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10 Tips to Decorate Your New Space to Fit Your “Stuff”

decorating smaller space

You’ve decided to make the move to a new home, a smaller apartment with more amenities and less upkeep, maybe even a home in a life care community. You can already envision your comfy new home…

Wait, how are you going to decorate your new space? How are you going to fit all your…stuff?

Here are 10 tips to make your new place fit the maximum amount of “stuff” and still look good:

1. Envision your lifestyle and decorate your home to match. If you love having friends over to play cards, make sure you have decent lighting and a table that will fit four. If you charge your phone by your bed, make sure you place your bed near an outlet and have a night stand nearby. If you tend to walk around in the night, clear your pathways of toe-stubbing clutter.

2. Mirror a wall to make the room look bigger. If you don’t have a full wall, any mirrors help.

3. Use lighter shades with spots of color to give interest. Lighter shades give the illusion of more space while color adds interest.

4. Size the furniture to the room. Bulky furniture in a small room rarely works. However, if you’re determined to keep the buffet your mother gave you, make sure the other pieces in the room are smaller.

5. Don’t move all the furniture out to the walls. To make a space seem inviting and cozy, move some or all away from the walls a few inches.

6. Hide clutter. Put the trash can under the sink. Arrange your trinkets on shelves. Put clutter in a drawer, basket or cabinet.

7. Every piece of furniture should have more than one use. Hassocks can be used for storage. Beds can have drawers underneath. Tables can have drawers. Steamer trunks can be used as tables and for storage.

8. Put shelves everywhere. Shelves help to keep things off the floor and provide a great place for displaying a few of your books or photo albums!

9. Repurpose furniture you want to keep but wouldn’t have the space if you used them as intended.  Use a small bookshelf as a nightstand. Use a dresser as a TV stand. Think of new uses for things you can’t bear to be without.

10. Utilize your wall space. If it used to be on a surface, put it on a wall. For example, jewelry can be hung on a cork board on a wall instead of on your dresser. Use a fold-out table, a drop-down ironing board or a Murphy bed. You can even hang extra chairs on the wall.

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