Studio Apartments - Little Spaces with Little Budgets

A studio apartment is one of the most difficult spaces to decorate. It seems like it should be so easy since it's so small! But anyone who's lived in a small space knows that's not the case. So how do you bring order and style into an apartment where you eat, bathe and sleep within feet of each other?

Here are a few ideas for your little space and little budget:

Scale Down Your Furniture

Plain and simple – if you have a small studio apartment, you can’t have large-scale furniture. Use a loveseat instead of a couch, or a smaller fold out if that’s what you’re using to sleep on. Futons have had a bad rap in the past – but now with so many design styles available, they’re just the ticket for decorating your pint sized abode.

Purpose Driven Furniture

if it doesn’t have a function, don’t’ have it in your studio apartment. You’re in no position to have decorative accent furniture. Even better than purpose driven furniture – multi-purpose furniture. A trunk for a coffee table pulling double duty as storage; A small stool as an end table that can double for an extra seat in a pinch.

Definite Decoration

Define your bedroom and living room space by making a creative partition to separate the areas. A lightweight drape hung from the ceiling that you can sweep back when not needed can add color, design and privacy to your studio apartment. Area rugs can define your seating area or your sleeping area. Furniture groupings can add definition as well

One Room, One Decor

Decorate the entire apartment as one room using a continuous color palette to make the living space look larger. Don’t combine too many styles or colors or it will cluttered or crowded. Use no more than three colors, preferably two. Keep the colors fairly neutral and pick a nice bright or dramatic accent color. You can also keep the color simple by just using the neutral and having throw pillows, art or accessories as an accent color.

Personalize Your Place

I know you want your personalize your apartment, so only display your absolute favorite collectibles or accessories. Too many accessories are going to make the studio apartment look crowded and cluttered. Box up and store your extra accessories – you use them to redecorate when you need a new look for your apartment, or according to season.

And Speaking of Storage...

Lack of storage space is always going to be an issue when decorating a studio apartment. Find stylish storage solutions that can do double duty as accessories. Pretty boxes, even old hat boxes, stacked in a corner look adorable and hold all those items you have no room for.

With a cohesive decorating scheme and creative furnishings and accessories, you can have big style in a little space.