How to Make Impactful Upgrades for Your Small Home

How to Make Impactful Upgrades for Your Small Home

A small home with white shiplap walls, an open plan kitchen, living, dining room and double aspect windows

Photo of a small home by Jed Owen on Unsplash

I live in a really small home. It’s a small two-bedroom flat and with two tween daughters, we really have to make the most of every square inch. It’s not easy at all and it is getting more difficult with every year that passes as the kids accumulate more stuff. Progress upgrading our flat has been snail-slow because my husband and I have been busy building multiple businesses. But we have learnt a lot along the way. Because most British homes tend to be on the smaller side we need a lot of creativity when it comes to small home ideas. So today, I want to share some advice to help you make impactful upgrades to your small home.

Declutter Your Small Home

When thinking about the upgrades you want to make to your small home that can make the biggest impact and help your home feel more spacious, the best place to start is with a really thorough declutter. Nothing else you do will make much of a difference if you are still trying to cram too much stuff into your small home. It’s time to get ruthless. Get rid of everything you haven’t used in a while and are unlikely to use again. Sell belongings, take the rest to the charity shop and anything that needs binning can go to the local recycling centre. If you find you have a lot of stuff to get rid of, consider hiring a skip to save yourself a lot of hassle. One drop-off, one pick-up, and you’re done. I am dreaming of doing this at the moment. I would love to have a thorough clearout and only hang on to the essentials and things that bring me joy every day!

Maximise Every Inch of Space in Your Small Home

Once you’ve pared everything right back it’s time to look at spacial planning. The layout of your small home will have a huge impact on how spacious it feels. It is totally possible to live in a tiny home that doesn’t feel tiny at all. I had this realisation when my husband and I spent the weekend in a small private spa in North Devon. It was roughly the size of two containers and yet it felt pretty expansive. This was primarily down to the layout, but also the many ways that the owners had used biophilic design in the property. So if your home feels like a collection of tiny, separate boxes, it might be time to rethink the layout.

Old houses love their walls. They divide, they frame, and they hide staircases in weird places. But sometimes, all they do is make life harder. Removing just one wall can open up a space in ways you didn’t expect—turning a kitchen and dining room into a social hub or making a dark hallway disappear into something airy and useful.

Not keen on full demolition? Even switching a traditional door for a pocket version can make a difference and improve the flow in your home by creating more room to move and fewer obstacles.

Choose Multifunctional Furniture

An open blue ottoman bed in a bedroom

Loxley Ottoman bed from Bedstar

One thing we have learnt over the years is that it pays to invest in multi-functional furniture. When you live in a small home, everything that you bring in has to work super hard for you to earn its place. Some of the best storage solutions don’t even look like storage. An ottoman bed that lifts to reveal under-bed storage works wonders in our bedroom for storing away bed linen and extra towels as well as spare bags and backpacks. We also have a coffee table in the living room with storage inside for extra blankets and cushions. When it comes to choosing furniture for a small home, multi-functional pieces are well worth the investment.

Use Natural Light to Open up the Space

The internal window in the home office allows natural light to move through this North London terraced house by Cairn Architects | Photography by Peter Landers and Anna Stathaki

The internal window in the home office allows natural light to move through this North London terraced house by Cairn Architects | Photography by Peter Landers and Anna Stathaki

One way to make a small home feel larger is to make the most of the natural light that you have available. A dark room shrinks. A bright one expands. Light is magic like that. So make sure that windows are unobstructed. Don’t place furniture that will block natural light from entering the room. Choose window treatments that let the maximum amount of light in during daylight hours and make sure you hang curtains outside of the window frame so that they don’t block out any light when open.

Mirrors can help to bounce natural light around your small home. Place them opposite a window, and all that natural light will be reflected back into the room. They also create the illusion of having another window in the room making it feel double aspect and much more expansive.

Another trick is to switch out solid doors for glass-paned doors and adding in internal windows that let light move throughout your small home uninterrupted. This can allow natural light to illuminate darker, narrower spaces that need brightening.

If your home lacks natural light like mine does, consider how to effectively use artificial light. Layer your lighting by choosing a mixture of overhead lighting, table lamps, wall sconces and LED lighting under shelving and cabinets. This will help your home feel more flexible as you choose the right kind of lighting for a given moment.

Opt for Clever Storage Solutions

A storage bench is perfect for a small home

Jayson Wood Storage Bench from Wayfair

Storage is more important than ever in a small home and there are some clever ways to maximise your storage solutions. Having your belongings out on display will only make your small home feel smaller due to the visual clutter. Instead, meticulously curate what you want to have out on show and store everything else away neatly and out of sight.

If you have open shelving units, consider adding small storage boxes so everything is out of sight and streamlined. If you have awkward alcoves, consider creating built-in storage cupboards with doors that keep your belongings out of sight.

