How to maximise the space of a small apartment using well-thought-out planning and decorative techniques – 7 tips for designing a studio apartment.
1 Think through life scenarios
It is necessary to plan the space of a studio apartment based on life scenarios. If you like to entertain guests, sacrifice the dining area in favor of a spacious living room. If you work a lot at home or study, set up a workplace that can also serve as a dining table. If you spend little time at home and only come back to sleep, you can decorate the interior like a boutique hotel room. In this case, all attention should be paid to a comfortable sleeping area; it may be worth abandoning the full-size kitchen and equipping a breakfast area with a coffee maker and microwave. At the same time, it is not necessary to create a dining area – the window sill will play its role.
Parisian project Emmanuelle Simon – apartment 27 sq.m. meters The sofa (it transforms into a bed) in the shape of the letter U covers both the walls and the window sill.
Studio apartment with an area of 31 sq. meter in a new building in the South-West of Moscow designed by Svetlana Selivanova. In the design of a small apartment, special attention was paid to the work area, since a significant part of the life of a medical student is devoted to study. A table more than 2.5 meters long was placed near a panoramic window. Its unusual shape eliminates the curvature of the outer wall.
Small apartment of 28 sq. meters – a project by Irina Ezhova . The designer created the interior in the spirit of a hotel room. Particular attention was paid to the sleeping area and spacious bathroom.
The kitchen is located in a compact closet.
2 Use the potential of space
If a studio apartment has a good ceiling height, then this is a great success. You can increase the usable area of the space using a second-level add-on and arrange a sleeping place there. Even if the apartment is located in a house with old floors, you can always equip the console on supports that will take on the entire load. You can also add additional storage space under the stairs.
Small apartment of 40 sq. meters was designed by the KC Design Studio team in Taipei, Taiwan.
Apartment with an area of 17.6 sq. meters has a good ceiling height – 3.4 meters. Project by A Little Design studio in Taipei, Taiwan. The refrigerator is built under the stairs next to additional cabinets that serve as an extension of the kitchen.
Apartment designed by Thisispaper Studio in the center of Warsaw. High “factory” ceilings made it possible to install a mezzanine where the bedroom is located. The small staircase to the top is made of pine. Guests can also sleep on a pull-out bed built into the bottom of the stairs.
3 Use white
Walls and ceilings painted in a light shade blur the visible boundaries of the surfaces. The space becomes a single whole and visually looks much larger than its actual size. Large furniture in the design of a studio apartment is also often selected or painted to match the color of the walls so that it does not look too bulky.
Design of a small apartment 43 sq. meters in Moscow according to the buro5 project.
A small apartment in an old St. Petersburg house designed by Vladimir Berezin. On an area of 40 sq. meters, the architect combined historical decor with modern design, within a modest budget.
Small apartment 45 sq. meters in Paris – project HOCH Studio.
4 Use transforming items
When it comes to optimising studio apartments, you always need to keep in mind items that can serve multiple functions. The more tasks, the better for a small apartment . Folding tables, pull-out storage systems, folding beds and transformable sofas – it’s worth contacting a carpentry workshop, where they can create multifunctional furniture for the specific size of your apartment that will make life truly comfortable. Investing in custom furniture is worth it.
Workbylizandalex architects refurbished a small apartment of 26.5 square meters. meters in Sandy Bay, Australia. The end result is a multifunctional, flexible and attractive interior.
Design studio Intervention Architecture has designed a multifunctional structure for a compact apartment in London’s Barbican. The multifunctional volume can be easily disassembled and moved. It contains a folding bed, a couple of sofas, as well as compartments and shelves for storing things.
Tsai Design Bureau renovated a compact apartment of 35 square meters. meters in a 1970s house in Melbourne. For this interior, the Tsai Design team developed two models that can solve several tasks at once: a sliding panel with a dining table and a folding workstation, which can easily disappear when necessary.
Own apartment 28 sq. meters Yana and Yuri Volkov. The designers were especially responsible when it came to organising storage spaces in the interior. Workplaces were located behind rotating and sliding facades.
5 Consider zoning
You can correctly divide space into zones not only with the help of stationary or mobile partitions. Visually light shelving, consoles and chests of drawers will allow you to delimit the interior, but will not block the flow of natural light from the windows. A popular design solution for a studio apartment is also a podium for a sleeping area. In addition to zoning, he also organises additional storage spaces.
Architectural studio DMOA designed the interior of a tiny penthouse with an area of just over 15 square meters. meters. The bedroom area is separated from the living-dining room space by a graphic black shelving unit.
Architects Architect Prineas designed the interior of a small studio apartment of 22 square meters. meters in the center of Sydney, Australia. The updated interior is built around a modern plywood volume. The platform on which the bed is placed clearly demarcates the living and sleeping areas.
Studio DC.AD renovated a duplex apartment in Lisbon. A steel structure demarcates two separate areas of the living room.
Vera Prokhorova designed a small apartment of 36 square meters. meters in Minsk. The sleeping area is zoned from the compact dining room by living plants. This solution does not block the flow of natural light, the space remains visually unified, and flowers can also be removed if desired.
6 Disguise low ceilings
If the studio apartment has low ceilings, then you should pay attention to furniture with a low profile. It takes up less vertical space, which makes the room seem larger. Another trick – do not bring stationary partitions to the ceiling, this also works to visually stretch the space. Complete the interior with accessories with a thin black profile, they will also help deceive the eye.
Small apartment 48 sq. meters – project by architect Boris Denisyuk, Buro5.
Studio MAST designed the interior of a small apartment of 45 square meters. meters in Moscow. The palette of the small apartment is dominated by the black color of the furniture and the bright blue shade of the sofa from Delo Design.
7 Use curtains
Textiles can be used not only for window decoration , but also to separate the private part of a small apartment from the common area. A common technique is to hang curtains to screen off the sleeping area. This not only creates privacy, but also provides sound insulation.
Designers Yana and Yuri Volkov designed an apartment of 56 sq. meters in Moscow. Despite the small area of the apartment, the designers created a full-fledged night area. The double bed was placed in a niche behind a sliding glass partition. The space can be made completely private by drawing blackout curtains.
Anastasia Kulikova: view apartment 55 sq. meters. The sleeping area is also located in the open space, but is not immediately visible from the entrance. For the bed, we built a volume with an alcove and covered it with fabric to create good sound insulation. For additional privacy, the sleeping area can be covered with a thick curtain.
Studio Rick Joy designed a studio apartment in New York. The double bed is decorated with a double-layer canopy of black and white linen: four curtains can be moved, turning the sleeping area into a cozy cocoon.
Architectural studio Paintit designed the interior of a studio apartment of 47 sq. m. meters in Kyiv. A transparent wall appeared in the bathroom. It lets daylight into the room and visually increases the space of the apartment, and the curtain on the inside provides privacy if necessary.
Moscow studio KODD BUREAU designed an apartment of 33 sq. meters in Nakhodka. The plywood cube forms a sleeping area for two and contains spacious hidden storage spaces.
