the larger coffee table or etat Gerais, choosing one that is made of Lucite acrylic or has glass tops and or shelves, we'll also greatly minimize the amount of visual space that they take up. Apart from considering your functional needs, I would also consider your rooms focal point. As I spoke about earlier, every room needs a focal point, so I would absolutely take that into account when deciding where you should go big. For example, if you have a great large scale piece of artwork that you'd like to include in the room, this then can be one of the two large items in your room, and it can serve as your focal point, which can be reinforced as a focal point by installing a picture light or a wall washer in your ceiling, so you may be wondering, why do large pieces, such as a large rug or sofa help a small room to feel larger? It's simply a trick of the eye. Seen. A larger item in a room gives you the immediate impression that there's plenty of room for that larger item, said Another way. If you only see small pieces in the room, you can't help unconsciously think. Oh, this room is small. It will only fit small pieces. Also, by having fewer pieces in the room, it helps to ensure that the room won't feel cluttered in terms of which items I regularly choose to go smaller than would in a large room definitely end tables. There is no need to take up space in a small room with bulky end tables. Additionally, because many small homeowners don't have the luxury of a dedicated home office and instead have to fit their office space into their living rooms or bedrooms, I would definitely skip the large, bulky desk and instead use a sleek console table, Ah, wall shelf or a double duty item, which I'll talk more about in an upcoming lecture. Additionally, although this is not technically smaller, limit the amount of accessories you use on your flat surfaces, particularly your coffee tables and tables and your counsel tables. 5. Great Double Duty Pieces : If you live in a small home, I know you heard plenty of people tell you that every item in your home, if possible, should be pulling double duty, meaning every piece should serve two or more functions. Or, as I and others like to say, use smart furniture. Sure, that's great advice and makes perfect sense. But beyond a couple of obvious choices, like using your dining table as a desk, how easy is this to implement? Not that hard. Actually. You may either naturally think outside the box or, if not simply being made aware of what types of pieces can more easily serve. Double duty will make you more likely to shop smart. So let's get to it first, Let's tackle those items that will easily provide you with more storage or what I like to call helping small homeowners to solve their biggest frustration. We have trunks that double is a coffee table dressers as night stands benches with storage , which I particularly like as additional seating for a small home, as not only are they low profile, but they can also work as an easy and effective space divider. In an open floor plan platform beds with storage window seats with storage full length mirrors as jewelry, armoires and secretary desks, which could be used as a desk on the top and as a bar and or glass storage on the bottom. Apart from storage items, we also have stools for seating and, as end tables, daybeds as sofas. Baker's racks for entryway storage, coffee tables at double s foot rests and or extra seating. Convertible ottomans that turn into beds for guests and nesting tables to double your coffee table space as needed. And this end tables wherever you need them. So that was a lot of ideas. Let's now go ahead and put them together into a room design so we can see what a big impact using double duty items can make on the function of a room. First, let's create a living room design with many other pieces we just saw here. You can see I've combined the day bad, which also functions as a sofa. The storage bench, which construir you're betting for the day bed. The nesting tables, which are currently serving as a coffee table but could be used as more end tables. The stool, which is being used as an end table in this design, but can also be used as a seat for the secretary desk on the left, which can also serve as your bar for drinks and stemware. Now let's create a bedroom design. Here we have a bag with storage underneath a dresser being used as a night stand for your clothing, a full length mirror, which is also a jewelry armoire. And at the foot of the bed, we have a convertible ottoman, which serves as seating in the room but will turn into a twin bed for any additional guests . As you can see in both of these designs, every piece of furniture serves two functions, and it does so beautifully. This isn't hard, but does require some pre planning. Obviously, every time you plan on purchasing something for your home, simply ask yourself can easily serve two functions. If it can't then figure out what type of item does. The market of smart furniture pieces is continuously growing, and you're bound to find what you need 6. Why Open Shelving is a Small Home’s Best Friend : I am a big fan of open shelving. I particularly love them in kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and home offices. While open shelving is great in any size home, I especially love it in smaller homes for a number of reasons. Now, before I get into those reasons, let me just clarify that there are many types of open shelves. You can have open shelves inside of doorless cabinetry. You can have open shelves in the form of the Taj arrays, and you can have open shelving that is secured to the wall. Either is floating shelves or with visible brackets. While these are all great options in this lecture, I am focusing on the ladder choice shelves that are secured to the wall as either floating shelves or shelves with visible brackets. Now, to the many advantages of open shelving, first storage or the lack thereof is nearly always the number one issue I deal with in small homes. There never seems to be enough. Now you can certainly use cabinetry, consul tables with doors and drawers, sideboards, chess, etcetera and all of those items are great, and you should use them strategically throughout your home. But in a small home. You can Onley use so many of these types of items due to floor space constraints. Not so with open shelving. Open shelving allows you to effectively utilize the vertical spacing your home for your likely number. One problem. Second, open shelves are obviously not as bulky as traditional case good items, which means that your storage will now help to open up your space visually. Third, they are incredibly flexible. They come in various lengths and colors, so you can create storage easily on nearly any wall of your home. And in those awkward spaces, and with a maximum depth of typically 16 inches or 41 centimeters, they aren't taking up a lot of real estate. So let's go ahead and take a look at some great examples of where I would use open shelving in a small home. One of my favorite places to use them in a family or living room is behind the sofa, traditionally a place for artwork in larger homes. Open shelving behind the sofa allows you to display artwork, of course, but also books, plants, sculptures or any other accessories you have so items that you might normally display on the coffee table or other case. Good item can be displayed here, freeing up some precious space on your other pieces of furniture, such as your high utility coffee table. I generally recommend painting the shelves the same color as the walls, as I've spoken about in other courses, painting the molding, shelving or any other architectural wall details. The same color is your wall won't break up the space visually, meaning your room won't look smaller as a result. Here is another smart idea for shelving in your main living space. Instead of taking up precious wall space for a bookcase, this home has built a shelf near the ceiling for books. It also has the added benefit of drawing the eye upward, which, as you now know, can help a room to feel larger. The downside with the solution, as I'm sure you can see, is that makes it more challenging to reach the books. But this could be a great solution for your reference books or books that you've already read and don't want to part with. If you want to kick it up, design wise, arrange the books by color or remove the sleeves on your hard covers. As generally, this will give you a cleaner look to your shelf. A final option to consider is toe. Hang them over your TV or on either side of your TV when I like about this arrangement is that the shelving on top is visually balanced by the wall mounted media Consul beneath the TV. While here we see accessories. It would also be a great place for DVDs, books, etcetera, moving on to the kitchen. There are also a few excellent options for placement. One of my favorites is on either side of the Range hood. I love this for both functional and aesthetic reasons. Functionally, it's great to be able to easily grab a plate once dinner is ready. Aesthetically, the range in hood are often the focal point of the kitchen, so adding open shelving to that area further reinforces the kitchen's focal point. Because of that, I would definitely be sure to include some decorative items as well on the upper shelves, such as serving wear or a tea set. Another great place for open shelving is in between cabinetry in a small kitchen. A long line of upper cabinets could make a kitchen feel cramped. Removing just one set of cabinets can really make a difference visually. Now, if you really want, open your space up visually. Consider replacing all of your uppers with open shelving. Not easy for everyone, but it's a great choice strictly from an aesthetic standpoint, but perhaps a nice compromises to replace 1/3 to 1/2 of your upper cabinetry with open shelving like we see here as in the side, I love the way they use the same tile on the floor and the backsplash. What an easy way to achieve harmony in their design. Now let's move on to the home office. If you are lucky enough to have a dedicated room in your home just for your home office or even just an entire wall, open shelving is obviously incredibly functional. It's a great place to store files, books, office supplies and certainly a place for decorative items like small pieces of artwork. If you have even less space like we see here, open shelves are even more valuable. Why do you think that is? Well, consider. If the shells were replaced with a bulkier desk and hutch, it would take up a lot more space visually in the room. The open shelves over the open frame desk keeps this area looking light and airy. They chose to use plants here, but if you replace these plants with decorative white boxes, then you would have ample room for storage as well. Moving on to the bedroom. I love the idea of a long, low shelf over the bed now only to help reinforce your bed as the rooms focal point. But it really small rooms that could also be used in lieu of a night stand for placing books, a glass of water, eyeglasses and other pertinent items. Obviously, you'll want to mix in some decorative items as well. If your bedroom also needs an office area, obviously, open shelves can help to easily create that space for you. Finally, looking at the bathroom, what could be more handy than having your towels and bath products easily accessible and the gag? Because they come in all lengths, there are many configurations that could be used apart for the typical over the toilet shelving unit. And if your bathroom is especially space constrained, recessed shelves are a great solution, which are easier to add than you may think using them to the left or right of your sink is an excellent alternative to cabinetry for your everyday supplies and much easier to keep clean. I love the look of all white or glass containers as well for things like cotton balls, Q tips, lotions, etcetera. Some other excellent uses for open shelving in a small home that you may not have thought of include creating a mini bar under your stairs, placing corner shelves in the unused corner of your home, such as between two rooms, which would normally just be dead space as an open pantry at the end of your cabinetry above your bathroom doors for extra tell or toilet paper storage, or build recessed open shelves between your studs in multiple areas of your home. 7. To Divide or Not to Divide: Unique Small Home Challenges: to divide or not to divide. That is the question Most of us love open floor plans, but sometimes we don't particularly when it comes the studio apartments where your living room, your kitchen and your bedroom are all in the same line of sight. And most of us probably don't want to feel like our guests are hanging out in our bedroom, either. But conversely, with a particularly small home, we may feel closed in by all of the walls and would love nothing more than to open it up without losing privacy or making it feel like a studio apartment. So what's a small home dweller to dio? I believe the answer lies in the middle. You either want separation Options are flexible, meaning they could be removed when desired. Or you want some partial visual separation between spaces. If you're not entirely sure what this looks like not to worry, it will all become clear as you move through this lecture. But first, let's discuss the pros and cons for dividing the space on the pro side. It can provide privacy, keep guests off your bed and add visual interest to your space when you use beautiful materials or furniture toe act as dividers on the con side. It may make a space feel smaller. It adds cost. And although it provides a visual break, many solutions won't do much to minimize sound between spaces. So let's assume that the pros outweigh the cons. For you. The question is, what solution or solutions would work best? Well, I've divide the solutions in the two main categories. Those that are costlier and may only work if you own your home and those that are more affordable and available to renters as well. Let's start with the costlier options. One of my very favorite solutions is the black framed glass wall system. And what is incredible about this option is that, believe it or not, there are companies that sell these as de mount herbal walls, meaning that can be installed and uninstalled with minimal or no impact to your space, which not only makes this solution super flexible but also makes us a possible solution for renters. This is such a great look if the style of your home is contemporary, modern French, Scandinavian, urban, modern, mid century, modern industrial or Zen. I love the solution because it provides incredible visual interest. It can provide privacy if you hang drapes from the ceiling immediately behind the wall. And this particular solution can also provide some soundproofing as well. This option works particularly well to divide off your bedroom or home office. Next up are sliding walls or sliding room dividers. Thes large doors can be opaque glass like we see here, but they can also be made from translucent glass pattern glass, wood, green, solid surfaces. Or some companies will even allow you to install your own wall covering in between layers of glass. For an incredible level of customization moving on, we have built in room dividers. What I like about this idea is that you have so many design options available to you, and many of them are constructed in a way that allow you to see through them while more effectively dividing your space. The ability to see through them really helps to maintain a more open area feel while extending a room for larger pieces of furniture. Again, design options abound with built in dividers, including those made of glass and wood, just slats of wood or as a built in bookcase for displaying beautiful accessories just to name a few. Speaking of bookcases, let's move on to the more affordable solutions. Open back bookcases have long been used as room dividers, and they're still a great and stylish solution. Just make sure that is securely attached to the wall, floor and or ceiling, so that isn't a safety hazard, particularly if you live in an earthquake prone area or with active Children moving on. You should definitely consider using other pieces of furniture as dividers. Portable kitchen islands or bars make great dividers between kitchens and living areas and can provide a convenient place to. But your couch up against a long buffet or console is also a great choice between your sofa and dining area or breakfast nook. And this separation between kitchen and bedroom can be replicated with an open back bookcase securely attached to the wall and a small oval or rectangular breakfast table for both form and function. Next up on the list are portable room dividers. I particularly like them when they're the same color as the walls so that they blend mawr with the space or if they are at least the same color as the other hard surfaces in the room so that the divider feels like it's a coordinated room element rather than just a random piece in your space. Most are used for privacy, so they are generally made of solid material, but they don't have to be here. We have a room divider, likely portable, that is made from wood and rope. A perfect look for a bohemian coastal or Scandinavian room last up our curtain room dividers. And believe it or not, you actually have quite a few options in this category. First, you can purchase fairly affordable room divider curtains in which the color and the fabric are the same on both sides, and because you can't see through them, they do provide privacy. You'll just need to purchase the right hardware to install them. Then there are companies like room dividers now that sell a variety of curtain room divider kits, one of which includes the curtain and the freestanding hardware to go with it. This is a great option for renters who aren't allowed to drill anything into the walls or ceiling, and there are even higher, and options are called soundproof, which reduce noise significantly as well. So really lots of great choices. Just a word about color. Like what? The portable room dividers. I would personally prefer that my current room divider match the color of my walls. However, if you have white walls, you could certainly go with the white curtain. But be aware that's going to show dirt more easily, so you may have to wash them more often than you would like. Finally, in terms of material, you'll often have several options, with the most popular being polyester velvet. But cotton is also available. And, of course, one of the best features of curtain room dividers is that they can be easily opened or closed as needed. 