Top 10 Apartment Decorating Don'ts

Do read our expert don'ts for the very best advice on how to spruce up your small space.

(Continued from Page 2) By Anne Krueger
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Designer Shane Reilly positioned the furniture in this apartment so it's in a natural conversation-starting configuration with a great view.

3. Don't shove everything against the walls.

The number one mistake apartment dwellers (and many homeowners) make is not spending enough time on furniture arrangement, says Mark McCauley, ASID, a Chicago-area designer. "People use the old standby of pushing the sofa against one wall with a chair on each end — all pushed against the wall because they think it provides more room." Instead, he says, it looks cramped and unwelcoming.

Better, he suggests, is to use furnishings to create a vertical line, not unlike the skyline of a city, and pull pieces away from the wall. "This creates movement in the space and makes it feel bigger," he says. "Consider the sofa angled off of a corner with a taller plant behind it. Also angling the chairs will help." The idea is to create a welcoming seating/living arrangement, not a wall display.