Apartments are different: large and small, comfortable and not very comfortable, but in almost every one there is a room that is very small. You can make a good nursery out of such a room, which is well suited for a small household, or make a living room, if the location allows.
It is not always possible to combine rooms. partition, which is bearing wall can destroy everything. Sometimes it happens that the owners simply do not want or are afraid to change existing view your apartment. However, you can change the furniture, then you can achieve an expansion of the visible space.
The question arises: what needs to be removed in the first place? Do NOT need large wardrobes, useless ottomans, bulky tables and other similar furniture that does not bring any use and takes up space. The wardrobe can be replaced with a sliding wardrobe, which will occupy the entire wall and the entire height. You can make it to order, having discussed all the details with the master in advance. This is convenient because you can think in advance about how many shelves, hangers, drawers and other things you need. additional features. All things can easily fit in it, and the space in the room will increase significantly. The depth of the cabinet plays a big role in this. You can also think of a set of furniture, which will include a table, shelves, a pencil case, and all these things will be in one closet. After work, you can simply clean them up.
Upholstered furniture is a separate issue. The choice falls on transforming furniture, which may not take up much space in the room, and at the same time right time unfold and accept desired shape. It can be a sofa bed, instead of just a bed, or a chair bed, on which you can sleep.
A sofa bed is also good, which is suitable for a small room. It easily converts into sleeping area. This will also save space.
However, it must be borne in mind that each room has its own furniture. Be it the living room or the kitchen. An armchair bed or a sofa bed will fit into the room, into the living room corner sofa. The main thing is not to make a mistake in choosing such furniture, otherwise you can achieve the opposite result. Despite the fact that the room is small, you need to choose high-quality furniture. Before buying, it is obligatory to check the stuffing material, furniture upholstery, its frame, etc.
The frame is best to choose from natural array. Buck is the best option. Chipboard and other lumber are too hard and short-lived, they can even aggravate health conditions. Metal parts, plywood and MDF elements can be well combined in the frame.
The padding is also important. Here you can consider a combination of springs and polyurethane foam or foam rubber. Upholstery is best to choose natural. Modern fabrics such as microfiber, etc. do not count, but they are expensive. It is best to choose leather, tapestry or jacquard.
The new review has collected practical examples of how you can take and transform your home. The proposals collected here will be especially useful for those whose apartment is not very large. In any case, it is worth taking note of examples of the work done by professional designers.
1. Dressing room in the corner
small piece water pipe or railing will allow you to turn any empty corner of the bedroom into a modern open dressing room for your favorite things or outerwear.
2. Hanging bedside table
Hanging bedside table is a stylish and ergonomic alternative to a standard nightstand. Such a table will allow you to place the little things you need in the bed and save valuable space in a small bedroom. In addition, such a piece of furniture can be made with your own hands, thereby saving your own finances.
3. Hidden bookcase
Usually, an empty wall outside the door of a room is a great place to install a compact cabinet or shelving for books and other necessary little things. This idea will save a lot of space. small room and make room for other equally necessary things.
4. Zoning space
Despite the crazy popularity of studio apartments, for life and recreation, a person needs a separate corner, hidden from prying eyes. Therefore, studio owners and one-room apartments, designers recommend zoning space with curtains, which, unlike partitions, do not take up any space at all and will become a stylish touch to a modern interior.
5. Original dining area
If the dimensions of the room do not allow the installation of a classic dinner table- experiment. For example, get a wide table-shelf that can be hung by the window in the kitchen or on the free wall of the living room.
6. Bed with drawers
The bed, the frame and headboard of which is equipped with drawers and shelves, will allow you to accommodate a lot of necessary things and save you from buying an additional wardrobe or bedside table.
7. Storing funds in the bathroom
A cheap tabletop wine rack is perfect for holding bottles of styling products and shower gels. This idea will allow you to put things in order and significantly save space in the bathroom cabinet.
8. Organizer for household items
A metal bottle holder mounted on one of the walls of a pantry or kitchen cabinet is perfect for storing various household items, such as rags, household gloves and detergents.