8. Strategically Use Colors/Patterns in a Small Home : color is clearly an essential element of interior design, and without it there's just something missing. Oh, wait, there is something. The scene there that's better. So let's talk about color, which is probably one of the most challenging aspects of design for most people. For a number of reasons, here are some of the most common questions I'm asked as a designer. What colors will help my space look larger? What colors will help my space feel cozy? Can I use dark colors in a small space? How many different neutrals and or accent colors should I have in my color scheme? Is it better from my window treatments to match or contrast with the walls? Do my ceiling and floor colors need to be part of my color scheme? Will patterns make my small room feel smaller and help? I'm color blind, mute, agree, muted red and gray all look the same to me with all of these questions. No wonder people are overwhelmed when it comes to choosing a color palette, selecting pink colors and trying to coordinate patterns. It can be an interior design minefield, and when you live in a small home, it can even be more challenging because every choice, including color, has such a big impact as you typically can't go far to escape any one area. In short, the pressure is on to get this right. But don't worry. I am here to help you figure this out when I'm working with a client. One of my first questions for any room is What mood do you want for this room? And the follow up question is, do you want the space to feel large and airy or small and cozy? This couldn't be more true. Free small home. You can either actively work to expand the space visually, or you can embrace the small footprint and turn your room or your home into a beautiful, cozy little cocoon. Now, in general, I will say that the majority of individuals want to visually expand their space. If that's true for you, it's first important to limit your color palette toe approximately three main colors total for both neutrals and accents. Now let me just clarify. This does not mean that these three colors are the only colors. You having your room first. If you're sealing a standard white than white, does not have to be part of your color scheme. Similarly, the flooring color is not included. Any rooms color scheme although you should be mindful of the flooring undertones when considering your color scheme, particularly when selecting your rug along the same lines. The wood tones or metal finishes you use in the room are separate and distinct from your color scheme. Obviously, they need to harmonize, but I do not consider them part of a color scheme. Also, other colors are going to be brought in here and there in places like your artwork, accessories, books, etcetera. Finally, you can and should include more than one shade or tent of at least some of your main colors . Toe Add visual interest to the space, such as the multiple shades of blue that we see in this room. The idea behind employing a color scheme is toe. Have the room feel cohesive, so these main colors you've chosen will need to be repeated multiple times in your room, generally at least three times for the color scheme and the room to feel cohesive. Some easy and effective color combinations for a small home include black, white and gray. Yes, I recognize that's all neutrals. But how elegant is this combination? Cream black and seafoam green or your favorite cool color. Dark gray, beige and white. Another lovely all mutual combination and white, gray and blue. Another easy trick to visually expand your space is to choose a light color for your window treatments and then paint the walls ceiling and trim the same light color as your window treatments. So there's no visual break between walls, ceiling trim and window coverings. That said, it's smart to use different finishes, even when using the same pink color flat for your ceiling. Eggshell for your walls and semi glass for your trim is the traditional approach along those same lines. If you match the color of your main furniture pieces to your wall, especially your case, good items that sit up against the wall. This will also help reduce contrast and help your room feel a bit larger as well. Going back to the previous examples, you may have noticed that some of these colors were on the dark side, such as black and dark gray, so let's talk about dark colors for a minute. The obvious question is, can they ever be used in large amounts in a small home, Or will they always make the space feel smaller? Well, it depends on the walls. A dark color nearly always makes the wall or balls feel as if they are advancing towards you for the ceiling. Most start colors will appear to visually lower the ceiling. That's a great choice for a high ceiling. Of course, it's definitely a dramatic choice. So not for everyone. There is one area of the room that you can usually go dark without making the room feel smaller. Any guesses? You are correct. If you said the flooring now, some might argue that light flooring makes a room feel larger. But I find that if you pair dark flooring with walls, ceiling and window treatments that are a coordinating like color, this will not make a big difference in how large or small your room feels. I feel similarly about dark, low profile furniture if paired with light walls, ceiling and window treatments. Some dark furniture in a room does not make a room feel noticeably smaller, in my opinion, and honestly, I love dark colors, and I used them all the time in my designs whether the room is small or large and now Onley because I absolutely love dark colors. But because contrast in design is important again, it's all in how you use those dark colors. Speaking of contrast, that is another important consideration I discussed with the client. Do you prefer a color scheme that has a lot of contrast? Or do you prefer one that is more monochromatic, although on the surface contrast is typically used for formal or high energy styles like Bohemian and our deco and neutral, monochromatic schemes are often associate with more casual, relaxed styles like Scandinavia and coastal chic. You can absolutely incorporate either type of color scheme in nearly any style, so it's important to decide during the planning stage would you prefer so you can consciously create that look. So let's recap if your primary goal is to make your room feel larger. Walls, ceiling and window treatments should be light, ideally the same color, however flooring. Low scale, appropriately sized furniture and accessories condemn finitely. Be dark, apart from limiting your palate and using light neutrals such as white cream, grey, beige and gray age for your walls, ceiling trim and window treatments other ways to visually expand your spaces to repeat the same pattern on places like your headboard and wallpaper to avoid a visual break. Additionally again, if you want to visually expand the space as much as possible, avoid accent walls, which will break up the room. Whether using a neutral or non neutral color as your main color. Use a monochromatic color scheme in which you use tones of the same color, which will minimise dramatic color changes and ensure that the room doesn't feel cut up. Although again, using a light, neutral, monochromatic color scheme will yield the best results for visually expanding your space. As I mentioned in a previous lecture, Use Miers to help balance the light around the room and incorporate metallic and or mere finishes on your case. Good items which will also help to reflect light. But don't go overboard. I try to limit these types of pieces to two per room at most. Patterns can also help your room to feel larger or smaller, depending upon how you use them. Specifically, vertical stripes on rugs and wall paper will help to elongate the room and make it feel taller or longer. Additionally, for those of you with open floor plans, repeating patterns throughout the space, just like repeating colors creates harmony in your design. You can, of course, also mixed patterns. The key is toe. Either use the same colors like we see here with the red, white and olive. Or you can use the same pattern but use different colors for those of you with low ceilings . Be aware that using a rug with a bright, bold pattern will make the room feel smaller. So for a room with low ceilings, I recommend using a solid light colored rug or a light colored rug with a subtle pattern. Additionally, using lots of different patterns in a room creates a lot of visual breaks in your room and will potentially make a room feel smaller. But sometimes this is okay. It totally depends on your design goals. You may. Why really cozy yet energetic feeling to your room? Obviously, mixing patterns well can be tricky. But if you follow the guidelines about mixing patterns I just spoke about and you're okay with the potentially smaller feeling that is definitely a valid design choice along those same lines. If you do want to embrace the smallness of your home, and I truly love this approach in the right situation. Then I would choose when highly saturated, darker hue as your primary color, such as navy blue, charcoal gray, a deep red or a dark green. If you go this route, I would balance the dark hue with Miers glass or polished metal case. Good items, a variety of textures, some light flooring or light or bright rugs, and that would include some lighter or brighter furniture pieces to avoid a heavy or cave like feeling. Additionally, if you're up for the serious prep work required and it is a lot, I would consider lacquer in your walls and or ceiling in your dark pink color. As this will help to reflect light and be sure to include some Miers toe Amplify the effect . Also painting your trim specifically your crown molding and or baseboards. The same dark hue will help along get your walls and make your ceilings feel taller than they are going with a highly saturated, darker hue, as your main color works particularly well in a powder room, a bedroom or a dining room, 9. Excellent Lighting Techniques for your Small Home : if you've taken any of my other classes, I am sure you've heard me talk potentially ad nauseam about the importance of lighting when it comes to great interior design. While most of my advice works just as well for small spaces, I do have some specific recommendations to share with you that are important to a small room or home. First, what is the most premium element that you have in the small room space, of course, and in particular floor space. So, given that fact, what type of light fixture do you think you should try to avoid? Yes, floor lamps. Now don't get me wrong. Occasionally, you might have the absolutely perfect place for a floor lamp. Tight corners air particularly good. And if you don't want to use that space for a large floor plant, then by all means go with the floor lamp. Additionally, if you have an amazing statement floor lamp, they want to be a focal point in your room. That may very well be worth sacrificing that floor space, but in general, floor space is often better use for other furniture, like consul tables and chests that could be used for storage or end tables, which of course can be used for table lamps and other items of utility or decoration. Apart from table lamps and glass, table lamps are particularly good for small spaces. Wall sconces are a particular favorite of mine, especially in smaller spaces, as they don't take up floor or table space, and they work in every room of the home. I love them in living rooms, bedrooms, entryways and hallways, and I particularly love them as task lighting for bathrooms, kitchens and even in small office areas. Sconces, especially swing arm sconce, is are also a favorite of mine for guest bedrooms as a free up valuable space on night stands. Although installing them is not particularly expensive, don't forget to budget for drywall repair and painting as well. For renters, plug in sconces could be a great alternative moving on the ceiling fixtures. I absolutely love chandeliers. However, you will need to proceed with a bit of caution here, as some will be too big for small rooms and or you may not have the ceiling height necessary for a chandelier, as you want to have a minimum of seven feet or 2.1 meters of space between your finish floor and the bottom of your fixture for adequate walking clearance. This clearance requirement can and should often be reduced when hung over a case good item , such as a dining table or a coffee table as faras size. Definitely be sure to go with the professional guideline of ensuring that the diameter of your fixture is roughly the sum of the width and length of your room or space that you are illuminating, although I go up by about five inches or 13 centimeters for a more oversized look. If you're worried about chandelier feeling to visually heavy in a small room, I would also stick with glass or crystal fixtures that are visually lighter than something like a dark metal chandelier will be. While chandeliers might work for a particularly small spaces, you may prefer an eye catching pendant, a flush mount or a semi flush mount light as your ceiling fixture. Pendants like sconces work particularly well in lieu of bedside table lamps, but I also love one or two pendants and a small bathroom that is lacking sufficient wall space for sconces. If at all possible, definitely use sconces, pendants or backlit mears in your bathrooms. Why? Because using Onley overhead lighting in a bathroom will cast unflattering shadows on you and your guests. Pendants can also be an excellent choice in lieu of a table lamp in places like your entryway, as it not only avoids taking up valuable real estate on the console table, but a pendant will also emphasize the height of the room by drawing your eye upward. This, of course, only works provide. You don't have a really low ceiling. Now, if you are lucky to have a high ceiling, definitely be sure. Toe hang long dependence or a long light fixture in your room to emphasize the vertical space and minimize your impact on your limited floor space. Another beautiful lighting option for many rooms is cove lighting, also known as ambient luminescence. Cove lighting is a form of indirect ambient lighting that is commonly built into ledges, balances, tray ceilings, coffered ceilings and behind crown molding and primarily shines a light upward towards the ceiling but can also be designed to shine down adjacent walls as well in a wall washing effect. I personally love this type of lighting when done well because it provides a dramatic, polished and high and look to a room, so definitely something to consider for rooms like your master bedroom and your dining room . Don't forget that other great ceiling fixtures include recess can lighting and small track lighting, although not as exciting as a flush mount light chandelier pendant recess can Lighting is an excellent source of ambient lighting for any size room and can always be used in tandem with a chandelier pendant. Flush mount light or ceiling fan track lighting in the right interior design style is an excellent fixture for a small space as a conserve multiple functions. First, If positioned correctly, it conserves task lighting and take the place of some of your floor and table lamps, freeing up valuable space. Second, that could be used as well washers, which, as you'll learn a little bit help to make a room feel larger and third, they can act as dramatic accent lighting to highlight artwork, sculptures, bookshelves, etcetera. Just be sure that you use a track lighting system with small head fixtures so it doesn't overwhelm your small space Visually. Speaking of accent lighting, I also love picture lights, hungover artwork as a really add a sophisticated field to your space. Flora plights look great behind large floor plants or just in the corner of rooms and led strip lights should be your best friend, as they could be used in so many places, including, but not limited to your bookshelves. Open shelves in cabinetry with glass doors on kitchen