How to Decorate a Small Apartment: 5 Real Examples

Life in a micro-space is not a reason for gloom if every centimeter of the apartment area is used wisely. Plannings and decor solutions can be inspired by other small apartments. For example, from our selection.

An interior filled with color and live plants38 sq. mArea2rooms1bathroom

Small apartments—only light tones? Interior designers of Now Interior Design studio don't think so. Therefore, they decorated a 2-room flat in Stockholm against stereotypes—with stylish gray and blue-green tones. Thoughtful zoning and skillful use of a saturated color palette helped visually make the apartment look bigger than it actually is.

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Black-and-white apartment with blue kitchen36 sq. mArea2rooms1bathroom

Design studio Wida interior, on the contrary, takes a more traditional Scandinavian approach to color. In an apartment designed for rent, the choice of white walls was also dictated by the need to visually soften a corner layout—which is typical for historical houses. For zoning, they used weightless transparent partitions, and made the kitchen an accent: the blue color on a white background was used as deeply as possible.

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Beige interior with a loft bedroom33 sq. mArea1room+ bedroom on a loft1wardrobe

A rare European apartment can do without a proper sleeping area, even if it’s about very small spaces. In this case, the high ceilings—over three meters—saved the situation in a one-room flat in Stockholm. As a result, the sleeping area was placed on a loft, and directly underneath it—ample storage system.

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Apartment with proper zoning32 sq. mArea2rooms1bathroom

Despite small dimensions, this Swedish 2-room flat also looks spacious. To achieve that effect, the kitchen was sacrificed—it almost completely lacked daylight. Lighting in this area was solved with ceiling spotlights and downlights, and the refrigerator was moved to the corridor.

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Very small apartment in Paris19 sq. mArea1room+ kitchen niche1bathroom

Minimal white, dark tones, several types of flooring, open shelves—seems like it's definitely not for a small apartment. But the designer Marianna Ewen, who was in charge of designing this tiny flat in Paris, had a full arsenal of such seemingly controversial tricks. And they all work!

However, traditional ideas were not abandoned, so a sofa-transformer and weightless lighting fixtures were also included.

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