Decorating Tips for Furnishing Small Apartments

Just because your home is pint-sized doesn't mean you have to live with pint-sized home decor. Try these tricks of the trade on for size, and you'll find your small apartment has never looked bigger.

1. It's curtains for you! You don't have to live with those standard-issue apartment Venetian blinds. Add a touch of drama and create a more comfortable feel with curtains. And consider the tricks you can do with curtains to make your space bigger. Hang them outside the window or even where there are no windows. Hang them floor to ceiling to create height, or have them flow from a cornice that hides the curtain rod.

2. See clearly. Lucite tables or chairs and glass tops all give the impression of openness while still delivering the function you need.

3. Lighten things up. Add light up, down and all around to create interest and the feeling of space. "I am a self-confessed lamp tramp," says designer Ron Marvin, a small-space expert from Small Space, Big Style. "They are the most amazing way of making a home feel warm and welcoming. Using several lamps throughout a space creates a warm glow in the room," he says. And his most important trick: Remember to put everything on a dimmer. "When you have friends over you can create a mood by dimming the lights, warming the space. It will keep your eye dancing around the room, giving the illusion that the space is larger."

4. Get on the scale. Unless you're trying to make a statement with a dramatic, overstuffed couch in the room, your small space will probably feel better with moderately sized or even slightly smaller furnishings. It's all about scale. The apartments that actually look bigger with the furniture in them are those where the furnishings fit the space and yourself: "[If] you're full size, your furniture should be, too," Marvin says. "You just have to balance it. Go ahead and use a full-size sofa, but pair it with a chair that has longer legs on it, as opposed to one that goes to the ground or has a skirt on it. That will allow for more visual space." Marvin also suggests a glass coffee table to expand visual space.

5. Go curvy. Because most apartments are box-like, it's fun to add some curves. Libby Langdon, a small-space consultant on HGTV's Small Space, Big Style, sees this trick a lot on the show. She suggests round tables, chairs with a curve and rugs that are either in shapes or adorned with shapes like spirals and dots.

6. Lighten up with a rug. "A light rug can open up your room and make it feel larger," says Langdon. A carpet remnant that you have bound can work great. If your apartment came with stained or dark wall-to-wall carpeting, cover that up with a rug in a lighter hue.

7. Priorities, priorities! Because small spaces are very limited, you need to figure out your priorities and allocate accordingly, says Marvin. Some people need a desk area, but not a dining area. Some people want a living area and would prefer a bed that folds up. "Make the space work for your needs and don't hold yourself to what is traditional in a home. It's your home."

8. Layer it. Contrary to what you might think, small spaces don't have to forgo a bed with lots of linens and fabrics. Layers and an elegant mix of colors, prints and pillows can make a space seem airier and give depth to what is almost always one of the biggest pieces in the apartment. The layered look also equals luxe, and that's a small-space strategy in itself. "If your space is small, why shouldn't it resemble a luxurious hotel room?" says Marvin.

9. Sleep on it. An old solution for cramped spaces has come back into style for good reason: Today's Murphy beds pop out of sight and look just as great when they're in use, says designer Dawn Burns-Pratt, ASID.

10. Float it. Designer Jason Landau, owner of Amazing Spaces, LLC in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., loves mounting floating shelves wherever there is space. "You can either buy finished shelves at the local Crate & Barrel or, if you are feeling like Paul Bunyan that day, buy brackets, go to a lumber store and buy planks of wood (they will cut it for you into the length and width you like) and DIY," he says. Because they float, this kind of shelving adds tons of storage but looks sleek and contemporary. And then go crazy with the stacking, he says. Cookbooks, vitamins, salt and pepper shakers, teas, sweeteners, small appliances — all can be stacked and stored so that you have space to live.