and bath, cabinet toe kicks and my favorite under your upper kitchen cabinets as task lighting. Now, if you take the time and install attractive ceiling fixture, some eye catching table labs, some picture lights and some plant up lights in your room, you are going to be way ahead of most people when it comes to lighting design. But what if you want to take it a step further and use lighting toe? Help make your small room feel larger. You can absolutely do that. I have to go two ways of doing this. My first favorite way is to light up the walls and corners. Using wall washers as lighting up your walls evenly will make a room appear brighter and incidentally, larger as well. And you now know one of the other primary ways we designers use light help a room feel larger is by placing large mirrors, either opposite windows or opposite light fixtures, to amplify the light throughout the room. Again, Brighter rooms look larger. Speaking of windows. Be sure to use sheer window treatments and or hang drapes or curtains at the edges of your windows. See you maximize natural light. Some might tell you that you should leave your windows bear of window treatments. And while yes, that does cut down on contrast and will make your space feel a bit larger. I personally love how much texture and dimension great window treatments add to a room, and I always want a way to control my natural light. Just remember to keep your window treatments and pink color the same to minimize visual breaks in your room. All that said, sometimes you obviously don't want a bright room, so be sure to install dimmers on as many fixtures as possible, so you can always control the lighting and therefore the mood of your space 10. Activity #1 - Let’s Improve These Small Room Designs!: now that we've covered so many different useful techniques for improving your small home, both functionally an aesthetically I want you to have an opportunity to directly apply your learnings in a guided exercise. Specifically, I'm going to show you three smaller room designs, and I want you to identify 2 to 3 techniques that were used well and then three ways in which each of these room designs could be improved. Once you have a few moments to write down your recommendations, all then share with you how I would improve these designs as well. The idea is that if you can spot problems and solutions with other small room designs, you will more easily be able to apply these learnings in your own home ready to get started . Great. Remember, we've talked about a number of topics, such as the importance of a focal point thinking vertically, furniture size and placement being clear on a rooms function. How to use Miers. Colors and patterns, open shelving, lighting, storage and where to go big and where to go small. Let's go ahead. Look at our first room, which appears to be a small TV room again, thinking back on what you've learned. What would you say? They've done well. Jot down 2 to 3 things. More importantly, can you think of three ways that they can improve on this space? Go ahead and pauses video, and then we'll come back together to discuss Welcome back. Let's talk about some good design choices that were made with this room First, I appreciate that they went with a light, soothing color scheme. Great for a small space like this. Additionally, I like the few complimentary patterns they brought in with their pillows and accent chair. Finally, although they didn't include a lot of artificial light, I applaud them that their choice was a table lamp and a floor lamp as opposed to one overhead light, which is so common in homes. Thes types of fixtures will be better for TV viewing, and they provide a more pleasing light in the evenings than one overhead fixture does in terms of what they could improve. My first note is that I would paint the walls and ceiling in the same color. I would likely go with a very light beige color, but by painting this very low ceiling a different color than the walls. They are accentuating how low that ceiling is, and it's breaking up the room more than it has to. Simply making this one change would definitely make a difference in how spacious the room feels. Second, this room lacks an obvious focal point right now. For me, the most obvious focal point would be the view outside. So I would move the pictures to another space, and I would frame this window and some drapes that are the same color as the walls to draw attention to the window as well. Azad More texture to this room design. The third quick and easy change I would make is the mouth the TV on the wall, as that would provide an opportunity to include some pretty accessories on that console table as a really isn't much room to do that elsewhere, unless you added a decorative tray with a couple of accessories on the Ottoman, which you could certainly do as well. Now I know I asked you to keep it to three suggestions, but I couldn't help myself to write down one more, which is to include a large rug in the space, one that would sit about eight inches or 20 centimeters from each of the walls. I would choose a light colored rug with a muted pattern, which would definitely help to add some more visual interest to the space. Let's move on to our next room, which is a small bedroom again, thinking about what you've learned, what works in this room and again. What three techniques would you use to improve the overall room design? Please pause the video now and come back when you're ready. Okay, So in terms of what is working, obviously, the light color scheme is another good choice. Also, having a bed with visible legs and a light, leggy chair helps to lighten their visual weight in the space. There are some great areas for improvement in this room as well. First and again, we have no interesting vocal point in bedrooms. It's nearly always the bed, so let's go ahead and do that here. That small night stand is not really working as it's quite small, and it's placed in front of a radiator, which is not a safe choice. So instead, I would select a larger night stand. One that's is why does the bed and a little taller than top of the mattress and place it in the corner behind the bed. This larger scale will actually help, and it will provide the occupant with a larger surface for placing decorative and functional items. The second thing I would do to help reinforce the bed as a focal point is to use a large scale piece of artwork above the bed, something light colored and soothing but with some visual interest and about 1/3 the length of the bed. I would then place a large mirror with a white or perhaps a chrome frame behind this desk toe. Help bounce light around the room, and it would be well placed to reflect the pretty artwork on the opposite wall. Okay, so I know I should stop there because that is three improvements. But I'm going to mention two other recommendations that you may have thought of as well. I am sure some of you cited the small rug using this room while I love sheepskin rugs like this, particularly near bed, the small sizes just emphasizing the small scale of the room. So I'm sure some of you wrote down the replaces rug with a much larger rug that would sit under most of the furniture in this room. I would just be sure to choose something with a very low pile so that it doesn't cause uneven surfaces for the desk and the bed. Finally, while I love the small plant on the desk, I'd rather remove that plant. So there's plenty of working room for a laptop desk lamp, etcetera, and instead replace it with a tall, narrow floor plant in this corner of the room to the left of the window, which will also help to balance the taller night stands and table lamp that will be in the opposite corner of the room behind the bed. Now let's move on to the final room design. This room is a little larger than the previous two, but many of the same techniques and pitfalls would apply. So go ahead and pause the video and come back when you have made your notes First. I like that they used a lot of greenery because you know how much I love greenery. I like the crown molding like that. They pay their ceilings something other than white. That said, you probably know where I'm going to begin on how this room design can be improved. You are correct. If you said focal point, what exactly is the focal point exactly? It's not terribly obvious. And if you had the guests, you might say the TV because that is what is on the wall opposite the entrance to the room . But clearly that is not the best choice. Also, the TV is not in the best viewing position of the couch, so I would swap the China Cabinet with the TV. I would remove the wall decor on the back wall and make the China cabinet the focal point of this room. I would also remove some of the items from the top of the China Cabinet to make it feel less cluttered, and I would install some led lighting inside the cabinet under each shelf toe, highlight the objects within and further establish this as the focal point. The next change I would make is to definitely choose a larger rug, one that sits roughly 8 to 12 inches, or 20 or 30 centimeters from each wall and a larger coffee table. Both are much too small for this space. The Ottoman is not large enough to be functional for this large sofa, especially in the absence of end tables. Finally, I would replace the clock and wall the core over the sofa with a large, pretty mirror to reflect the daylight from the large window on the opposite wall. I hope you found these three case that he's helpful when thinking about how to apply all of these approaches and techniques to your own home. I'll see you in the next lecture. 11. Entryways: now that we've talked about a lot of great practical concepts that you can apply when decorating your small home, I now want to share with you some ideal design approaches for each and every room you may have in your home. And, of course, we're going to start in the entryway now. Whether your entryway is a proper space or simply a tiny wall next to your front door, this important area of your home needs to, in my mind, be designed in a way to serve three important purposes. First, it needs to meet our functional needs, namely storage for our keys, mail coats, scarves, hats, bags and possibly shoes. A place to sit and put on our shoes, the ability to check ourselves one last time before we walk out the door, or to greet guests and proper lighting for greeting guests and coming home in the evenings . Second, because your entryway provides the first impression of your home, it should also be decorated in a way to reflect the predominant style and color scheme of your home. Third again because the entryway is your home's first impression. I love having a wow moment here, so think about how you can make a style statement even in this potentially very small space . So let's start with the first order of business, namely our functional needs, starting with key and male storage. This all depends on how much space you actually have. You might have enough room for something as large as a baker's rack or something comparable , or you may have the depth needed for a storage cabinet. The most common item used, of course, is a consul table, as these come in all shapes and sizes, including small half moon consuls, which are ideal for a small space on acrylic console table with its light visual weight is also a great choice for a small entry and definitely use an attractive tray or bull to corral those small items. Of course, don't let the area below your console table goto waste. You can use the space for baskets, stools or ottomans for seeding or even attach hooks under your counsel table, toe hold purses and backpacks along the same lines as a consul table. We have small compact tables like night stands or, if you're particularly space constrained, a wall mounted shelf can work equally well And if you want to minimize a shelf, just make it the same color as your wall, as you can see, no matter how big your space, an option definitely exists for you. Fur coats, scarves and bags there. So may styles of wall mounted hooks that this is often the best choice for small entries, although as long as you have this floor space. Ah, coat rack is definitely a compact way to store coats, scarves, hats and bags for shoes. You can either use a bench with shelves like we see here, or a large basket works great as well. Having a mere near the door is so helpful as you're getting ready to leave for the day or getting ready to open the door and greet a guest. And Miers come in all shapes and sizes, so you most certainly have room for one somewhere near your door. And why not make your mere pull double duty beers with wall hooks look great and styles like industrial and farm house. While some of us can put on our shoes while we're standing up, Not everyone can. And certainly nice if you don't have to. So having a small profile chair or just the stool is awesome in an entryway. Benches are also great, provided they have either built in storage shelves beneath or simply room for baskets. Toe hold your shoes. Finally, just like any space in our home, proper lighting is a must for larger four years. I recommend multiple light fixtures, but for a small entryway, one source will typically suffice. This could be a semi flush or flush mount light, a smaller chandelier or one of my favorites sconces, depending on your space. Perhaps one sconce is the better choice. Or, if you have the room to matching sconces will look fantastic as well. Now you may be wondering about table lamps as long as it provides sufficient lumens and have paired with a light and or translucent shade. This could also provide all the lighting you need for a small space. Now let's move on to the second goal, decorating your entryway in the predominant style and color scheme of your home. Again, the entryway is your home's first impression, so ideally, it should reflect your homes, primary style and color scheme. If your style is contemporary and your color scheme is white, beige and blue thing. Incorporating these colors in your entry way via seeding artwork and accessories is perfect . Third and finally, let's talk about how you can have a wow moment in your entry way, no matter how small the space here. Some ideas to consider You can go with a statement. Light fixture I catching wallpaper on the walls or ceilings or a bold pink color unattractive rug. A beautiful piece of artwork or wall mirror and or hanging wall plants. A great way to add greenery to a small entry, no matter the size of your entry. All of these choices should work, and for most styles, keep the wow moment to one the two elements. And finally, don't forget your front door. No matter how big your entry way, we all have a front door, so this is an easy way to make a bold statement. Specifically, I love painting front doors, a bold color, whether that's black, blue or teal. As long as the color coordinates with the interior and exterior of your home, the sky is the limit. And what a great and easy design choice for your home, both inside and out, 12. Family/Living Rooms: Now let's move on to one of the most heavily used rooms in our home, the living room. But first, some vocabulary. Larger homes in the US often have both family and living rooms. Family rooms are the more informal gathering space, and this room is often adjacent to the kitchen. Living rooms, on the other hand, are more formal spaces, generally at the front of the home for welcoming guests. But for those of us with small homes, one room to serve both purposes is nearly always what we have. And often the terms living room and family room are used interchangeably, at least here in the US For purposes of this lecture, I'll be referring to it as the living room. Starting in this lecture and for the remaining lectures on individual room recommendations , all be sharing my favorite functional and aesthetic design techniques. First, let's start with function. And as I spoke about earlier, storage is nearly always the number one functional issue on clients minds. So let's talk about where some great storage opportunities exist. While I love great artwork behind a sofa, this area is also prime real estate, as I spoke about earlier for long shelving that goes to the ceiling. For the best effect, I would mix decorative items like small pieces of artwork with books and decorative containers. Additionally, by using this technique, you can virtually leave your coffee table and any end tables free of most decorative items , making them more functional. And your room still looks great. And as an added bonus, this likely becomes your rooms focal point. Whether you go with a more minimalist look or if you choose to layer your items like we see here, both approaches look fantastic. My techniques for this type of open shelving are to use a generally cohesive color palette pulling from the colors in your room, of course, but vary the type and height of your items and finally include a variety of textures to create the most pulled together look. A similar approach is to place a long bookcase or a couple of bookcases behind your sofa. Just know that you likely aren't going to be able to access the bottom shelves, but at least this saves you from having the drill holes in the wall, which is often desirable to apartment dwellers. The other reason I like this approach is that it keeps your sofa off of the wall. Another great