The growing popularity of more compact living quarters, due in part to both rising housing costs and densification, has many people searching for interior design hacks for small living spaces.
When designing a small space, it’s important to include details that align with your habits and routines. Other designs might look great in magazines or on Pinterest, but this is your home. It’s crucial to harness your creativity when designing a cozy space that is functional, comfortable and reflects both your lifestyle and personality.
Below, we have outlined five tips and tricks to help you maximize space without compromising on style.
1. Avoid visual line breaks
Whether you decide to opt for a bright and airy room with whites or neutrals, or go big with a bold colour palette, avoid visual line breaks on the interior walls of the space.
A visual line break is any separation or disruption to the design elements of the room. It is important to avoid these line breaks in smaller spaces because it can make a room feel confined or cluttered.
To do this, try painting the trim, walls and doors in the same colour, and if using an area rug, choose a colour that is similar to the colour of the flooring. This creates a cohesive flowy feeling to the room, allowing for certain furniture pieces to shine, easily becoming focal points in the room without any visual distractions.
2. Utilize vertical space
When designing a room or home with minimal square footage, a simple way to expand the area is to utilize vertical space.
In the kitchen, a few great uses of vertical space could be:
Adding shelving to bare walls or underneath cabinets
Installing a magnetic strip to the backsplash for knives and spices
Hanging pots and pans above a kitchen island or on the wall
In a living room or bedroom, use open shelving to display books and trinkets. You can also utilize the space on your walls to bring the outside in with house plants.
Lastly, hanging a wall mirror can create the illusion of an open, spacious room. Choose a mirror with a smaller frame (remember, the less visual line breaks on the walls, the better) and ideally place it opposite of an outside window to reflect natural light.
3. Choose furniture wisely
Selecting pieces that reflect your aesthetic is a great way to bring character into your home . Whether you’re choosing calming neutrals, or making a statement with colourful fabrics and finishes, the size of the furniture is most important.
Always measure your space before purchasing any furniture, and draw up a diagram of the room you are furnishing. Create multiple layout options to find the best layout for your interiors, being mindful to leave enough space around each piece so that they don’t touch each other or the walls – another hack to make a room feel larger than it is.
Opting for low profile furniture will contribute to a sense of openness in the room. Furniture that is closer to the ground can give a room an airer feel.
Finally, getting playful with colours and textures is a great way to bring big personality into a small space. Selecting unique fabrics and finishes can turn an ordinary piece of furniture into art or at the very least, a conversation piece.
4. Be smart about lighting
Being intentional with the lighting you choose to adorn your petite abode with can make or break the overall feel of your space.
Create a focal point in a room with a pendant light or semi-flush fixture. There are many options available to suit your style, from simple and modern to industrial or even vintage.
If you don’t have room for end tables or nightstands, adding surface lamps will be difficult. Instead, choose a floor lamp where space allows, or add wall sconces or hanging lights.
Bonus tip: Add dimmer switches to your lights to easily adjust the mood without the use of multiple light fixtures.
Retirement and real estate in Quebec: Stay put or downsize?
2025, may 28
Royal LePage survey offers new insights into the home ownership trends of retirees Nowadays, owning a home is a challenge – and paying off your mortgage in full is an even greater one – especially when you consider the continuing rise in property prices, exacerbated by the increased demand for real estate resulting from the
Home staging is a strategy that is increasingly popular with sellers and brokers wanting to present a house, condo or apartment in its best light. Transforming a space to make it more attractive to potential buyers can make all the difference between a quick sale and a property that stays on the market for months. Read
Home prices near Quebec’s ski hills rise, despite ‘stormy’ mortgage...
2024, november 20
Royal LePage forecasts that the price of a single-family detached home in Quebec’s recreational markets will rise 6.0% in 2025 The recreational real estate rush that defined the peak of the pandemic market has been over for some time. However, the high demand for property in Quebec’s recreational areas does not seem to have disappeared.
To deliver the best experiences, we use technologies such as cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Failure to consent or withdrawal of consent may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
Storage or technical access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Préférences
Le stockage ou l’accès technique est nécessaire dans la finalité d’intérêt légitime de stocker des préférences qui ne sont pas demandées par l’abonné ou l’utilisateur.
Statistics
Le stockage ou l’accès technique qui est utilisé exclusivement à des fins statistiques.Storage or technical access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
Marketing
Storage or technical access is necessary to create user profiles in order to send advertisements, or to track the user on a website or on several websites with similar marketing purposes.