How to Survive In a Big City: The Ultimate Design for a Tiny Apartment

Beginnings can be quite difficult, and starting a life in a big city isn’t simple at all. Naturally, affording a nice place often isn’t an option, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t create one, even if it’s the tiniest apartment in the world. The only thing that matters is that you’re willing to build a home for yourself, that one place where you can be who you truly are – everything else (like enough money or time) will eventually turn out better than you’d ever imagined. If you go through the next seven designer tricks for tiny apartments, I’m sure you’ll be able to find at least few of them which are perfectly appropriate for that space you live in

1. How Much Space Do You Really Need? Think Minimalist!

When you think about how your dream home would look like, I’m sure you don’t imagine a 140 square feet apartment. The fact is most people want to achieve a certain wealth and social status that would allow them to enjoy luxury, but that’s not something you actually need. An extraordinarily talented architect from Poland, Szymon Hanczar, managed to turn his tiny apartment into a gorgeous home for singles.

“To be honest, ask yourself what you really need, how much time do you spend at home, what do you expect from this space? You don’t have to pay a lot for the big flat, when you really love (and) enjoy the city life, and you spend 2/3 of the day out” – said Hanczar.

Obviously, the secret is in adapting the space you have at your disposal according to your needs

2. Strive Towards Bright & Light

Dark colors are heavy, and they make a space look smaller and more crowded than it really is. All large surfaces of your place need to be in bright shades, unless you want to feel smothered. You don’t have to go with the pure white – there are many different solutions, so I’m sure you’ll find that bright shade that makes you feel comfortable. Have in mind that light in general makes a place seem larger, so allow your windows to bring in as much of it as they can. Also, you should place a large mirror across your windows – it’ll reflect light and make your tiny apartment look even bigger. The best of all – this trick doesn’t take practically any room and it’s quite effective.

3. Floating & Hanging Storage Solutions

Dealing with storage room when you live in a tiny apartment is probably the most challenging thing – spacious closets are only reserved for apartments with large square footage, so having one isn’t really a practical option. This is when you need to turn to alternative solutions and use the upper part of your walls and the ceiling to fit everything in. You should consider installing various types of floating shelves and cabinets made out of light or see-through materials. Another quite smart solution is having a clothing rack hung to the ceiling – it looks pretty great and it’s really practical!

4. Use Space Vertically, Not Only Horizontally

If your tiny place has high ceilings, this is something you should definitely use as your advantage. There are many different ideas when it comes to what to do with the mezzanine, but probably the best one is to turn it into a bedroom – the fact that your apartment is tiny doesn’t mean you need to say goodbye to a good night’s sleep, and this way you’ll be able to have a large bed without paying the price of not having enough room to move around. Hanczar says, “I decided to create a low corridor with a bathroom…and a kind of ‘bedroom’ on top of it.”

5. Scale it down a Bit

There are certain measurements according to which furniture is normally made, and they are perfectly appropriate to an average human being. However, if you go with pieces of furniture specially made for smaller places, you’ll be able to make more room. Most people associate a lack of comfort with furniture that is scaled down, but this is just a misconception – nevertheless, you can always test all the different pieces before you purchase one. The smaller your furniture and the less space you have, the less you will need to clean up! Hanczar says, “I didn’t want a spacious apartment that would involve plenty of time to take care of…On the other hand, it was not my intention to give up comfort and functionality.”

6. Liven up Your Tiny Home

We already mentioned that you should definitely find a way to have as much light and bright colors as you can, but you can always find a way to break that monotony if you consider it doesn’t match your personality. The perfect way to create a peaceful environment is to go with natural colors; the obvious solution here are plants. There are all shapes and sizes of light and beautiful planters you’ll be able to use, and you can even make it be useful if you plant fruits or vegetables, not just pretty. This is also quite doable if you pay close attention to ornaments, but try not to overdo it because you’ll only make your tiny apartment look crowded. By the way, consider focusing on pieces of art you can hang – this way you’ll save a lot of space and still be surrounded with food you grew on your own.

7. Don’t Settle for Less – Comfy Is Homey

“I didn’t want a spacious apartment that would involve plenty of time to take care of,” said Szymon Hanczar. “On the other hand — despite the small space — it was not my intention to give up comfort and functionality. So it was really a unique challenge.” This guy managed to make a loving home out of one average room. With the right amount of thought, you can take advantage of every available square foot.

Most of the ideas I mentioned are pretty simple DIY projects or require a bit of pre-planning, and they won’t require a lot of money – you just need to take your time, figure out what is it that you need and focus on that!

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