9. Kitchen organizer
From the old louvered door, painted in a bright color, you will get not only a functional organizer for storing pots, pans and small kitchen accessories, but also unique item decor.
10. Shelf above the sink
The wall above the sink can be equipped with a stylish wooden shelf with high sides and cells, which is ideal for storing all kinds of cosmetics, tooth lye and small cosmetics.
11. Pouffe transformer
Transforming furniture is a real find for owners small apartments. For example, if possible, you can get a stylish coffee table-ottoman, which unfolds and turns into a full-fledged bed.
12. Bath shelf
Shelves for bathtubs and sinks are not a whim, but a functional detail that will increase the possibilities of the bathtub or sink rim and place all the necessary cosmetical tools, soap and washcloths.
13. Built-in shelves
Do not clutter up the already modest space of the bathroom with massive cabinets and a bunch of shelves. Instead, it is better to give preference to built-in shelves, which are great for storing a variety of things and save a lot of space.
14. Open shelves in the office
The original system of interconnected shelves different size will be a great alternative to the usual desktop, which takes up a lot of space, and a spectacular decoration of an empty wall.
15. Closer to the floor
To decorate a small living room with low ceiling it is better to choose low compact furniture. Such a trick will visually increase the modest dimensions of the room and create a stylish harmonious interior.
16. Second floor
Bed under the ceiling - stylish and fresh solution, which can not only significantly increase the possibilities of the room, but also make the interior unique. The freed up space under the bed can be used to create a mini-living room, wardrobe, workplace or play area.
Continuing the theme, without much difficulty.
We use the space that is usually empty even in the smallest apartment: 
It is not easy to store a lot of things in a small apartment. Especially if you love shopping. Limited space must be used to the maximum benefit. If your things don't fit in the closet, hang an extra hanger in the corner to help organize the space more efficiently.
If you love to cook, it is very important that your favorite herbs and spices are always at hand. Use office organizer trays as a shelf. Well, if you take magnets, then such a shelf can be easily placed directly on the refrigerator. Nothing will be lost for sure!
Place to store frying pans
If there is not much space in your kitchen, then at least the walls are always there! It may seem unrealistic, but every centimeter of the wall can and should be used! For example, it is convenient to place hooks for pans and utensils that you often use. 
Stand for jewelry
Limited space is a real torture for women who love accessories. Use a writing board and your jewelry will always be in order. Handy hooks and pins will help you neatly place earrings, bracelets and beads on the board. 
Detergent storage
Most of us store detergents and cleaners under the sink. Often this leads to confusion and the inability to find anything in the heaps. Place a crossbar between the walls of the cabinet and hang spray bottles on it. 
Hanging shelves
The bathroom is usually subject to the highest demands. But very often they are made too small in size. If you need more space, place shelves on the walls: they provide extra level space without taking up floor space. 
Towel stand
The towel is an important bathroom item that takes up too much space. Instead of storing them far away in a closet, use a wine rack: roll towels and place them in place of wine bottles. 
Pantry Organizer
Most conveniently packaged food is very inconvenient to store. For convenience, use a shoe organizer in the pantry. It is great for storing juice boxes, condiments and other packaged foods. 
Additional bar in the bathroom
The crossbar is usually used to place a curtain on it. Place a second one next to it, and it will be very convenient to hang brushes, washcloths and various little things from it. 
Fuse for car door
One of big problems small garages in the house - lack of space in order to open the car door. As a result, the wall is damaged and the door is scratched. To avoid this, attach a foam roller cut along the length to the wall. Both the car door and the garage wall will be safe. 
I like to optimize living space. Considering that my apartment, although three-room, is quite small in area, optimization is also a necessity.
Don't feed me bread, give me something to hang on the wall or attach to the ceiling. And with the advent of a screwdriver and a drill in the house, the process became irreversible :)
The layout of my apartment is "helicopter", who knows. Therefore, there is such a room in it, formally - a corridor. But its size is 120 by 180. And on each side there is a door. Four doors. And you think he is idle with me? It turned out to be an excellent library, where all the books, and there are about half a thousand of them, archives of magazines, folders, CDs and DVDs. If you strongly ask, I can somehow shoot this miracle and post it. In general, I'm crazy about hanging bathtubs, fireplaces, especially if they can be raised to the ceiling are not needed yet. And also - from all sorts of drawers, shelves and other things. I would probably make a good interior designer for motorhomes or yachts
And so, once again entering the kitchen, in which, by the way, I can get it with my hands from wall to wall :), I see that my young ladies have again littered the top of the refrigerator. Although I warned them many times that it was impossible, that the compressor was overloaded and the refrigerator could be kirdyk. I, essno boiled, but then I suddenly realized that above it there is a place for an excellent shelf! What I was stupid before - I do not know. Since there is a place, then the shelf - to be, it doesn’t happen otherwise :)
By the way, the photo shows another know-how of mine. Pots take up a lot of space, and curtains and curtains in a small kitchen are not needed. Therefore, we build such a structure on four mounts, supply it with hooks, and hang pots and pans :)
We will hang the shelf on the wall to the right above the refrigerator.
As you can see from the photo, we are not much up to beauty, we would be more functional.
Therefore, one long shelf was planned, in fact - the so-called suitable size is bought. furniture board and to it - fastenings on the wall.
So the last time I made a shelf above my computer. 80 cm long, it cost me, for everything about everything, about 300 UAH. in the construction supermarket. I decided it was out of habit to go to the nearest one, but then I remembered that I had recently seen a review of an online supermarket.
The name, as an old iPhone owner, I could not help but remember - ibud.ua. Ok, let's see what we can offer.
First of all, ibud.ua turned out to be not quite an online store - it is a platform, or, in other words, a platform where different companies from all over Ukraine place their goods.
Just do not confuse the site with the price list, where only prices and product names.
There is detailed descriptions and selection is possible according to them, as well as selection by parameters, as in a regular online store.
At the same time, several suppliers have some goods - go to the product card and choose where it is more profitable.
Let's go.
Initially, I planned one long shelf of one and a half meters, because the protruding part ceiling panel makes it difficult to put high things.
But two meters is two meters. And you don’t have to stand on a stool to get something from the far side. And 134 UAH. (The second seller had a price of 200). Variant with furniture board and fasteners fell off immediately, did not even look :)
Ok, I'm placing an order. After a while, a representative of the supplier already calls me back and we discuss the terms of delivery - each has its own, but if something doesn’t fit, no one bothers to cancel the order and, if desired, re-order from another supplier.
Delivery costs 150 UAH - more expensive than a shelf, I don’t want to. You can wait until the car passes me and then they will deliver it for free, an option - because I'm not in a hurry. But it turned out that their self-pickup is not far from one of the moss permanent routes. Ok, the next day I have a shelf.
Frankly, I did not expect anything for that kind of money, except for the panels themselves, but the kit included not only all the fasteners, but even a key and PVA glue. Production - Ukraine.
I will not bore you with assembly details, there is nothing to do there. Ten minutes later the shelf was assembled. Then I had to wait for the screwdriver to charge the battery, and it took another ten minutes to hang it. :)
In total, this is what happened - things migrated to the shelf not only from the refrigerator, but also from other places, where, in turn, bulky items left the shelf.
As a result, there was more space than it was, and now there is nothing on the refrigerator. Great!
Choosing a shelf on the Internet is much more convenient. In an offline supermarket, you only have the dimensions of the free space with you, and if you see something non-standard - like I did this time - planned on one "floor", but it came out on two, then you just try to imagine how it will fit . And at home - I went and looked, measured - under one shelf, under another - as a result, it is more convenient, 100%. Not to mention the fact that there are simply no such prices in off-line supermarkets.
And what did you improve at home, in the country, preferably outside the box?
How to optimize the living space at home? How to fit all your things into a limited space? How to make objects in the house not only occupy less space, but they have become even more convenient to use? This article is about it.