approach is to dedicate one wall in your living room to storage, specifically a mix of open shelving and close cabinetry so that not everything you want to store needs to be on display. A common approaches to make this the same wall that your TV resides on. Now, if you're a blessed with high ceilings, consider built in shelving with a roller ladder kit. How fun is that when I'm purchasing case Good items for a small home. These items always have storage capabilities. I mean, why wouldn't you? Even if you don't need it, it's difficult to have too much storage in a small home. So for any type of case, could item you might need for a home. One was. Storage definitely exists, from consul tables to coffee tables, even if it's just a two or three tiered coffee table, which are perfect for books and baskets. Now, if you need the store, blankets, games or betting for your guests, the nothing works bear. They trunk for a coffee table, and today they come in all styles. Another case. Good item that works really well in a small living room is a large night stand with drawers , just like you can use small cabinets as night stands in a bedroom. So, too, can you use large night stands as cabinets, living rooms, and they can be a great alternative to a consul table. Now I know I mentioned that you should ensure that all of your case good items are storage capable. However, there are some exceptions to this specifically your coffee table instead of having a coffee table that has storage or shelving. Other smart choices include using nesting tables for coffee tables for ultimate flexibility . And if your coffee table is tall enough, I love using the space to store stylish poofs underneath for extra seating. The other exception. If you're particularly space constrained, it's a consider a sofa arm rest table instead of an actual end table. Perfecto. Hold a book or tablet and the beverage. Now let's move on to the aesthetic design choices that I and other designers regularly used in small living rooms. The goal usually is to help make your room feel more spacious, so the design choices we make our in that vein first as I touched on earlier. Glass and or lose sight are your best friends in a small home. My favorite places to use these materials include coffee tables, end tables and bookcases, especially if you're using a larger sofa. You should absolutely consider pairing that with a coffee table that takes up the least amount of visual weight possible. Second, open leg furniture is a go to for small spaces. As the more flooring you see, the larger the space will feel. This is perhaps why we see so much midcentury modern furniture being used in small homes. The tall, splayed legs are an ideal representation of this technique. Along those same lines. Using a rocking chair instead of an armchair in styles like farmhouse or a hanging chair in the style like bohemian also creates a lot more visual space in a room. Staying on the topic of seating. Low profile furniture is ideal in a small room, as it will help to emphasize the vertical space. And if you have a narrow room or a particularly cramped room, a corner sofa, especially a low profile corner sofa, can be an excellent choice. One of my other favorite design choices for certain styles, like Scandinavian and boho, is to use tree stumps as end tables or as coffee tables. They are stylish, and they're slimmer. Profile makes them ideal for a small space. Don't forget to consider hanging amir anywhere. A window would normally be Orlean, or hang a full length mirror behind a piece of furniture or install one next to or behind a furniture piece like a chair, a pair of chairs or a console table. Speaking of consuls, if your room is particularly small, just like in the entryway, I would use 1/2 moon consul instead of a traditional console to free up a bit of space. Other great design choices for a small living room include tall, slim plants, particularly in corners. Light filtering window treatments to maximize daylight, which always helps a room to feel more spacious. And if you use curtains or drapes, definitely hang them high and wide to help the windows feel larger and draw your eye upwards. Also install crown molding and painted the same color as your walls to help elongate the feeling of your walls. And for you city dwellers with bicycles, they really can look cool hanging on your wall as a focal point, particularly if your style is urban, modern or industrial. Finally, always mount your TV. If you are able, there is no reason to have this ubiquitous item take up any unnecessary real estate on the flat surfaces in your home. 13. Dining Rooms: Let's move on to the dining room. Now let's be honest. Instead of a separate dining room, many of us either have a small area tacked onto or carved out of our kitchen or an area that is part of our living area. And for those of us who have actual dining rooms, whether they are partially or completely separated, they're still going to generally be small rooms. But whatever your situation, not to worry, there are some great options for you. First, let's discuss function regardless of the size of your space. In most situations, round or oval pedestal tables are usually preferable as they give you more space and better leg room than square or rectangular tables. Except in the case of a very narrow area. In which case, pushing a rectangular table up against the wall on two sides and placing your chairs on the remaining two sides will likely be your best choice. One of my favorite approaches for small areas is to use a city or a freestanding banquet in lieu of chairs placed against the wall, and then, if even more space is needed using a backless bench or backless stools that can slide under the table when not in use. Backless benches and stools are especially practical, particularly on busy mornings when you may be frequently getting up and down, especially if you have small Children in the home corner. Banquettes, whether built in or freestanding, are both stylish and functional for corners. Of course, having the flexibility to add more guests to your table is always a plus. So if you have the space to expand when needed, selected a table that has a leaflet or folding extension is an excellent compromise. Just like other areas of your home, your dining area shouldn't be off the hook. For creative storage solutions. There are stylish benches with built in storage that is a great place to hold your linens for special occasions. Also, most small homes don't have the luxury of being able to include a regular size buffet or a traditional China cabinet. A great alternative is to use sturdy shelving on one wall toe, hold holiday serving ware and glassware. There are shelving options for any style. Just make sure that you use the right hardware when hanging for obvious safety reasons. Aesthetically, there are lots of great ways that you can not only make your dining area look great, but also feel a bit more spacious as well. First, I avoid dining sets for small areas. Instead, I opt for heavy contrast. For example, a dark wood table with Lucite dining chairs or a glass table with dark or brightly colored chairs using glass, or lose sight for either the table or the chairs definitely lightens up the visual weight of the entire area. Also, just like I spoke about previously, drawing your eye upwards always helps to make a space feel larger. So in a dying area, I would use large scale artwork or a collage or a large mirror behind the dining table or an eye catching light fixture or open shelving behind your dying table. Toehold a mix of artwork and accessories. Alternatively, if you have a defined wall with corners on either end behind your dining table, installing a large mirror that goes corner to corner is also an effective, visually expanding approach to your area. Now, if you have a separate dining room, I would use cove lighting or wall washers, toe light up the walls and ceiling, or, for a similar effect, install sconces that shine light up and down toe light up the walls, which helps to visually expand the space. That doesn't mean you forgo the chandelier pendant. I would definitely use one as well in conjunction with these other lighting techniques. The other important design goal, with a dining space that is part of a shared space such as your kitchen or your living room , is a need to clearly define the space as a dining area. Without clear definition, your dining area will simply feel like an afterthought for the space. So what do you think are the best ways to do this? The most common approaches are to incorporate a rug and or a hanging light fixture over your dining table. I prefer the and to the or approach, because by combining the rug with the light fixture, you are a book ending the space from the ceiling to the floor. But that's just me. Some clients really don't like having a rug in their dining area, even if it's a durable, easy to clean option. So let's look at two additional effective ways to define the space. If you're dying, area is a small area next to your kitchen or living room. Be sure to carry the main color scheme from the main space, but introduce a new, unique color that designates this space as a dining area, which could be reflected in something like artwork, accessories or even in your light fixtures. Finally, depending upon the architecture of the space, you may also be able to use paint and or wallpaper to further define your dining area. All that said, sometimes the best approach to a small dining area is to simply embrace the size and accentuate the coziness, which can be accomplished in numerous ways, such as including a variety of textures, bright colors, patterns and a variety of plants and flowers. Regardless of your approach, I personally find the dining area to be one of the best places to make a great design statement in the home. I hope you do, too. 14. Kitchens: If you have a small kitchen that is perfectly functional, then you are definitely one of the lucky ones. Small kitchens are, unfortunately often a pain point for clients because they have to potential problems on their hands. It doesn't meet their functional needs, and it looks small and cramped due to a variety of reasons. And it doesn't matter if you have a large home or a small home. For most people, the kitchen is one of the most important areas in the home, so function and esthetics are paramount. Thankfully, I have a lot of experience in this area, partly because I, too, have a small kitchen. So I have used many of these techniques that I'll be describing to you first. Let's tackle the functional aspects. Obviously, optimizing your kitchen cabinets and drawers are nearly always at the top of clients lists . Some of my favorite techniques, from maximizing utility of kitchen cabinets and drawers include swapping out some of your cabinets for deep drawers. As you can see this picture, deep drawers give you incredible versatility as you can use them to store bulkier items like pots and strainers. But you can also use them for jars of dried goods By using drawers, you will also get more storage space out of the same area. And for the ultimate an organization, use a movable pegged drawer system in these deep drawers. It's also a great way to keep dishes easily accessible to your kids as well. Pullout pantries These smart storage cabinets, which pull out all together as one unit, are small on real estate but huge on storage, which explains why they're so popular. They can be purchased online by many retailers and fairly easily installed into one of your existing cabinets. Cooking utensil drawers or utensil divider inserts for drawers, which eliminates the need for a cooking utensil container on your counter. A plus for those of you with limited counter space, you can also purchase expandable drawer dividers that are absolutely genius for nearly any size drawer anywhere in your house. I love these things over the sink. Cutting boards. Increase your counter space for preppy meals, and it makes prepping your fruits and veggies a breeze. I love spices, but a traditional spice rack needlessly takes up too much real estate on already limited counter space. Instead, I recommend in drawer spice wreck options, pullout, Cabinet storage options or Cabinet door mounted systems, including D I lie options, making this an upgrade that nearly every small kitchen should take advantage of. Don't forget to alphabetize them along the same lines. There are pulling organizer's for your lids, pans, cookie sheets, baking sheets and cutting boards, as well as pull out organizer's for under your kitchen sink to store cleaning supplies and sponges, effectively doubling the space of any area. Other ways to double the space of your cabinets is they hang your coffee cups on hooks installed on the underside of your shelves and or you shelf risers if you simply don't have enough space in your cabinets and drawers. Additional smart hacks to use in a small kitchen include hanging utensil racks, pot racks and magnetic knife strips. Remember these magnetic strips, while marketed as for holding knives, can hold anything magnetic. This includes stainless steel serving spoons and spatulas. Can openers pizza wheels, meat thermometers, food processor blades, mixer beaters, etcetera. If you have metal pot lids, you could even install a magnetic knife. Strip inside your based cabinet and hang them. They're freeing valuable shelf space. I also love rolling carts in small kitchens because when you aren't using them, that can usually be stored on a wall in or adjacent to your kitchen or a place parallel to the end of a base cabinet or island to minimize the amount of wall space it takes up. This is a great space to store cookbooks, pretty dishware or cocktail glasses, liquor bottles and pretty pots such as a Dutch oven. The top of the cart can even double is another place to lay a cutting board when you are short on counter space. Finally, let's not forget about the inside of Cabinet doors, which are often underutilized. This could be a great place to hang your oven mitts, potholders, dish towels or any type of organizer's, such as a spice rack or a general organizer, which you can use to store clean supplies. Foil Saran wrap sandwich bags, small cutting boards, Tupperware lids, dishwashing soap, cookie magazines, you name it. Another favorite hack of mine is to hang your measuring cups and spoons. I've even seen cute ready to install systems that have labels for measurement cups and spoons. On the aesthetic side, I must admit that I really loved designing small kitchens. Well, why do I say that? Because it's no surprise that kitchen remodeling is expensive and the larger the kitchen generally, the more expensive it will be. So unless I'm working with a really large budget, the ability to use distinctive materials and hire and products may be cost prohibitive. But in a smaller kitchen, it's often easier to use higher and finishes because you'll obviously need less of that material said Another way. Creating a unique design moment is usually easier on the pocket book in a small kitchen. So if you do plan on making updates to your kitchen, definitely consider investing in something such as a unique countertop material, a show stopping range hood or an eye catching range. It may not be as expensive as you think to create an amazing focal point for your small kitchen. That said, some of my favorite aesthetic techniques for small kitchens include removing some or all of the upper cabinetry as I've spoke about earlier. Removing upper cabinetry is one of the easiest and foolproof ways to have your kitchen feel larger and brighter. The obvious downside with this approach is that you then lose valuable Cabinet space in an r A small kitchen. However, there are some good work arounds to this challenge. First, try removing just the upper cabinets on the focal wall of your kitchen, meaning the wall that you first look at when you enter your kitchen. Alternatively, you can just get really smart with your lower cabinets and incorporate some of the storage solutions that I spoke about. Finally, of course, you could replace summer all of the upper cabinets with open shelving, which definitely creates a more open feeling than all close cabinetry. If you do go with open shelving in a small kitchen, definitely take the shelving to near the ceiling, provided you have a relatively normal height ceiling. This accomplishes two things. First, you've added extra shelving, and second, the higher shelving will draw your eye upwards, which will help the space to feel larger. My advice is to Onley place infrequently used items on those top shelves. Such a serving where that you use for entertaining specialty glassware or even a pretty tea set. Even replacing one upper cabinet at the end of your kitchen can help your kitchen to feel more open. You have removing upper cabinetry is non option, and you don't like the look or function of open shelving. Then definitely consider glass cabinet doors and parrot with interior cabinet lighting. Installing lights inside of any cabinets with class doors will help to make the cabinets feel light and bright. In general. Accent lighting is your friend in a small kitchen. And, of course, no matter what size kitchen you have, I am always going to recommend under cabinet lighting as some of the best task lighting around. Employing a light color scheme is another common design technique to help a kitchen feel larger than it ISS, which I'm sure is no surprise. The approach is fairly simple. First, keep the colors light white like gray, beige and tense, meaning lighter versions of any accent colors that is your first design rule. Second, try to use one primary color in the majority of your space. Continuous blocks of color, particularly white, which reflects the most light, will help to visually open up the space. For example, a kitchen with white cabinets with white walls will appear larger than in kitchen, with blue cabinets and white walls. Appliance panels are also one of my favorite design choices, especially for small kitchens. Appliance panels helped to maintain continuity and, as a result, a feeling of openness. However, if you don't have the budget for appliance panels that the next best choice would be to select appliances, they're the same color as your cabinetry. Or go with stainless steel, which naturally helps reflect light as well. Speaking of appliances, I will often spec counter depth refrigerators in small kitchens for two reasons. First, they create a single continuous line for your eye, which will provide the illusion of more space. In addition, a counter death refrigerator actually does give you more floor space, as regular depth refrigerators do protrude out into the kitchen. Finally, in a small kitchen, it's very important that you keep accessories to a minimum on your counters. A great design guideline to employ is to use just one or up to three. If you have a grouping of either decorative or functional accessories per isolated area of counter space, meaning any unobstructed expanse of counter space, the more counter space you see, the larger your kitchen will feel. As you hopefully gathered during this lecture. The vast majority of these recommendations do not require a major remodel, and most are fairly cost effective. So I hope you feel inspired to incorporate some of these ideas into your own kitchen. It's well worth the time and investment. 