Applying House Decorating Tips to Small Apartments

Although you do you have less space available, applying house decorating tips to your apartment is actually easier than it sounds. The key is to use the same techniques in a smaller area, and avoid the “cluttered” look.  Below you’ll find a detailed list of different rooms in an apartment and how to apply house decorating tips to them.

Living Room and Dining Room

Probably the rooms you’re most interested in decorating, the living room and dining room is where your guests will be, where you’ll relax at the end of the day, and the focal point of your apartment’s decorations.

Whereas in a house an area rug by itself in the center of a floor makes a nice, colorful accent, in an apartment you rarely have the floor space to pull that off. Instead, try fitting an area rug underneath your coffee table, couch or dining table. You still work the color of the rug into the room, but you don’t need a big, empty area to make it work. In addition, putting a rug under the coffee table or dining table gives some extra padding for your guest’s feet.

Matching wall decorations to your accent colors is a great way to make an apartment feel more like home. Try framing pictures that contain the same or similar colors as those found in your rugs or curtains. Alternatively, you can create your own artwork for the same reason, giving you a much tighter control over the exact shades.

Finally, candles are always great accent pieces, and double as a light source for quiet evenings at home. Long, thin tapers or short, squat votives in the accent colors of your choosing and placed in clusters around the room definitely give a warm, lived-in feel to a room. However, unless you are actually going for this look, try to avoid making a space seem “cluttered”.

Bedroom and Guest Room

Depending on how many rooms your apartment has, you may have one or both of these.

For your bedroom, comfort is key to successful decorating. Only you and your significant other will see it, so make it a room you are happy with. Your favorite colors in a pillow, the sheets on your bed, or your curtains make a room feel friendly, and pictures of family and friends make it uniquely yours.

Add a personal touch to the room; if you’re a big reader, put stacks of books in decorative locations around the space, again avoiding the “cluttered” look. If you’re an artist, some pieces of your art can look nice.

As for the guest room, it’s important to make it light, friendly and comfortable. However, since this is a room that someone other than you will be resting in, a certain amount of blandness is necessary. Matching colors for the bed sheets, curtains, rugs and accents are always a plus, but you may want to abstain from personal photos of people your guests may not know, or unique collector’s items that your guests might not appreciate.

As always, the rest is up to you!

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Jordan Gaither: I’m a Communications major by trade, an artist by choice, a welder by day and a dancer by night (Okay, I made that last part up). Having lived in a succession of cramped, oddly-shaped apartments, I have a wealth of personal experience in apartment living, as well as arranging and decorating to maximize effect and livable space.