How to Share a Small Living Room
Comfortably accommodate a crowd in a compact living space with these useful tips for stress-free sharing
Whether you share your home with friends or a partner, its size will have a big influence on your comfort. It’s easy to cohabit when there’s plenty of space and lots of rooms for everyone to enjoy, but it’s less straightforward when key areas are short on square footage. Take the living room, for example. This should be a relaxing, communal space, but a small, cramped room will feel anything but. Check out these 10 tips for making a small, shared living space work well despite its size and look great in the process too.
Sort out your hallway
A small home can easily become a wall-to-wall dumping ground for shoes, bags, keys and all the other things you have with you when you walk through the door. With this in mind, try to sort out your hallway, so you can store these items neatly as soon as you come in and prevent them from spilling into your living room and beyond. If you have the space for built-in cupboards right by the door, as seen here, all the better…
A small home can easily become a wall-to-wall dumping ground for shoes, bags, keys and all the other things you have with you when you walk through the door. With this in mind, try to sort out your hallway, so you can store these items neatly as soon as you come in and prevent them from spilling into your living room and beyond. If you have the space for built-in cupboards right by the door, as seen here, all the better…
…but even just a good set of wall hooks in the hallway can impose order and help a shared home work better.
Consider the form and function of furniture
Drum-style coffee tables are a great addition to a small living room. They don’t have hard corners, so traffic flows more easily around them, plus they can double up as stools when friends come by. They are also easy to move to where they’re most needed.
Drum-style coffee tables are a great addition to a small living room. They don’t have hard corners, so traffic flows more easily around them, plus they can double up as stools when friends come by. They are also easy to move to where they’re most needed.
Go for a corner sofa…
If you share your small living space with a partner, a corner sofa that allows you both to flop down together could be the ideal seating option. Corner sofas come in various sizes and configurations, and make the most of the space by reaching into the edges of the room and wrapping it with seating.
If you share your small living space with a partner, a corner sofa that allows you both to flop down together could be the ideal seating option. Corner sofas come in various sizes and configurations, and make the most of the space by reaching into the edges of the room and wrapping it with seating.
…or choose neat individual seats
If you share your living space with roommates, you may find a selection of neat seats works better than a single corner sofa. Choose pieces with clean lines and a light silhouette to help the space feel bigger, while also providing plenty of individual chill-out spots around the room. Individual seating certainly does the job in this weeny living space on a barge.
Like the look of this stylish barge? Explore the rest of it
If you share your living space with roommates, you may find a selection of neat seats works better than a single corner sofa. Choose pieces with clean lines and a light silhouette to help the space feel bigger, while also providing plenty of individual chill-out spots around the room. Individual seating certainly does the job in this weeny living space on a barge.
Like the look of this stylish barge? Explore the rest of it
Create and share storage space
Try to squeeze useful storage into a small living room. Shelves positioned up high – above doors or even over the sofa, as shown here – make your walls work harder.
Decide how to share the storage. Assigning shelves might work, or perhaps it’s easier to let your things mingle with a partner or roommate’s stuff. Sometimes it’s more sensible and space efficient to store items of one type in one spot, such as books, DVDs or vases, rather than divide up each individual’s pieces.
Try to squeeze useful storage into a small living room. Shelves positioned up high – above doors or even over the sofa, as shown here – make your walls work harder.
Decide how to share the storage. Assigning shelves might work, or perhaps it’s easier to let your things mingle with a partner or roommate’s stuff. Sometimes it’s more sensible and space efficient to store items of one type in one spot, such as books, DVDs or vases, rather than divide up each individual’s pieces.
Try for tidiness
A living room is a communal space, so it’s important that it remains tidy and ready for any member of the household to use. Unfortunately, small spaces feel messier and dirtier faster than larger homes, just by virtue of their size. So if you can, create a cleaning plan with everyone sharing the room and stick to it.
If that’s not possible, be mindful of your mess. Clear up coffee cups, magazines and stray slippers in a bid to keep the space looking great and feeling as big as possible.
A living room is a communal space, so it’s important that it remains tidy and ready for any member of the household to use. Unfortunately, small spaces feel messier and dirtier faster than larger homes, just by virtue of their size. So if you can, create a cleaning plan with everyone sharing the room and stick to it.
If that’s not possible, be mindful of your mess. Clear up coffee cups, magazines and stray slippers in a bid to keep the space looking great and feeling as big as possible.
Minimise surfaces
Emphasise seating in a small, shared living room, so everyone can get comfy, and keep surfaces to a minimum. Coffee tables and ottomans eat up space and encourage untidiness. Try a neat nest of tables instead that can be stacked up small.
Emphasise seating in a small, shared living room, so everyone can get comfy, and keep surfaces to a minimum. Coffee tables and ottomans eat up space and encourage untidiness. Try a neat nest of tables instead that can be stacked up small.
Ditch the TV
Consider doing away with the TV to get more from your small space. When the seating doesn’t have to face a screen, you can fit more of it in and create a relaxing hub that squeezes the most from a small footprint.
Consider doing away with the TV to get more from your small space. When the seating doesn’t have to face a screen, you can fit more of it in and create a relaxing hub that squeezes the most from a small footprint.
Work in some space-maxing tricks
There are tons of tried and trusted design tricks for making a small space feel bigger. Use pale colours, hang the curtains high above the window to increase the sense of ceiling height, and fit mirrors to bounce the light around and boost the feeling of space. When you’re trying to fit multiple people into a pint-sized spot, these small details can make a substantial difference.
Painting a room? Here are some essential things to consider
TELL US…
Do you have any good tips for sharing a small living room? Add them to the Comments below.
There are tons of tried and trusted design tricks for making a small space feel bigger. Use pale colours, hang the curtains high above the window to increase the sense of ceiling height, and fit mirrors to bounce the light around and boost the feeling of space. When you’re trying to fit multiple people into a pint-sized spot, these small details can make a substantial difference.
Painting a room? Here are some essential things to consider
TELL US…
Do you have any good tips for sharing a small living room? Add them to the Comments below.
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