15. Master Bedrooms: Everyone deserves a beautiful, functional bedroom free of clutter and stress, no matter what size you are working with. So in this lecture, I'm going to share with you my favorite techniques so that you can create your own personal oasis from a functional standpoint. Obviously we want and need a comfortable place to sleep. Get dressed. Ah, place to store clothes and shoes and possibly a place to work as well, although I personally rather carve out an office in my living room than in my bedroom so I can keep my bedroom as a place for rest and relaxation. But sometimes I understand that we may not have a choice. Aesthetically, this is one room where often see very opposing design goals from clients. Some want to go for a light and airy feeling in their bedrooms, while others want to create a cozy, almost cocoon like feeling in their bedroom. And there's no right or wrong here. My goaless is simply help you achieve your ideal space. So let's talk about some of the best functional changes you can use in your bedroom to maximize whatever square footage you are working with. First your bed for a master bedroom. I recommend going with the largest bed that will comfortably fit your room, so hopefully that is a king or a queen, although you may only have room for a full size. But if there are two of you, and especially if one or both of you are taller than average height, a full size bed, sadly, is going to be pretty cramped now. Just because your room Miss Small doesn't mean you can't use a larger bed. As long as you maintain adequate clearance for walking in your room, you may be able to get away with a bed that's larger than you think, especially if you employ some space saving tricks and design techniques First. If you have a platform bed that has storage underneath, you can likely forgo a dresser and possibly just use a lingerie chest if needed, which has a much smaller footprint than a dresser for your undergarments. If you have space in front of your bed than trunks or chest with dividers can also be used in lieu of a dresser. I find these especially great for out of season clothing items, a set of storage cubes or a custom closet with built in drawers and shelves can also take the place of a dresser. A D. I Y custom closet with drawers and shelves is exactly the approach I took and how I am able to forgo a dresser. Instead of large night stands, you can use stools, floating night stands or even floating shelves to compensate for the smaller night stands. Definitely pair those with hanging pendants or swing arm. Sconce is in lieu of table lamps, so you can keep the top of your night stand clear for other items. A tree stump also can work well as a stylish night stand in a space constrained bedroom. Alternatively, if you have the space for some larger night stands as well but no room for a dresser, then consider using a small chest of drawers for your night stand that can also double as a dresser. From a design standpoint, if you do use a larger bed in a smaller bedroom, choosing a bed that is the same colors, your walls will help minimize the contrast and de emphasize the size of the room. Also, if you have high ceilings, consider using a tall bad to emphasize the height of the room. Just make sure that you keep the frame material visually light. Avoid a heavy, traditional four poster bed, which will just feel cramped in a smaller room. If you lack the space for an accent chair and we all need places, sit down in our bedrooms. That is not our bed. Then placing the bench at the end of your bed is a common approach. However, I would either make it 1/2 moon bench to take up less real estate on your floor. Or I would use a storage bench for storing extra sheets and linens. Storage ottomans are another choice and also take up less space visually in a room than a bench. Now let's go back to night stands for a moment. Other great alternatives to a traditional night stand, even for small rooms, include built in bookcases or even freestanding bookcases as they're typically nearer and depth than the night stand and also emphasizes the vertical space in the room. Or use a bookcase as your headboard. This idea is great because you can use some of the shelves in place of a night stand. You can also use a floating shelf over your bed in lieu of a night. Stan, if you do go with a larger case good item, such as a small chest of drawers, just be sure to choose one with visible legs. Because, as I spoke about in an earlier lecture, the more flooring you see in a room, the bigger feels. Now let's talk about the lighting, which is very important from a functional standpoint for a bedroom. You obviously want bright light when you are cleaning, but there are times when you'll want some mood lighting, and then some people need absolute darkness to sleep at night. So let's talk about how you meet those different needs for ambient lighting. A chandelier on a dimmer is a great choice because one it's an easy place to have a wow moment to it draws your eye upwards and three, because in a small room the chandeliers likely going to be hanging over the bed. You don't need the same clearance beneath the chandelier that you would if you were to walk under it. Instead of needing seven feet or 2.1 meters, you can get away with having the bomb of the chandelier hang between six and 6.5 feet, or between 1.8 and 1.9 meters over the bed for your standard eight foot or 2.4 meter high ceiling. This gives you more flexibility to hang a chandelier or large pendant. Alternatively, you could absolutely go with wall washers or cove lighting for your ambient lighting. Again. Just make sure they're on a dimmer for task lighting. We've already covered hanging pendants or swing arm sconce is in lieu of table lamps, and they look so great, too. So why not go that route in a small room? As far as controlling your natural daylight, I find that for most styles, pairing blackout drapes or curtains with light filtering shades or sheer curtains on a double curtain rod is often the best approach as it provides privacy when dressing during the day, but can block out the light when you prefer a completely dark room for sleeping. If you decide to go with blackout shades, just be sure that you go with outside mount instead of inside mount. Otherwise, you will see light around the edges of the shade, and it won't give you the true blackout affect you desire. Remember if you're going with drapes or curtains, and your ceiling is nine feet or 2.7 meters or lower hangar drapes near your ceiling or crown molding to make your windows feel larger and your room feel taller. Other aesthetic techniques I employ in small bedrooms include the following First. If the goal is to make the bedroom looked larger than it is, I would use a light, monochromatic color scheme and a large variety of textures. Don't forget that you can also add texture to a room through architectural features such as wal molding. However, if the client wants to emphasize the coziness and create a cocoon feeling in the room, then all use a dark, rich pink color on the wall, such as charcoal gray, eggplant, navy blue or hunter green. Speaking of blue, this is one of my favorite non neutral colors for the bedroom and look so great. Paired with white patterns are another way to add a feeling of coziness to a room. Great places to bring in patterns include your window treatments, your headboard and throw pillows. But one of my very favorite places to bring in a pattern to a room is through wallpaper for a small bedroom. I particularly love using a beautiful wallpaper behind the bed to accentuate the bed as the focal point, or use it on the ceiling, paired with a chandelier or a flush mount light to draw the eye upwards. Either of these approaches is an easy way to create a great focal point for your bedroom and works particularly well in styles such as Art Deco, Hollywood glam transitional and French country. Of course, there are other ways to emphasize the height of your bedroom besides wallpaper. For behind your bad, consider using another pink color from your room's color scheme. Wood paneling, three d Wall panel, lean or large scale artwork for your ceiling. Consider hanging plants, a coffered ceiling, wood beams or decorative ceiling tiles, which are pretty easy to install if you are the D I Y type. Remember, a smaller room means a smaller price tag for a higher and sealing treatment. Finally, if you do hang a chandelier, consider adding a ceiling medallion as well. Other fund techniques to use in a small bedroom include placing wall mirrors on either side of the bed Now on Lee is, it's a place that windows might normally be in the room. But having light fixtures, either table lamps or hanging pendants in front of them absolutely helps to balance the light around the room in the evening. And no matter how small your room is, I truly believe that greenery helps it to feel just a bit larger and definitely more alive and vibrant. Now, if you need to carve out a space to work in your bedroom, consider installing a floating shelf as a desk that is painted the same Color is your wall and pair it with a visually lighter chair to minimize the visual way it takes up in the room. Finally, if you have a low ceiling in your bedroom, definitely be sure to use low profile furniture so you don't inadvertently exacerbate the already low feeling you may already have in your room. I hope the techniques I shared provide you with some great design inspiration for your master bedroom. I'll see you in the next lecture 16. Kid's and Teen's Bedrooms: On the one hand, Children's bedrooms can be oh so much fun to decorate, because this is where you can let your imagination really run wild, on the other hand, trying to design a room that will last a while for a rapidly growing child whose tastes will change Justus quickly. Well, it can be challenging, to say the least. So in this lecture, let's talk about how we can solve both the unique aesthetic and functional challenges that we sometimes face when designing Children's bedrooms. I'll also touch on some teen design aspects as well, unlike an adult bedroom where typically our biggest storage challenges clothing in the child's bedroom. As we all know, effective toy storage is usually one of the biggest headaches to contend with. So let's start there. I think most parents would agree that the goal is not to keep all the toys out of sight, but rather to create a system that keeps them organized. After all, toys. Such a stuffed animals are so darn cute that usually we want to display them. Some of my favorite vehicles for toy storage include hanging bags and baskets, floor baskets, bins and cubbies of all types and there are some absolutely adorable storage ottomans specifically made for kids. Rolling crates can also be a great choice, especially for those toys that are prone to get dirty, like outdoor toys or cars and trucks. I like to create a dedicated area, even an entire wall, if possible, in the room that is cute, functional and personalized so that kids might actually be motivated to use the area and clean up after themselves. We can only hope, right, while in general I personally like using a more calm, soothing color scheme in a child's bedroom. I completely understand the desire for bright colors, especially with very young Children, So a good compromise is to use brightly colored accents that could be easily changed over time. Like we see here with these colored bins, books are probably the second biggest challenge when it comes to storage in the Children's room. While traditional bookshelves are fine because the covers of Children's books are usually so lovely, I'd rather find a way to display at least some of them. Some of my favorite ways to do this include a small hanging shelf next to their bed for their current favorite bedtime books, floating shelves with ledges on a smaller wall or using those same shallow shelves behind their door, which could be a great use of that space, particularly in a small room for older kids. Wall mounted or slim profile desks under a window can be a great space saver in the room or installing wall mounted cubicles over the desk toe hold. Their books and supplies is both creative and functional. I also like using sturdy peg rails for hanging their favorite jackets and backpacks next to their door as faras beds go a day. Bad with a trundle is a great choice for a child who likes to have sleepovers, and I love a pretty a poster bed for a teen girl. I also love loft beds for the older kids as it gives you great space for storage or for hanging out underneath. For younger kids. A slightly elevated loft bed with room underneath for toy storage and baskets or bins is also a good choice. Obviously, if you have two kids sharing a room, bunk beds, whether standard or L shaped, can both be great options for space saving in a small room. And of course, you can find them with built in storage. Speaking of storage, just like in the bedroom lecture, you should absolutely consider beds with storage for Children's rooms as well. And you can use the drawers for either clothing or toy storage, as well as built in or fastened bookcases on either side of the bed. For lighting, I would consider using a fun large pendant or a pretty chandelier for ambient lighting for task lighting, a small table lamp or swing arm wall sconce for task lighting by the bed and a desk lamp for a desk area. One of my other favorite lighting techniques for a child's room is to use motion activated , led strip lights under the bed so that when your child gets up in the middle of the night, for whatever reason, the lights will provide a soft glow and act as a night light. This is a great alternative to a traditional nightlight to control daylight. I definitely recommend using a blackout window treatment, especially if you have young kids who have bedtimes there earlier than sunset or if you have teens who prefer to sleep in on the weekends. So outside Mount Flat, Roman shades are my go to choice or repairing inside mount shades with curtains or drapes. If it makes sense for the style of the room as faras rugs, something super soft underfoot is my go to I especially love sheepskin or faux sheepskin rugs next to beds in kids bedrooms. Thes feels so great underfoot for all ages, and they work with so many different styles, I can tell you that my son loves hiss now, as far as aesthetic goals. As I mentioned at the start of this lecture, our Children's style and decor tastes change just about as quickly. Is their growth rate unfortunately, so if you aren't interested in redecorating every few years, although some clients don't mind doing that, then my advice is to choose a neutral color palette to work from white greys and beiges in particular. Work well for both boys and girls and then changing the accent, colors and patterns in places like you're betting throw pillows, artwork, rugs, etcetera as desired. Of course, it doesn't mean you have to go with just neutrals. Blues, greens, blush or coral are all excellent colors for kids rooms and will grow with them as well One of my favorite ways to inject some great personality into a kid's room is through the use of large removable wall stickers or decals based on whatever they are going to at the time . I've uses approach many times and always a big hit with the kids, and it's generally easy on the