Well hi there! How was your weekend? Mine was great! Since we’ve been back we’ve kept busy visiting all our friends and family across the state, but the past couple weekends we’ve been at home which has been so great. We’ve knocked out so many house projects and it feels really good. What did you do?
Anyway, I’ve got another installment of the small space living series for you here today. If you’re interested in what we’ve talked about in the past you can find those here.
Today’s tip is all about the first step in using your space as efficiently as possible, and as obvious as it seems it’s to plan. When you don’t have a lot of space to work with this is so so so important. You don’t have the luxury of getting something, finding out you don’t like it where you intended and putting it in another part of the house. It’s all the whole house. So it’s extra important to think really carefully about what you want and need before pulling the trigger on anything you can’t easily return. I know this sounds a little daunting and like a lot of pressure. And at times it can feel like that, but if you push through and do it anyway you’ll be so much happier with the results.
Small Space Living Idea
I recommend starting with what you have. Spend some time trying every possible placement for your furniture and statement pieces. Try different arrangements and live with them for at least a few days each. After a month or two you’ll have a feeling for exactly where you want your current things to go and what holes you need to fill. Next, decide what pieces are the most urgent to get, figure out where you want them to go and what purpose they should serve. Make sure to think beyond this particular moment, think ahead to when you’re settled in or even when you’ve moved to your next house and consider what might work in all those situations. For instance, when we moved into our studio we obviously got a mattress immediately. But, after that we felt the most important thing was a couch. We thought long and hard about what kind of couch to get before settling on a full sized one instead of a love seat, which many people go for in a studio. We made this decision for several reasons. First, we thought about the purpose we wanted it to serve. Well, we love entertaining and we wanted space our small space to seat as many people as possible. Second, we like unwinding with TV or a movie at then of the day and stretching out on the couch is nice. And I’m tall (I’m 5’9’’) and we both felt like a love seat would leave us cramped. We also thought it would be great to have a full sized couch for guests to sleep on so we didn’t always have to pull out the air mattress that completely overtook the floor. We also knew we wouldn’t be in a studio forever and we didn’t want to have to buy another couch in a couple years because the one we had was too small. The last factor in our decision was design related. After measuring we felt like the smaller couch would actually make the space feel smaller. Ultimately, all of these things helped inform our decision about what couch to get. We found one that was full-sized but nothuge and overstuffed and had clean lines that felt a bit minimal. And you know what? We still have that couch. And I can say for sure that the only reason we do is because we really planned the decision before we made it.
So, when you’re trying to decide on your furniture and layout for your new (or not new!) small space spend a lot of time planning. I know it’s hard to do, you’re ready to start making decisions and get the ball rolling. But, if you do this you’ll be SO much happier in the end. Can you tell from this post and the one a few weeks ago that I’m a bit of a planner? Haha! But, I it’s kind of like the phrase used in sewing “measure twice, cut once.” If you plan ahead as much as possible before making any purchases you’ll be so much more likely to make a good decision in the end. So, happy planning!
