Still bothered by the small living room? Or just not making the most of the space you have? Take a look at these ideas and see how you can maximize the use of waste, from tricky corners to narrow alcoves.
1. Go up and flip over. How often do you think about the space above your living room door? Probably less often. But this underappreciated place can be a convenient place to increase storage space.
Here, homeowners have built narrow shelving units above and below both sides of the doorway to maximize wall area.
2. Turn windows into shelves. This cosy room is cosy and welcoming, but the petite proportions mean that every inch requires effort. A coffee table in the center of the room blocks the passage. By tucking a low table into the window recess, the owner created a neat perch for the coffee cups without taking up valuable floor space.
3. Make use of vertical space. Feel like you don’t have room for a bookshelf? The homeowners took advantage of the vertical space of the apartments to install metal shelves on concrete columns to support a stack of tall books. This idea can work in any wall space.
You can try a book tower like this one, or use a compact metal bookshelf bracket that attaches to the smallest wall space to create instant bookshelves.
4. Make the most of the long, narrow niches. The clever storage choices in this slender alcove ensure that no space is wasted in the living room. Installing full-height cabinets in such a shallow place would be tricky, so instead build a row of enclosed base units that extend slightly into the room. Narrow shelves for displaying smaller items cover the rest of the wall.
Now, everything – books, decorations, even fireplace logs – has a home.
5. Make the coffee table more useful. The owner of this bright and airy living room has opted for a coffee table with neat lower bookshelves to store books. If you’re going to use valuable floor space to place your table, it makes sense to choose a table with extra storage (like this one) or a suitcase or footstool with storage space inside.
6. Consider customizing the built-in plugins. This intricately shaped corner can easily be wasted space, but by building benches and shelves, homeowners have created a beautiful and functional design feature.
If you have a similarly awkward corner in your living room, talk to a carpenter or builder about a custom solution to see if you can use a sloping roof or angled corners.
7. Make the most of the corners. With a little creativity, you can squeeze your office into another living room function by tucking your office into a corner by the fireside. Here, a small table with two shelves on it forms a stylish workspace that is neatly separated from the main lounge area.
8. Frame your TV. It may be tempting to hang your TV on a plain wall, but if space is limited, it’s a wasted opportunity. Consider framing your TV with shelves. In addition to providing a variety of storage opportunities, shelves can also help incorporate the TV into the design scheme of the room – which can be helpful if you’re concerned about the TV sticking out too much on a blank wall.
9. Take advantage of the wall behind the couch. Installing shelves for books, art, or accessories is a smart way to take advantage of the often forgotten walls behind the couch. Place it throughout the room for maximum impact, or stack several picture ledges on top of the other for twice as much storage.
10. Take advantage of bay windows. If you don’t see the view from the window of your living room and you have to shade some of them with blinds or blinds, it’s easy to overlook this area.
Fitting a bay window with built-in seating (like the one in this room) is a great way to make use of what would otherwise be wasted space and create more seating in a compact living room. The inclusion of storage space into the seat further enhances its usability.
11. Leave space behind the couch. If there is a couch in the middle of the room, a narrow entryway table can be placed behind the couch to create a convenient extra surface. If your couch is against a wall, you can pull it forward a bit to fit into the elongated console as a desk lamp or a convenient perch for a pile of books.