pocketbook. Now, instead of trying to create a wow moment like we talked about in the master bedroom lecture for a Children's room, the goal is to create a fun moment. Kids equal fun, no matter their age, and I love to create that feeling of fun for them in their own space. Great examples of this include a teepee for play or as a cozy reading area, an indoor swing, a canopy over their bed, a safely designed climbing wall, a chalkboard wall or a hanging magnet board from Magnet play, which can also be used to hang their art creations. I have found that teens may also love a swing or a chalkboard wall, but other great ideas for them include fund wall sculptures and hangings, twinkle lights around full length mirrors and poofs for sitting on with their friends. One quick note about chalkboard walls. Be aware that they could be pretty messy because chalk dust is prone to getting everywhere , including your baseboards and your flooring. So definitely keep that in mind. I would also personally Onley include a chalkboard wall on one of the smaller walls in a room or home so it acts as an accent rather than a focal point. If you DIY I, why this? Be sure to read some good online tutorials and how to properly prep your walls for this application. I actually also love using wallpaper in a kid's room. Specifically, wallpaper on the ceiling can be oh so pretty in the girl's room. But also using wallpaper behind the bed as a focal point is a great choice. Or while paper in the back of the book shelves can be a fun way to add some instant personality to their room. If you have a teen girl, she might also really appreciate addressing area complete with pretty sconces on either side of the Mir and a faux fur stool. I could probably do an entire class on kid's bedrooms, but hopefully these ideas get you started 17. Home Offices: Nearly all of us need a functional place in our home toe work. Even if we don't work from home or bring our work home with us. We all pay bills, So having a dedicated space to make these and similar activities easier is certainly a plus in a small home. This is one of two scenarios. Either it's a carved out area from another space, such as your living room, your bedroom under the staircase in the hallway, the landing area at the top of your staircase, or even in the closet. Or you are lucky enough to have a dedicated room in your home. Although even if it's a dedicated room, I'll bet you probably also use that room as a guest room as well. Whatever your situation, there are great solutions for everyone. First, let's talk about some good approaches for how to create a great home office when it's part of another space, such as a living room or a bedroom. My main goal in this situation is this. I wanted to blend into the room design as much as possible, rather than look or feel like an office space within the room. Why do you think that is because I find that when you create multiple distinct spaces in a single room, the smaller the room feels at least to me. So how do I hide? Or at least downplay an office space within a room? I'm glad you asked. Let me share with you some of my favorite strategies. First, all use unconventional office furniture, meaning instead of a traditional office desk, all use a small dining table or a pretty consul table for the desk. Instead of a traditional office chair, I'll use a chair that fits the style of the room, such as a Lucite chair for transitional and glam styles, a total X chair for industrial or urban modern rooms or a tulip swivel chair for a mid century modern space. And I'll use a small table lamp in lieu of a traditional desk lamp. If you have a traditional styled home, a secretary desk can look good in both a living room or a bedroom and does a great job of concealing your laptop and office supplies if I need to. Visually minimize the size of the desk glass or Lucite is my go to materials and works for most styles in terms of ideal places, it set up an office area within a room. This, of course, depends on the room, but there are some tried and true options that will work in many homes. For example, if you have your sofa in the middle of your room, such as in a combo living dining area, you can place a console table behind your sofa, which can function as your desk. You can then place bookshelves or credenza on the wall to the left or right of your desk, which could hold your office supplies. Or if the dining area is immediately behind your desk, you may have room for a buffet in your dining area, which could also discreetly hold some of your office supplies. Another great area in the room is a corner where you would normally place a plant. A simple L shaped desk works well here. If you have multiple bookshelves lining one wall, you can leave a break in the middle and hang a wall mounted desk or even a shelf toe. Act as your desk, then use the bookshelves toe. Hold your office supplies in coordinating baskets, bins and storage boxes to minimize the desk area. Ensure that your wall mounted desk or shelf is the same color as your bookshelves. Now, if your plan is to incorporate your office area into your bedroom again, I would go with a stylish consul and the chair and then consider using a storage bench at the foot of your bed toe. Hold your office supplies in storage organizer's and bins. Sometimes you confined room on an empty wall at the end of the hallway or in between two rooms, basically anywhere you can fit any type of case. Good items such as a consul. You can definitely fit a slim consul or wall mounted dusk and pair it with a stool that could be tucked underneath or a slim profile or Lucite chair if there's no window above than consider adding open shelving for storage. Alternatively, if you have the budget and or the skill set, you can create a built in desk with storage in the same space, and sometimes you may find that you have an extra closet that you can spare. And actually, all you need is a space that is a minimum of 30 inches or 76 centimeters wide to be functional as an office space. So if you do have a spare closet, you could install a shelf as your desk with open shelving above, or find a desk or council that will fit the space. You can either leave the door to your closet intact, or you can consider a place in the door with a pretty curtain. If you do, leave your closet door intact, remember that you can use the back of your door to hang organizer's toe. Hold office supplies now in terms of a color scheme. If your office space is clearly within another room, my approach would be to select pieces that are part of the room's color scheme again, so it feels like part of the room rather than a separate, carved out area. But if your office space is clearly separated, such as in the case of a converted closet or a separate room, then I would use this opportunity to have some fun by painting the wall behind your desk, one of the non neutral accent colors that you have elsewhere in your home. If you go with a non neutral pink color, just ensure it's a color that you find energizing. Here are a couple of additional tips for particularly small work areas. If you don't have room for a desk or table lamp due to limited space and you have shelving above your desk, consider installing led strip lighting under the lowest shelf. If it's bright enough, this could be all of the task lighting you need. Also, if your desk area is up against a wall and you use a traditional computer with monitor, I recommend mounting the monitor on your wall to free up your desk space. Now let's move on to those of you who have a separate room for your home office. Just like with any room in a home, I recommend using a rug in this room toe. Add those style and warmth, fear space and, ideally, both your desk and your chair will sit fully on the rug. If you have a window in your office, you definitely want to add window treatments to control the daylight and subsequent glare that you may experience. If you have sufficient space, A tried and true home office set up is to float your desk in the middle of the room was storage behind you This could be in the form of built in bookcases, recess bookcases, a mix of bookshelves and open shelving. Just open shelving, a credenza or even a buffet. If you use built in or freestanding bookcases. An easy way to give it a designer look is to paint the back a darker shade of one of the neutrals in your room. An alternative to placing your desk in front of your shelving or bookcases is to place your desk perpendicular to your shelving. You may find that this works better for your space, especially if you don't have enough room to comfortably maneuver a chair in between the desk and the shelving. Ideally, I would also include an accent chair in your room for any visitors, and the arm of an accent chair is a great place to hang a throw blanket. I often get cold in the wintertime, and it's not uncommon for me to have a blanket over my shoulders while I'm working. Do you like the idea of a throw blanket but no room for a chair? Consider a stylish ladder to hang it on. Other fund design choices for a dedicated home office include adding a bark heart in your design toe, either store, office supplies, bottles of water and or snacks. This is an especially great look for those mid century modern and glam style offices. I would also consider wallpaper in the back office wall or using peg boards to hang items like rulers, scissors, material samples, etcetera on your shorter walls now as faras lighting. Sure, you could go with practical recessed can lights, but I love to include a great looking pendant or chandelier in the home office that reinforces a style of your room. Finally, if this room is also your guest room like so many are, consider an extra deep sofa that could easily double as a twin bed because I find that most people don't have enough room to is a pullout sofa in a small office. Now, regardless of what type of office space you have, here are some additional helpful tips for you. As I mentioned previously, it's important that you reinforce the style of your home in your office area. I find that the easiest ways to do this are not only through your desk chair but also through the use of artwork at any accessories that you have also to keep your open storage areas and shelving looking clutter free. Invest in some style appropriate boxes or baskets for storing everything from pens and pencils, two scissors and sticky notes. To minimize storage needed for paper, I scan and shred as much as possible. Everything else goes in coordinated binders or a stylish filing cabinet. Speaking of storage, I find that using a mix of closed and open storage works best for all office areas. I personally don't like items like printers on display, particularly in office areas that are in a shared space. Regardless of the style of desk, I will always choose something leggy to minimize its visual. Wait. Now, research shows that people work best when exposed to natural daylight. So in a perfect world, your office space will be near a window or your home office will have a decent size window . But if that's not possible, as in the case of a converted closet, then choose light bulbs that mimic natural sunlight, which is in the 5000 K range. Also, be sure to incorporate some greenery into your office space, even if it's just a small, succulent plant. Daylight and greenery are part of something called bio filic design, which really works in areas where you need to feel calm but also productive, such as a home office along those same lines definitely incorporate items that personally inspire you. This could be some of your favorite books, lovely artwork or family photos. Whatever makes you happy. Finally, if you need to share your workspace with another member of your household, there are a couple of great options. First, you could look for a long consultation ble, dining table or desk that will easily accommodate two matching stylish chairs. Or you could push to small desks or console tables back to back to minimize the amount of floor space it takes up. Either way, just be sure to also designate individual shelves drawers, baskets, bins, etcetera for each person. 18. Bathrooms: who doesn't love a luxurious, relaxing and perfectly functional bathroom. Now I'm sure some of you with small bathrooms are thinking that the terms luxurious, relaxing and perfectly functional cannot be used in the same sentence as small bathroom. But that could not be further from the truth. Sure, these design goals are easy to achieve when you have a lot of space to work with. But with a small bathroom, it just takes a little more imagination and design know how, and that's what will be focusing on in this lecture first, from a functionality standpoint. The challenge, of course, is storage in larger master bathrooms. It's not uncommon to have separate vanities and copious amounts of storage. Conversely, in a small bathroom, you may have multiple family members sharing one vanity and sink, or you may only have a pedestal or floating sink. Whatever the constraints, the goal is to maximize what space you do have and then add additional smart storage in terms of maximizing. If you do have a traditional bathroom vanity, obviously using handy organizational items like two tiered Pola organizer's in your cabinets, stackable storage bins, drawer organizer's and even in stallion extra shelf in your Cabinet are simple but so effective. But just like with other cabinetry, don't forget about the back of your Cabinet doors. This could be a great place to hang organizer's for items like tooth brushes, combs, brushes, lotion and other small beauty products. Also, if you have a small closet in or near your bathroom, storing items like cotton balls and swabs in glass jars can end up taking less space on the shelf. Them bags of those items lying flat. And if you have wire shelves in a bathroom closet, keep small items from falling through by adding liners specifically made to create a smooth , solid surface over that wire. Shelving baskets and closets are another favorite of mine, corralling like items such as rolled up washcloths, cleaning supplies and toilet paper can save space, and they look really great as well in terms of adding more space. One of my favorite techniques is to place a floating picture ledge above the sink, toe, hold perfume and other pretty items for showers while I finish or ledge really is ideal, both functionally an aesthetically. If that's non option for you, then I think a glass shelf always provides a cleaner look and saves more space than a shower caddy for storing your products. Now if you dream of having a bathtub, but you are short on space, consider installing a Japanese soaking tub, which have built in bench seats both beautiful and ideal for small spaces. Now, if you don't have a traditional bathroom vanity and instead are working with a pedestal sand quarry floating sink, I would look to include something like a leaning ladder bookcase or a narrow Attash array, both stylish and functional. I prefer Natasha rate to a regular bookcase because Natasha Ray has open sides, which allows for easy access from the front and the sides for grabbing items on a busy morning. Thes types of storage units are great for supplies like makeup, lotions and toilet paper, but it's also a great place to put a small plant. Just be sure to use pretty baskets or trays to keep your supplies organized. Speaking of ladders, a ladder tala rack in Louisville, traditional tal bar is usually the better choice when needing to hang multiple towels. And speaking of tal stored, there are lots of great alternatives toe having towels take up a good portion of your linen closet. They could be rolled up in baskets and tucked under a floating sink stacked on a stool stored on the leading ladder shelf. And there are lots of great wall storage options as well, including wall shelves, wall mount towel racks and even wall mounted wine racks could be a great way to store rolled up towels. If you own your home, consider installing recess shelves between your wall studs in terms of storage for over the toilet. These types of storage units, sadly, are looking pretty dated, so a better solution is to use floating shelves or recess shelves above the toilet. Now, if you're really space constrained, you may want to consider installing a corner vanity and or a corner sink as this will take up a lot less real estate in your bathroom and allow you to include more storage options. Another great way to free up space on your vanity counter is to install a wall mounted faucet as a bonus. Wall mounted faucets are easier to clean than traditional faucets for lighting. You've already heard me rave about sconces, but hanging pendants are a great alternative and provide the same, even lighting that you want for your bathroom mirror if you truly have no space for either than backlit Miers or one of my favorite alternatives. And there are a huge number of options available for this type of product for Andy and lighting if your ceiling is tall enough, I personally love using chandeliers in the bathroom for the style factor alone. And because daylight is usually the best light to shave in and for putting on your makeup, you generally want to maximize any natural light you have in a bathroom. However, if you need privacy, consider installing privacy film on your bathroom windows as an alternative to window coverings. There