If your small floor plan doesn’t leave much room for added storage cabinets, consider using the vertical potential of the walls. The space up near the ceiling is wasted space and can easily be maximised. For example, if you don’t have space for a floor-standing bookcase, install a book shelf about a foot below the ceiling that extends around the room. This keeps your books out of the line of sight but still accessible and makes the most of that unused space.

Create Depth with Colour and Texture in a Small Home

A small living room with dark green walls, a round storage copper coffee table and a brown leather sofa covered in textured cushions and blankets

Dark green walls and a copper storage table in my small living room

It is very tempting in a small home to stick with white or other very light colours when you decorate. Wisdom tells us that lighter colours reflect light and darker colours absorb it. Whilst this may be true, no amount of white paint is going to make a particularly small home feel as spacious as you’d like. Instead embrace cosier darker colours and give your home some personality.

Texture can bring your home to life and will make a big impact as it will not only make your small home feel cosier but it will also add layers of visual interest and tactility that will tantilise the senses.

Maximise Your Outdoor Space

A bistro table and chairs and lots of textured cushions and rugs on a small balcony

Balcony decor from Wayfair

If you are lucky enough to have outdoor space make sure you are maximising its potential. Vertical gardens can turn a bare wall into a lush green feature. A foldaway bistro table and chairs mean you can eat outside, even if it’s just a morning coffee. And if your garden connects to your home, matching indoor and outdoor flooring can blur the boundary, making everything feel bigger. Whether you have a large garden like we do, a small courtyard, a narrow balcony or a tiny strip of grass, there is always a way to upgrade it to benefit your small home.

No matter the size of your small home, there are affordable upgrades you can make that can help you to maximise it’s potential, make it feel more spacious and organised. Remember, the best small homes don’t try to pretend they’re bigger. They just use every inch brilliantly.

If you have any tips to add, please share in the comments.

Interior Design With Terrific Textures & Soft Neutral Tones

Interior Design With Terrific Textures & Soft Neutral Tones

Terrific moments of texture welcomely interrupt the laconic palette of this modern interior design. The 3D elements add interest to a palette of soft greige, white, and wood tone elements. The neutral tones build scenes of serenity throughout the apartment designed by Room.Atica. However, this muted home interior contains a surprisingly bright decor scheme in the kid’s room. Here, orange accents perform a powerful takeover, whilst smoothly curved motifs endure. Away from the youthful and vivacious energy of the final bedroom, the main living space is an open-plan haven of peace. The master bedroom echoes the same calm spirit, with a dash of creative energy across a spectacular 3D headboard feature wall.

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Textured Home Design Inspired By Nature

Textured Home Design Inspired By Nature

Inspired by nature, this 180 square metre minimalist home interior features an all-encompassing earthy colour palette of rich brown and tranquil beige. Textured elements give large living spaces great depth and unique character. Visualised by NK Interior in Kyiv, Ukraine, the home concept holds lofty rooms where rafters are smoothed over with wide panels of chocolatey wood grain. Matching wall panels call further attention to the towering height of the living areas and bedrooms alike. Fabulous pendant lights fill the spacious voids beneath the roofline, glowing with warm and atmospheric light. White marble slabs clad a luxurious bathroom decor scheme, where modern fixtures fashion a high-end finish.

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Textural Interior Smoothed By Curves & Classic Arches

Textural Interior Smoothed By Curves & Classic Arches

Slatted panels and natural stone bring deep and luxurious texture to this chic modern home design, visualised by ArtPartner Architects. The textural decor is smoothed by curvaceous furniture lines and graceful classic arches within the high ceilinged architecture. Large living spaces exude elegance under a delicate tonal colour palette of warm beiges and soft browns. Copper accents add a rich and lustrous element inside the captivating kitchen design, where a stone island lays down a solid anchor in front of a kitchen run that’s concealed behind slatted doors. The textural theme is consistent throughout, with lined feature walls crisply counteracting curves at every beautiful turn of the sumptuous living area and impressive master bedroom.

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Entrancing Textural Home Interior With Stylish Outdoor Living Areas

Entrancing Textural Home Interior With Stylish Outdoor Living Areas

Entrancing textural decor brings this modern home to life for a large family, located near Kyiv, Ukraine. Designed by Trush Design, the 750 square metre house features a collectable Ferrari that is displayed in the living room from within a glass wall garage. The interior is a chic array of comfortable modern furniture and huge pieces of eye-catching art. A combination of deeply textured stone and burnished metal brings brutalist moments to the cosy decor scheme, creating a wonderful juxtaposition of materials. Unique pendant lights and a plethora of perimeter lights make up an atmospheric glow after dark. Terraces are styled to match with mood lighting, modish lounge furniture and sculptural elements.

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