Small rooms can take big furniture

The instinct in a small room is to buy small things. It rarely works. A room filled with six modest objects feels busier and smaller than the same room holding two generous ones.

Fewer, larger, better

One substantial sideboard along a wall will make a small living room feel more composed than three little units doing the same job, because the eye reads one line instead of three. It will also hold considerably more.

Buy height, not footprint

Floor area is what you're short of; wall space usually isn't. A tall, narrow shelf or a mounted console gives you storage and draws the eye upward, which makes the ceiling feel higher. Media consoles with legs work the same way, seeing the floor run underneath a piece is most of what makes a room feel open.

Let one wall go quiet

• Keep at least one wall almost empty. It functions as breathing room for everything else.
• A single large mirror does more for a small room than a gallery wall, it borrows light and depth from the window opposite.
• Match large furniture to the wall colour and it recedes; contrast it and it advances.

If you're working with tight dimensions, this is exactly what our custom service is for, most of our pieces can be rebuilt narrower, shallower or taller without changing what they cost by much.