are some really beautiful design options today in many different styles. Now let's move on to the luxurious and relaxing part of the equation. While there's no doubt that smart storage solutions adds to the relaxing feeling you'll have in your bathroom, much of these feelings come down to your aesthetic choices. And just like I've been speaking about all throughout this class, you can have incredible style in an incredibly small space. First, every room, as you know, needs a focal point. Even your bathroom, particularly your master bathroom. One of the largest areas in a small bathroom is typically the shower, so that's an easy focal point. One way to improve this area is to install a unique tile application on the shower walls, or run the tile on the wall in a different pattern, such as a classic herringbone pattern, and pair that with a glass shower door. Another great focal point opportunity in a small bathroom is the mere over the vanity. Standard. Builder mirrors are usually one of the first to go in my bathroom projects. There is absolutely no reason not to use a pretty wall mirror that reinforces the style of your bathroom. You can further reinforce that area as the focal point by including a striking backsplash below or around the entire mirror, either from the top of the sink to the ceiling or from the floor to the ceiling. If you have an open vanity now, if you have a wall to wall mere over your vanity and you don't want to sacrifice it because , as we know, Miers helped reflect light and make a room feel larger, then simply adding a frame to it will make it so much more stylish. You can certainly diy I Why this? But there are also companies that will make this frame for you and then you simply d i y the installation. Speaking of mirrors, if you have the space on your wall for a full length mirror, such as on an end wall or over a bathtub, definitely use this technique as it will help to create the illusion of more space. The back wall of your bathroom could also be made into a focal point with a striking tile application or a cool piece of artwork. One final focal point opportunity to consider is your flooring. Because small homes often have small bathrooms, you may very well have the budget to use a higher end eye catching floor tile toe. Act as your rooms focal point. If you go this route, I would keep the vanity and countertop the same color to not detract from this show. Stopping flooring going back to other visually expanding techniques. Running the bathroom floor straight into your shower floor is another great way to help your bathroom feel larger than it is. This is because, just like when you use different paint colors on your walls, and molding it visually breaks up the space so doesn't change in flooring material. Break up the floor and emphasize each small area, making the entire bathroom unfortunately, feel smaller along the same lines. You could also have one tile on your floor, but then have a second tile run from your floor all the way to your ceiling on all of your walls, just like when you run your backsplash in your kitchen from counter to ceiling. Running the tile in your bathroom from Florida ceiling emphasizes the height of the room and will help to make it feel taller and a bit bigger. Additionally, remember how I said that the more flooring you see, the larger your room will feel. It's obviously the same in a bathroom. So, if possible, go with a freestanding vanity with visible legs or a floating vanity. Dressers with visible legs also make great converted vanities as well. Another way to expose more flooring in your bathroom is to replace your regular toilet with a wall mounted model. Additional smart ways to help a bathroom feel more expansive include opting for glass shower doors in lieu of a shower curtain or if a shower door is not possible, then hang your shower curtain up near the ceiling just like you want to do with your drapes so it will emphasize the vertical space in your bathroom if going with a shower curtain. Also, consider investing in a higher and shower curtain that looks more like a drape. Shower curtains take up so much visual space in our bathrooms that it's worth investing a little more money for something that looks a lot nicer. Two final design techniques I use in every room, including bathrooms, are greenery and artwork in terms of greenery. Think small plants on shelving units. Wall plants are plants hung from the ceiling for our work. I nearly always includes some art in my bathroom designs as well, and I prefer to go with traditional artwork pieces that coordinate with the style of the bathroom and the home, as opposed to bathroom themed artwork. I definitely think it gives your bathroom Ah, higher and look 19. Powder Rooms: whatever style is in the home, I will amplify that style in the powder room with the most daring choices that are appropriate for that style. Even if a client has a simple, pared down style like contemporary or Xen, you can still have some show stopping powder rooms like we see here. Polish metals, like gold and silver, are always great choices as well. I really love design powder rooms, and sometimes the smaller the better. It really forces you to be creative and allows you to choose mawr expensive finishes than you would use in a larger size bathroom. If a powder room has no windows, I am more inclined to embrace that darker feeling rather than fight it and design a dark, moody powder room. If you like this idea, the key is to use heavy contrast, such as parent, a dark pink color wallpaper or dark tile with brass finishes. Speaking of wallpaper, it's pretty rare if I don't spec wallpaper somewhere in a powder room, whether that's on the sink wall, on the ceiling or for the entire space. Wallpaper can be expensive both for labor and materials, so you get a huge bang for your buck, given how small the spaces. Wallpaper also draws your eye upwards, which always helps in a small room. I will also usually install crown molding with my wallpaper in a powder room, especially if the wallpaper is being installed on the ceiling. Lighting is so important to get right in a powder room, your guests will appreciate it. I promise. I almost never use overhead lighting as I find it's too harsh for a powder room. Sconces and pendants are my go to choice is if space is particularly constrained. You can use slim sconces with tubular bulbs, or you can also easily go with a mirror mirror to make room for sconces. Sconces can also be hung on your side walls, which could be a great look for a narrow space. Of course, backlit mirrors are great as well. For a powder room, there are so many ways to have a wow moment in your powder room. Some of my favorite include a floor to ceiling art gallery wall, which looks particularly good against black paint. Any large scale artwork, a chalkboard wall, which could be an amusing design choice for you and your guests. Any type of interesting art installation pendants hung at various heights over the toilet. A beautiful vessel sink, a unique mirror, vanity or just using a really bold color scheme. The bottom line is F. You can turn your powder room into a conversation starter. Then you've definitely done your job. Design wise. Finally, in terms of functionality, most agree. That's nice to include some specialty toiletries for guests in your powder room, such as tissues, lotion and a room freshening, spray a small tray on top. Your toilet can be a great place to store these items. Or, if you have a pedestal sink, consider installing a smaller corner shelf toe. Hold these items. 20. Clothing Closets: As you may remember me mentioning earlier in the course, there are some great online companies that allow you to create custom closets for a fraction of the price of a professional closet organizing company. Their software lets you create the design and then it orders all the materials you need. It ships them to you, and then you DIY the installation. For the price, the finished look is great. But if you're not ready or just not interested in going that route, I'm going to share with you some of my other favorites, storage approaches for small closets. First, I believe it's important that you go through your closet at least annually, donate or sell items that you hadn't mourn are used in the previous 12 months. Evening tire excluded of course, because who wants to let go of a great evening gown or tucks? Now, assuming you've really pared down your clothing items to what you love and use regularly. Closet experts agree that the best closets are a mix of hanging space, shelves, and drawers. So whether you go with a custom closet or creative substitutes, this formula is the best approach. And of course, with any closet in your home, your goal is to maximize every inch of available space. I'm sure you know that having two levels of hanging rods is always the better approach for maximizing your hanging space. Further capitalize on that space. Use multipotent and multi-server hangers, particularly for your tanktops. When using these multi-item hangers, I like to sort them either by color or by season. Speaking of hangers, I always recommend using matching hangers to create a clean, pulled together. Look for your closet. Now that you've freed up some closet space with multiphase hangers. I also like being able to easily see all of my shoes. So dedicate a vertical space in your closet to hang floor to ceiling floating shelves is my favorite way to store shoes. But these Lazy Susan Hsu organizers are pretty cute as well, apart from wall shelves, another great shelving solution is to use a small bookcase to hold baskets for your scarves, sweaters, and other seasonal items for drawers, consider using a large nightstand in lieu of a dresser, which can be a much smarter size choice for a small closet. There are so many great drawer add-ons. Drawer dividers like these are great for keeping multi-functional drawers neat and tidy as our shallow fabric box organizers, if you still have lost space, leftover pig boards attached to your walls can be a great place to hold scarves, belts, handbags, and jewelry. Cork boards are also a great choice for jewelry storage. Of course, don't forget the back of the closet door for storage ideas. There are so many great closet door organizers. How to decide. Look at what you have left to effectively organize and find an organizer that will meet your needs. Finally, make sure that you have a good light source inside your closet. So many closets have dim lighting. Bright lighting is one of the best and easiest changes to improve your closet area. This could be LED strip lighting or light strips on motion sensors and attractive flush mount light. Or you may even have room for a small chandelier. Be sure to choose bulbs with good colour rendering, I recommend a minimum CRI of 80. I would also choose bulbs in the 4000 and 5000 K range. And don't forget a fresh coat of paint if your closet needs it. A light neutral color is typically the best choice. 21. Laundry Spaces: If there is a room that is most commonly left out of a design project, it's definitely the laundry room. I get it. This room is truly about utility, but often times the utility of the room is not maximized, and it certainly doesn't mean that it can't be stylish as well. Whether you have a dedicated room or just a closet, I think we should all feel lucky that we even have our own laundry space. I don't know about you, but I can still remember the early days of shared community launder rooms and apartments or having to go to the laundromat, making sure I had changed and often having to check multiple times to see if the washer dryer was free. No, thank you. So let's show some love and appreciation to this hardworking, important space in our home through good design. As I mentioned, the goal is to really maximize your laundry area. Ideally, your space will provide you with adequate room for storing your laundry supplies, a dedicated space toe, hang clothes to dry, a place to fold in iron, a trashcan for throwing away dryer lint and trash from pockets and even dedicated containers for placing spare change found in pockets. And, of course, let's not forget those orphan socks. First, let me just say that if you are looking to maximize storage capabilities, front load washer and dryers are the best choice, as this will give you the most clearance for storage on the wall above them. The exception to this is stackable washer and dryers, of course, and hopefully you have some room, either to the left or the right of those units for storage options. In terms of storage options, a great place to start is through the use of pedestals. Pedestals, although pricey, are a great storage option for your detergent and other laundry supplies. They have the added benefit of raising your washer and dryer to a more comfortable level. If pedestals aren't available for your particular washer and dryer. Ah, good handyman should be able to build some for you, or there are plenty of D i Y tutorials online. Alternatively, you may have room between your washer and dryer. For a narrow laundry room cart toe. Hold those laundry supplies. Now let's talk about storage options above the washer and dryer, clearly cabinets or a popular and effective choice. But for small laundry rooms, it could make the room feel more cramped, just like in a small kitchen. So one easy way to solve this problem is to remove some of the cabinetry in the middle and install open shelving instead, or leave some cabinetry in the middle and install open shelving on either side. Both options are great alternatives to a wall of cabinetry. In my opinion, open shelving also provides you with some additional design opportunities, which we'll talk about in a minute now. You can also use wall cubbies, but I find a mix of clothes, cabinetry and open shelving to be more versatile. For those of you with stackable washer and dryers, moving those units as far as you can to the left or the right, well, hopefully give you some space for narrow open shelves or a narrow bookcase for storing your laundry supplies. Finally, let's not forget the back of our laundry room doors for extra storage. Moving on. Having a dedicated place for drying clothes in your laundry room, such as your delicates and bathing suits, is a must. And if you don't have the luxury of a dedicated space like we see here. This is still a pretty easy problem to solve. Most people either have room on their side walls for products like expandable racks and compact hanging clothes racks. Or, if they are seriously space constrained, they can use their ceiling to hang Iraq from in terms of dedicated space for folding. My favorite way to solve this problem is to install a shelf over your front loading washer and dryer that's is deep as your appliances. A good handyman or carpenter should be able to pretty easily build and install one for you , and this will give you plenty of space for sorting and folding clean clothes. Now, if you have a stackable washer and dryer, a good potential alternative for you is to use a wall mounted folding workbench, which can also be a great place to fold clothes for ironing. While you can certainly easily hang your ironing board on the wall or on the back of your door, you still have to find a place to set up the ironing board, which could be tough in a small home. As a better solution. I personally prefer the ease of a pull down ironing board that is mounted to one of your sidewalls. Now, if you have a stackable washer and dryer, the AF four mentioned wall mounted folding workbench can be a great alternative for storing your iron as well as items like orphan socks. There are lots of great wall mounted storage racks and baskets that take up minimal real estate on your walls. I also love hooks and laundry rooms as they can be useful for holding dry, cleaner bags. And for holy and spare change. There are so many cute jars on the market that take up little space on the shelf or in a cabinet. The laundry room is another place you want some good bright lighting, so I recommend using daylight range lightbulbs with good color rendering so you can appropriately pre treat stains on your clothing. Now let's talk about where you can add some style to this very functional space, because every longer room or laundry space has a potential to be a stylish extension of your home. That means that I am going to be decorating the laundry room in the same style as your home . Whether that's Bohemian Scandinavian French country farmhouse, whatever your style. There's absolutely no reason why that style can't be applied to your laundry room as well. So let's talk about some specific design opportunities first. If you do use all or some open shelving, this provides you the opportunity to install some pretty wallpaper behind your shelving and you stylish and functional accessories such as matching baskets and or jars, faux greenery and small framed artwork. You could also install a striking backsplash below your shelving or cabinetry. Another obvious design choices. To paint the room in something other than builder white. I recommend choosing either one of the neutrals or not neutral colors from your homes color scheme again. You want this room to feel cohesive with the rest of your home. Lighting is another place you can easily bring in some serious design to your room. If your home is decorated in mid mod, then by all means consider unaffordable fund. Mid mod fixture in your laundry room is your home farmhouse or industrial. Then consider installing swing arm sconce is at the top of the wall over your washer and dryer. Even if you have a recess can light in the middle of your room home improvement stores sell conversion kits that will allow you or an electrician's to convert that recess lighting into a box that you can use to hang a stylish pendant or comparable fixture. The point is that no matter your style, there are so many great light fixtures available at affordable costs that this is one easy design solution for your laundry room. Finally, if you're frustrated by the amount of clearance your laundry doors swing needs in your small home, consider replacing it with a sliding barn door. While you may think that the only work in farmhouse style homes there are actually many more door styles available that make this a viable choice in many styles, including but not limited to contemporary transitional, industrial and urban modern. 