Decorating small spaces

I have a bit of thing for small spaces, big cavernous open plan rooms leave me a little cold so I am forever cosying them up and creating a series of small vignettes, impromptu seating areas, a library nook that sort of thing. However I digress as we are not talking open plan today we are talking small, bijou micro spaces and how to make them work. Well its pretty darn simple as long as you don't go for the less is more approach. If a room is small do not sparsely decorate - i.e. sofa, side table, few lamps - DULLSVILLE! Instead decorate as if you have the largest space on earth, stay with me here because I promise its the only way to decorate small spaces. Use every wall surface and plonk as many pictures as you can on them. Not only are you creating a super cool gallery you are distracting the eye from focusing on the size of the space. This is a no brainer but you will need to paint your ceilings out the same colour as your walls because the idea being we want to diminish the junctions between them.  We want walls to merge into ceilings as the space will look immediately bigger, truly it does. Next up focal points we need more than two, again its all about distracting the eye - this could be a mirror (mirrors by the way are essential for small spaces as they expand horizons and add depth)  a cool artwork or lamp or rug, anything that packs a visual punch. Also anything multi functional that double duties as something else, so I’ve got a cool Ikea shelf that floats on the wall with hidden storage, coffee tables which double duty as storage, the trick is to not let any square footage go to waste. Build wardrobes and storage units to the ceiling not only will they look cleaner you can store a whole host of stuff like out of season clothes, bedding etc. etc. Nor do you need to go down the bijou furniture buying route, messing around with scale putting something to big in a room to small will actually make it feel far grander. Finally dare I suggest you cross over to the dark side not only will you be happier, you'll cosy up the space so you will never ever want to leave.  Supper with friends, thanks but do you fancy coming here? Weekends away (amazing but how about next month), meetings in town feeling a little queasy any chance of skyping! That's what I predict you'll all be pulling if you venture across. Delusional? Possibly but I can dream right! For even more ideas and inspiration check out this book: