When you are on your own, don’t need much space but don’t want to go through the hassle of sharing an apartment either, a studio flat is the way to go. It merges the living room, the bedroom, and the kitchen into a single room with an en-suite bathroom.
Since the space is somewhat small, one has to be reasonably careful while decorating the place, so that one does not end up feeling grungy or claustrophobic.
Give your living room a relaxing look
You can create a living room from even the smallest space – just focus on small furniture. Just do away with the bulky sofa sets and go for sleek Love seats, Fabric and Leather Chairs or even Ottomans, in order to give a more relaxing look. Also consider a small sized glass sofa or cocktail table in the lounge since it does not take up a lot of visual space.
The mantra remains to take advantage of the vertical storage to the fullest so that the apartment looks less clustered. So select high and less wide chests and wardrobes.
Organize your apartment and give it a more sophisticated look
And if you need a work area or study, it does not have to be very conspicuous. You can think of using a light chair, preferably bamboo or wicker and just team it up with a small glass desk. It can fit seamlessly by the window. Also, if you have space to include a small dining space, you might consider a round table with a pedestal. Go for straight backed chairs with narrow legs with less or no padding.
Armless chairs or chairs with open backs are also good choices as they do not obstruct the view around the room. You can also use a bench instead of chairs on one side of a rectangular table. If you a looking for a mini-bar, you might just get one of those which serve as both wine cupboard in the bottom and a desk at the top.
Multi-utility Furniture
A portable kitchen island in Maggie’s kitchen: by flipping up the breakfast counter side of the portable island, she can use part of the counter for food prep! Photo Courtesy: Maggie Hoffman
You might like to organize the apartment in such a way that the space is maximized. This would call for multi-utility furniture as for a small studio, each additional inch helps. Keep an eye out for mobile, foldable and convertible furniture like convertible tables, folding chairs or a small mobile kitchen cart cum storage unit. They can be essential since multi-functional portable pieces are easily a bonus.
Visual Partitions
Also, you might want to decorate in order to delineate the lounge, the bedroom and the kitchen. Visual partitions can demarcate and give the illusion of a larger room as well. A bedroom for example can be visibly defined by a prominent headboard of the bed.
A good idea is to separate the bedroom from the rest with a massive bookcase (maximising the vertical space) or a snappy hairdresser or maybe even a very unique nightstand.
Right: Partition Magic…Beautifully designed room partition. A true waterfall in your living room. Photo Courtesy: Rishabh Mathur
Play with Colors
You can also play with the colors. To make your apartment look bigger and more airy, stick to light or pastel shades. You can color one of the narrower walls dark and contrast by using light coloured furniture to give the illusion of a larger space.
Living in a studio apartment is not easy; however is it achievable to maintain an efficient and beautiful all-in-one-space.
This post is written by Jenny Denver. She is a renowned interior designer and a regular blogger. She says one finds the best and stylish home decor things in either an upmarket furniture stores or at an antique shop.
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