Studio apartments are often the most affordable living options available, but they can leave you feeling cramped and cluttered. With these seven clever design hacks, you can turn any studio apartment into a comfortable living space with room to spare.
1. Find a Great Area Rug
While your space is limited in any studio apartment, an area rug is a must-have furnishing that defines a living area without taking up any extra space. If your studio apartment is already carpeted, choose a simple patterned or solid color rug in a shade that is darker than the carpet.
If you have hardwood floors, choose a plush area rug to add dimension to your studio and make it feel significantly more homey with surprisingly little effort.
2. Use Basic Feng Shui
While most westerners aren’t familiar with the ancient art of feng shui, it has some remarkably practical and easy-to-follow principles that can be used to transform any small living space.
Feng shui is all about creating movement and space in your living area, with clearly defined areas for different tasks, such as cooking, sleeping and working. While this is obviously more difficult in an undefined studio space, that makes it all the more important to define specific areas of your home to avoid overlap and clutter.
Consider purchasing room dividers to segment space in a larger studio. This allows you to keep your sleeping area separate from the space where you cook meals or work on your laptop. You can also use curtains to segment your sleeping area and add some privacy when guests come over.
Another basic principle of feng shui is that your bedroom shouldn’t be facing your kitchen or work area, so screens can help ensure that the first thing you see when you wake up isn’t a pile of laundry or your home office.
3. Storage Furniture
It’s easy to think that you should pare down on furniture when it comes to living in a small space, and while that’s certainly true of large bedroom sets and sectional sofas, there are pieces of organizational furniture that can dramatically improve the space economy of your studio. Consider purchasing a storage bed frame with drawers or ample room underneath for organizing bins and bags.
Closet organizers take up a small amount of shelf space while doubling, tripling or even quadrupling your storage options. Many retailers sell multi-function furniture that can easily be repurposed into a different piece or stowed away when not in use.
4. Organizational Bins
If you are having trouble paring down items in your studio but aren’t quite sure what to get rid of, consider purchasing a large plastic storage bin. Place every item you’re unsure about getting rid of in the bin and keep it in an out-of-the-way location or drape a cloth over it and use it as an end table for a couple of months. At the end of those two months, give away or discard any items you haven’t missed.
5. Fairy Lights
Fairy lights, or strings of Edison light bulbs if you’re so inclined, make excellent studio decor. These lights add a pleasant ambient glow that works especially well with open floor plans, and they provide added illumination without taking up any extra space.
The best part is, you can usually find large strings of these lights at a great price in craft stores or the clearance section of your favorite big box retailer after the holidays.
6. Utilize Vertical Space
Whether you have a lofted studio or a tiny dorm room, vertical space is your friend. Consider taller pieces of furniture, such as bookshelves and cubed organizers, which provide ample storage space from floor to ceiling. Not only are these items great for displaying books and decor, but they can also be used to store more without taking up additional floor space.
7. Remember that Less is More
When it comes to making a small space feel like home, a unique photograph or a one-of-a-kind painting can go a long way. However, it’s important to resist the temptation to fill up your space with smaller decor items that can become clutter fast.
No matter how large your studio apartment is, an open floor plan draws the eye into major focal points in a matter of seconds. Make sure that the eye isn’t competing with numerous decor items and stick with one or two bold statement pieces that tie your whole place together.
With these clever design hacks, you’ll be feeling right at home in your studio apartment in no time. The cardinal rule of turning a studio into a fabulous place to live is keeping your decor simple and putting a bit of time into planning out your storage options.
