Home Decorating for a Small House

Small spaces can be inspiring, elegant and cost effective. They can be highly functional and a pleasure to relax and work or play in. Home decorating for a small house can be fun or frustrating. Let's make it fun.

Design and decor can make a stunning difference in how open and spacious your small house feels. Here are some guidelines and tips for making your small space the lightest and most spacious it can be:

~A wall of mirrors across from a big outside window can make a big difference to the senses, and bring light and beauty all throughout the room.

Many choose white walls for brightness and a spacious feeling--the opposite can also work--if you have cork or wood floors, often a very dark blue or teal silk can off-set the other bright walls for a dramatic and stunningly beautiful effect.

~Use furniture such as low dressers to create space and feelings of division between living sections where there are no walls. A couch can divide living room from bedroom and so forth.

~Whenever possible for your small home decorating plan, use sliding glass doors, see-through walls and greenhouse additions to make small spaces feel like secret living gardens.

When using sliding doors as much as possible, the eyes follow the line of the flow outside, giving your mind a spaciousness signal that calms and expands inner feelings.

~Add a "wow" factor and bind together the cohesion of the room by using the same fabric everywhere, upholstery, curtains, table cloth, everything, this makes the space feel larger and is visually impressive in small home decorating.

~Utilize a futon or hida-bed for your couch, this way you always have overnight guest space. Create transformable space such as your kitchen table as an office desk during the day, and tuck away the laptops for meal space other times.

~Sheets of 16mm polycarbonate can be used to make see-through walls for adding a greenhouse-like open feeling to an area, especially if it opens to a garden.

~Maximize your garden views with sliding glass doors, and big windows reflected by big mirrors opposing them. For especially small spaces like closet sized bathrooms, try mirroring the entire space.

~Keep narrow kitchens to bare minimum and little clutter. Long stem wine glasses work great for juice and milk, one saucepan for many uses, etc...live daily only with what you use and love.

~Built in beds, columns, pilasters and crown moulding painted with gentle, soft colors communicate largess as well as height. They fool the eye and expand inner feelings.

(creative commons photo credit)