I opened for you a marvelous new world microhouses. This is a completely different concept of approach to building and designing the space of a house. But last time I went with “broad strokes” and a little haphazardly. I would like to systematize, detail and concretize the principles that we will use when planning our house.
1. Vertical space
I already wrote that people are too used to thinking in planes square meters. But why not add to the horizontal planes vertical planes walls, as well as the horizontal planes of the ceilings or the lower planes of the shelves?
Almost all interior items can not be placed, but hung. This is especially true of the kitchen - after all, so much is concentrated in the kitchen. small items. These items do not have to be smeared on the bottom kitchen drawers- so you won’t stock up on any boxes. But almost any kitchen item you can hang it on a hook or a special railing, of which there are plenty on sale, and they cost a penny. First of all, this applies to the largest objects - pots and pans. On the same rails you can hang glasses for storing spoons and forks. Also sold special magnetic holders for knives that not only save space, but are also very convenient. Special hooks for hanging mugs will also save a few square feet.
But if you save big, then why not move the bed upstairs to the loft? As a rule, in micro-houses it is placed above the kitchen, which lowers the level of the ceiling in it and allows you to use this plane for hanging everything and everything. And why do we need haute cuisine? I'm sure the space above your cabinets just gathers dust and disappears. Actually, like the top shelves of kitchen cabinets. You can’t reach them, and therefore store there any rubbish that you practically don’t use.
True, a loft bed is also quite a big compromise. Katya and I, but it was not very convenient to use them. Although, we never bothered to make a comfortable staircase, and this played a significant role. It is also worth mentioning that the owners of lofts complain that it often gets stuffy upstairs at night. So what needs to be given Special attention organization of normal ventilation. Yes, and it is not necessary to make a bedroom upstairs - you can use the loft to store rarely used things.
Still need to understand: there are never enough shelves. They can and should be placed absolutely everywhere. Let them be small. But from a large number small shelves can get an additional square meter of space, or even two, or even more. If the house has a loft, then shelves can be made, among other things, between the load-bearing lags of this loft - a trifle that you can always put in there. Especially if there is a kitchen under the loft. And if you store things not just on a shelf, but in a small basket or box (there are just a lot of them on sale, and it’s easy to do it yourself) - then it will be very convenient.
2. Double use of furniture
A staircase is usually an object that takes up a huge amount of space in a house. I already wrote about it. Therefore, in all microhouses, it is either attached, or Stairs with shelves and drawers for storage.
The sofa can also have a dual purpose. Its insides can either be used as additional storage, or thought out so that it folds out into a bed for guests or even hosts. And you can manage to do both. In any microhouse, they are not idle and ottoman stools - you can also organize storage of small things in them.
Also a common solution is sliding or drop down furniture. In a previous article, I already video of the house in which the bed is pulled out from under the office — perfect solution, given that the bed occupies about 3-4 square meters (including the space next to the bed to approach it).
There are scenarios when the same place can be used in different ways. A sofa can just be a sofa. And it can also become a workplace if there is a retractable, or lowering, or rising table next to it. This could be the main workplace, and additional. It is possible to provide a number of shelves on which, when the table is folded, the items necessary for work will be located - a computer, stationery and so on.
Another trick used in some micro-houses has to do with the doors. More often all doors are made not hinged, but retractable- this saves space. Sometimes curtains instead of doors It is much cheaper and sometimes even more convenient. By the way, in the curtains often make pockets for storing small things. Sometimes you can see a picture that the lower kitchen cabinets of microhouses are closed not with doors, but with curtains with pockets in which, for example, vegetables are stored. It seems to me that this not only saves space, but is also quite convenient! Following the same principle, sometimes they make shelves right on the sliding doors, especially if the door separates the kitchen and bathroom. Or the door closes the shelves in the kitchen, and when it moves, it closes the bathroom.