22. Outdoor Spaces: whether you have a balcony, a deck or a small patio, I encourage you to make the most of your outdoor space with great design. Because having a lovely outdoor space where you can read, relax, have a glass of wine or spend time with family and friends is priceless. I have to design rules for outdoor spaces I think will be helpful to you as well. Design Rule Number one I always use the same interior design style that is in the home in the outdoor space design rule number two. I follow a basic formula for what items to include in my outdoor area. Since spaces likely limited, my formula is simple. My first level must haves include seeding, table rug plants, shade pillows, blankets and lighting. Following these must haves. If I have additional room and budget, I look adding artwork, a small fountain, outdoor drapes and possibly a fire source in the form of a fire pit, fire table or fireplace. Let's dive into all of these in more detail. Seeding, of course, is the top priority for a usable outdoor area. First, let me start by saying that just like with living rooms and dining rooms. I typically avoid coordinated table and seating sets. I much rather choose individual pieces that work well together. What type of seating you choose depends on what type of activities you want to do in your space. If your priority is having a place to eat al fresco than chairs that could be used around the table for dining are the priority agree. Alternative to using all chairs is to use a corner bench with a round pedestal table. That is a particularly good solution for a tight outdoor area, just like it works in tight areas for breakfast nooks near your kitchen. It will also work in the same way outside. But if your priority is to have a place toe lounge for reading or enjoying your favorite beverage than a freestanding hanging chair, outdoor swing, hammock chair or in many outdoor day bed might be perfect for you. Two seat additional guests consider including some collapsible chairs or outdoor ottomans, which are often so stylish and can be tucked under tables. Speaking of tables, Round tables are often the best choice for small space as they are easy to get around. But if you have a narrow balcony. Narrow nesting tables like this are a great choice. Some square bistro tables also fold up. So if your priorities outdoor dining than consider going with this option so they can be stored and brought out when you need to see additional guests for a meal, just like with nearly every room in the home, an outdoor rug is on my must have list. And just like I recommend with nearly any room, I go with the largest rug I can for an outdoor area. There are some amazing outdoor rugs on the market at all price points and such an easy way to inject color and texture to your outdoor space again, just like with the style of your outdoor area, look to your indoor color scheme for what colors you want to include in your outdoor space . Now what kind of an area would be an outdoor space without the incorporation of plants? A sad one for sure, and there are such creative ways to include greenery that even the most space constrained areas can find a way. I'm sure you've likely seen vertical garden walls. They range from basic to elaborate, so whether you are a D I wire, or you want to hire a professional to do this for you. There are a huge range of possibilities now. If you can't or would rather not attach things to your outdoor walls, there are attractive outdoor shelving units that are perfect for holding plants. Creating levels of greenery in an outdoor area is particularly pleasing from an aesthetic standpoint, So if you can try to incorporate various levels through the use of small walls or even shelving units, if you have a railing, you can use railing planters, which could be one of the easiest ways to incorporate greenery. When you are short on real estate and even if you think you have a black thumb, there are a decent amount of plants. They're very difficult to kill, so I encourage you to give this a try. Now let's move on to shade. If you're in an open area, providing shade of some type is incredibly important. This could be done with a stylish umbrella or a pergola, with or without an additional sun. Shade. Per galas, of course, are also an ideal surface to string outdoor lights on. And why not consider hanging a bed from your purple A as well regarding umbrellas. I prefer freestanding umbrellas as opposed to table umbrellas, as it provides you with more flexibility. Now, if you're limited on space, you can purchase 1/2 umbrella that butts up against an outdoor wall. Genius after rugs, outdoor pillows and outdoor blankets are another easy way to bring color into your outdoor area, and it's also a great way to help blend the inside with the outside. An excellent way to blend these two areas is to use pillows that contain the accent color from your indoor color scheme and any flowers you have in your auto or area. For example, if black is one of your indoor accent colors and you have yellow flowers going outside, finding pillows that used both colors or a combination of black and yellow pillows will look great. I personally like story blankets when not in use and outdoor storage. Ottoman bench or Cabinet is a great way to do this. My final absolute must have for a now outdoor space is lighting. There are lots of great options for lighting on the simpler side of the lion spectrum. Hanging outdoor string lights on places like you're railing on your Pernilla in between your house and a tree or a tree in the poll. And if power is a problem, there are some great available options for solar powered string lights. Another easy way to add accent lighting to your outdoor space is through up lights for your potted plants and candle lanterns. If you have a junction box of your outdoor space, there are plenty of stylish indoor outdoor chandeliers. Alternatively, you could use a candle chandelier, although it doesn't provide as much light but its outstanding for ambiance. Speaking of junction boxes, sometimes the better alternative for those of you in particularly warm or humid areas is to install an outdoor ceiling fan. Now, just including these seven elements into your outdoor design will make for a great outdoor space, I promise. But if you have the space and the budget here on my next level design techniques for nearly any type of outdoor space, the top of that list is artwork. No matter your climate, there is likely some great outdoor art work pieces for you and the style of your space artwork, just like rugs, pillows and blankets, definitely helped to blur the lines between outside and inside. Outdoor artwork runs the gamut from metal design pieces to all weather canvas wall art. So truly something for everyone. Again, just like with rugs and pillows, here is a great opportunity to inject color and style into your design. Next on my list is a fountain. There is just something about a fountain, not only the aesthetic beauty it can bring to an outdoor space, but the feeling of serenity that the sound of running water elicits is so valuable That's worth the time and effort to incorporate. Want into your design? Many outdoor fountains require electricity, but not all there do exist. Solar powered outdoor fountains. While some founds can be connected to a home's water supply, there are plenty of great options that simply require you to refill them with either a picture or a garden hose. Of course, fountains were not only available at all price points, but they also come in all sizes and styles, and there are multiple finishes available. I personally really like concrete and stone finishes, but there are other finishes, such as wood, copper and bronze. And of course, there are also some lighted options, which is so nice in the evening one final point. Just be aware that outdoor fountains should be cleaned periodically. Now let's talk about one of my favorite elements for creating an outdoor oasis. Outdoor drapes. These air such a great element, and it will definitely help to take your outdoor area to the next level. They not only add style and texture, but they can also provide privacy, which could be a serious plus for many of us who live close to our neighbors. Perhaps surprisingly, outdoor drapes can be had for fairly affordable prices and can be pretty easily installed in a variety of outdoor spaces, from per Gullas to covered patios and covered balconies. But even for those of you who have open patio areas, don't despair. You can also purchase freestanding outdoor curtain rods. While it doesn't solve the shade problem, it does open the door for you to use this great design and privacy feature. Last but certainly not least, you may also want to consider a fire source, such as a portable fire pit or a fire table. First, let me just say that these are not an option for all outdoor spaces In fact, many communities have restrictions, such a specific clearance and space requirements on outdoor fire sources. So it's extremely imperative to check with your local officials and your homeowners association if you have one, before you think about incorporating one into your outdoor design. Unfortunately, these are often a no go for a balcony or small deck, although not always. I have seen exceptions such as balconies and decks that are protected by an automatic sprinkler system. But they can definitely be an option for certain patios, and your safest bet is a propane or natural gas fire pit. It has also recommended that portable outdoor fire pits are placed on metal papers or bricks. And, of course, make sure you have a fire extinguisher nearby. You can never be too safe when it comes to fire. Okay, all that said, Just like with fountains, there is something so relaxing and indulgent to be a little sit by a fire table drinking a glass of beer or wine on a beautiful evening. These elements also really helped to extend the use of your outdoor space. If you live in a seasonal area without a heating source, many people would only use their outdoor areas in the summer, but with a fire pit or fire table, you can easily enjoy this space in the spring and fall as well. So if this is something that appeals to you, definitely look into it and see if it will work in your outdoor space. Finally, if you have a patio and you need privacy, look for creative ways to accomplish that, such as with this freestanding would wall, which is particularly great for contemporary and Zen style spaces. 23. Activity #2 - Create Your Own Small Room Design: now that you're hopefully incredibly inspired to begin using some of these design approaches and techniques in your own home, I want to take that excitement and that knowledge and create a design for a room in your own home using the template called small room Interior Design Planner, which you will find in the resource is section. This planner has been designed to walk you through analyzing all of the aspects of a small room in your own home so that you have a detailed plan for implementing a functional and beautiful room design. While it could be used for any room, it's particularly suited for living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and home offices. In this lecture, I will review this five page planner with you, so you have a good idea what to expect in terms of completing it. You can either complete it as we review it together by pausing the video at the appropriate places. Or you can complete it after you listen to the entire lecture. Either way, nothing will help you to cement the concepts and techniques you learned in this course mawr quickly, then immediately applying them to re real world situation like a room in your home that said, Go ahead and pause the video now so you can print out the document and either take notes or answer the questions while we walk through the planner together. Okay, you can see that the planner first asks you to indicate what room you will be designing using this planner. Once that's notated, the next section encourages you to draw in a simple floor plan of your room. By this, I mean draw in the shape of your room and then no, take the measurements of your walls, the approximate location of your doors and windows, along with measurements. Drying a floor plan is an integral part of any good room design for both furniture and lighting placement. If you condone, draw to scale even better. If not, just do the best you can. I always know. Take the measurements outside of the walls so that you leave the inside of the floor plan for drawing in your furnishings and you're lighting fixtures. That said, as you make furnishing and lighting selections as you work through the planner, come back to this floor plan to draw on the approximate locations of where you'd like to place these items using squares for most furniture items and circles for lighting. Just to keep it simple, Remember to try to keep your seating off of the walls, if at all possible. The next question asks you to write down the main activities that will be taking place in this room, which, of course, is a required step prior to the next three questions, which will help you to ensure that you have the furniture that is needed for those main activities. The next set of questions will help you to decide where in your room, apart from your rug, you want to go big as well as what will be your rooms. Focal point moving on. You should consider what type of double duty pieces you may want to include in your room to maximize your square footage. This is most relevant if you are going to be purchasing new items for that room. Unless, of course, you already own some of these types of pieces. The next two sections are focused on analysing your storage needs and deciding on what type of storage pieces you want to include in your room to meet those needs For those of you who live in the studio apartment a loft or have an open floor plan, and you want to include some separation, the next section reminds you of the best room dividing options that you should consider using in your room design. The planner then moves into color selections based on the mood and feeling you are trying to create in your room. It also encourages you to consider where you can install Mears in your design. Since mirrors work so well, regardless of the mood or feeling you're trying to create, you'll also see a question regarding patterns moving on. You're then guided to think about how you will meet the lighting needs in your room. As you know, you want to have at least ambient and task lighting sources, and, ideally, should include some accent lighting as well, which can often be a smart lighting application when trying to accentuate a focal point. This section also ask you to consider the ideal window treatments for this room. The last section is asking you to consider what additional changes you would like to make to the room based on what type of room this is and pulling from the information you learned in the lecture for that type of room. For example, if it's your child's bedroom, you may want to write down what type of fun moment you want to include in the room, such as an indoor swing, a teepee chalkboard wall, a bed canopy, a safe climbing wall or a hanging magnet board. I would recommend rewatching the lecture on the type of room you're working on in this planner, or at least reviewing the rapid recap at the end to remind yourself of other great design choices. I discussed for that type of room, and that's it. I hope you find this planner helpful as you think about how to take all of the information that you learned in this course and beautifully apply it by creating a beautiful and functional new room design for your home. 24. Thank You for Joining Me in this Small Home Design Course!: if you're watching this lecture. Thank you. And congratulations. Thank you for watching. And congratulations on completing the entire course. I hope you found some really worthwhile information that will help you to fall in love with your small home all over again. If you have any suggestions and how I could make this course more valuable to you, please don't hesitate to let me know as I do make updates to my courses. Additionally, if you have any follow up questions on the course content, please send me an email for post a question. As I am happy to provide any needed support to you. Thank you again and happy decorating.