Post by Jenni Briar
Luxury Interiors for Small Spaces
In terms of interior decoration, being forced to think small can sometimes make things more difficult. Whether you’re working with a small budget or a small interior—or both—limited resources can also limit your choices. Creating a luxurious look is not so easy when you have little to work with, but it’s certainly not impossible. The key is to look at the elements that combine to create a stylish, luxurious feel, and incorporate them in small doses to elevate an entire room or house into something out of the ordinary.
The Elements of Designer Luxury
Many people associate luxury with two things: big, and expensive. Luxury is much more than that, of course; it’s also style, comfort, sophistication, and elegance, clean lines, beautiful silhouettes, elaborate textures, and perfect color coordination. We do tend to associate luxury with large and airy spaces, but none of the elements of luxury necessarily have to be this way. More to the point, combining the different aspects that create a luxurious feeling can also create that feeling of airiness that’s so hard to achieve in small spaces.
Creating Luxury in Small Spaces Requires Careful Planning
When you’re working with a small space, it’s particularly important to plan every aspect of the décor and furnishings. You can’t afford to waste a single square inch, so everything from furniture, fabrics, textures, colors, and accent pieces, needs to be chosen and placed carefully.
The best place to start is with an accurate floor plan, whether it’s with squared paper, ruler, and pencil, or with a floor plan program on your computer or tablet. No matter how you choose to create it, a good plan is essential for making the best use of the space you’ve got, and it can help you think of creative ways to use even the smallest nooks and crannies.
Décor and Furniture
The feeling of a luxurious room is created with careful attention to color, texture, and style. A classic color combination with pops of contrasting color and interesting textures is perfect, but when you’re working with a small space, it’s difficult to find a good balance between interesting and overbearing. One way to save on space while still incorporating luxury fabrics and textures is by choosing furniture that can do double-duty in terms of function, such as built-in storage, sofa-beds, and fold-out sectional sleepers. Choose a piece in luxurious and stylish leather, for example, and you’ve got an excellent statement piece that can serve as a focal point on which the room’s decorative style can be built. The palette of colors available for leather furniture is no longer limited to dark tones—you can create a light, bright, and airy feel, and combine it with the richness of leather for a fantastic luxury look.
For fabrics, think brocade, lace, and embossing, bright prints and classic stripes, but keep those accents few and far between—a cushion or two, a painting, or light fixtures, for example. Try curtains that are light and gauzy, almost sheer fabric, edged in a luxurious contrasting trim, or with decorative railing and ribbon tie-backs, rather than choosing heavier curtains in an all-over pattern.
A Spacious Feel for a Smaller Room
One of the reasons that large rooms feel more luxurious is that they typically have higher ceilings, larger windows, and are spacious enough to incorporate plenty of decorative elements without feeling cluttered. In a large room your gaze has space in which to wander between the various decorative elements, which makes it easier to avoid that cluttered feeling. In a small room you don’t have that advantage; instead, you must create it. The trick is to draw the gaze away from cramped corners or low ceilings, and into the open spaces that you create. For example, when it comes to wall décor, choose a variety of small pieces rather than one or two large ones. With careful attention to arrangement, the placement of those smaller pieces helps draw the eye to the empty space around them, which helps create a roomier feeling.
In general, the key with a smaller space is that the accent and statement pieces are also smaller—you’ll find that when everything is in proportion, a spacious and luxurious feeling can be attained no matter what the size of the room.