3. Optimization ideas
Certainly, the first thing to optimize is yourself. You can easily say goodbye to most of the rubbish, which you keep as Gogol's Plushkin - just in case. You can start from the same kitchen. Practice has shown that four flat and four deep plates are enough for Katya and me to provide dishes for ourselves and our guests. So having more means wasting valuable space. The same goes for our kitchen utensils- its minimum, so we don't need a lot of space to store everything. By the way, a small amount of dishes makes you wash them more often, and I consider this a plus rather than a minus - there is no constant pile of dishes in the sink.
Also you can say goodbye to most of the clothes, especially old and outdated. How many times have I seen a picture that old jackets (or pants) are stored in case they are needed as “combat” ones (for example, to go to nature so that it would not be a pity to spoil new clothes). And 2-3 jackets are stored at once. And this despite the fact that the house has a specially purchased jacket for nature. What to do? Right, throw away or donate to collection points that collect clothes for the needy.
I have already said that any corner of the house can be optimized with shelves. But you can also use some hanging baskets or pockets. In the hallway, they can store keys, a dog leash, a flashlight and other little things; in the working corner - pens, pencils, rulers and other office supplies; in the workshop - tools, etc.
In business and construction stores there are a lot of solutions like this out there. But you can also find other goodies for optimization like drawer dividers. Inserting this separator into drawer bedside tables or chest of drawers, you can get a lot of small compartments - so necessary items it will be easier to find, and it will also be easier to fill the space vertically so that it does not disappear. Go shopping and you will come up with a lot of ideas.
From theory to practice!
Perhaps I wrote somehow chaotically, abstractly and incomprehensibly. If you don't understand, take a look and watch all the videos that I mentioned in it. I got most of my ideas and solutions from there.
But I also found a video that shows the implementation of almost all the tips I mentioned. It's called 21 Space Saving Tips. The video, like all videos about microhouses, is in English. But even if you do not understand it, after reading the above, everything will be clear to you anyway. But just in case, I will list the tips mentioned in this video below, with my comments.
- Get a little girlfriend.
- A table that, when folded, serves as a chalkboard.
- Hanging things on walls and ceilings.
- Loft for storage.
- Under the sofa you can store stools or things. These stools can be used to turn the sofa into a bed or add another row of seating to the table.
- Hanging baskets for small things in the hallway. The heroes of the video have a flashlight, a dog leash and the like stored there.
- Ladder with compartments and drawers for storage.
- Magnetic holder for knives and jars of spices.
- Pockets on the curtains of the lower kitchen cabinets for storing vegetables and kitchen utensils.
- Wall pockets for growing herbs as a condiment or tea.
- Removable holder for disposable towels - you can take it with you if you are going to the restroom with serious intentions.
- The grate on the sink - increases the kitchen workspace and makes it easier to wash vegetables.
- Heat-resistant serving mats - you can not only put dishes on them while eating, but also put a hot pot or pan.
- Curtains instead of doors - not only save space, but also significantly cheaper.
- Internal blinds on windows that fit into window hole rather than hanging outside. You can make both curtains and blinds.
- A folding two-way mirror in the bathroom, which can be used by two at the same time, or separately, both in the shower (say, for a haircut so that the hair does not fall on the floor, but in the shower), and outside it (say, for shaving the male half of the family or for pointing "war paint" female half).
- Swivel hangers in the bathroom - can be used as towel racks and dryers.
- Shower curtain extending beyond the tray - so more room for shoulders and arms, which significantly increases the convenience and spaciousness of the shower. Interesting advice: if you attach several magnets to the curtain, and make a strip of metal on the wall (in this case, the walls are entirely metal), then using the shower will become even more convenient.
- Vaults over places you obviously won't stand over, such as over a toilet. More small shelves and baskets for storage. Tip: Clothes can be stored rolled and upright. So it fits more.
- If you do not have a lot of clothes to wash, then it is not necessary to have a bulky and expensive washing machine. You can get by with a special washing bag - it's more convenient and saves water. Larger items such as sheets can be washed in shower tray. Tip: wear clothes made from natural materials (for example, linen) - it will last much longer and you can wash it without powders and other chemicals by ordinary boiling.
- The thinner the mattress, the greater the height of the loft!
By the way, I re-read my old articles "Ideal house size" (
