This post is filled with ideas on how to decorate your small apartment!
Small apartments can be cute, cozy, and just the place you want to curl up in at the end of the day. However, without some care and personal touches, they can quickly become stuffy or boring!
Here are a few powerful tips you can use to make your little apartment feel like home.
Decorate Your Small Apartment
1. Remove clutter
The first step to decorating any home is to remove the clutter! A clean home is a beautiful home.
Think about the ads and pictures you see of beautiful homes – chances are, they’re very clean and super clutter-free!
You can instantly upgrade your apartment by cleaning it up and getting rid of clutter. Try to keep flat surfaces empty, keep drawers and bins less than 100% full, and keep every item in it’s ‘home’.
Need a guide to de-cluttering? Try reading my absolute favorite book, Minimalista. It’s all about how to fill your home and life with intentional choices. You can find it on Amazon here!
You can even go a step further to remove the ‘clutter’ that labels bring by taking labels off of jars or throwing away cardboard boxes and just keeping the contents.
For example, I got rid of the label on my hand soap in my kitchen and replaced it with a super simple homemade label.
You can find plenty of label makers on Amazon, I use this one!
Finally, keep your place clean and organized! Make sure that if you buy something, you immediately give it a home. Take time every week (if not daily!) to tidy up and clean messy spaces.
Now that you’ve removed the clutter, here are a few things you can add as decoration to even a small apartment!
2. Add light
The first way to decorate even a small space is to fill it up with light!
Make it a habit to open your curtains and blinds, add some lamps, or lean into the coziness of your snug home by lighting some candles!
In a small apartment, it’s common to not have a lot of ‘flat surface’ areas for lamps – plus, you want to keep those flat surfaces pretty empty and clean! If that’s the case for you, I recommend some nice floor lamps. I have 2 from Amazon that I love and use every day – in the mornings/evenings they add so much light and coziness to our place!
If you want to get really cozy (like me!), you can even add some candles to your home. Put your lighters in convenient places and create habits that include lighting your candles.
If you landlord is against candles, try a wax-melt light instead! You still get light and a great smell without the smoke. I turn mine on every day as a reward to ‘tidying up’, it’s the best part of my morning routine! I found a pretty similar one on Amazon here.
Another way to add light, including natural light, is to add mirrors.
3. Placing mirrors
A common decorating tip to open up a small space is to implement mirrors. Mirrors can reflect light and make a room seem much bigger than it is.
As you add mirrors to decorate your small apartment, here are a few things to consider:
- First, what size of mirror will work best for your space?
A big full length mirror can reflect the most space and light, but you might not have enough space on your floor or wall to hold one! On the other hand, if you live in apartment with textured walls (such as cinderblock – been there, done that :P), then you might not be able to safely hang a smaller mirror on the wall. Before you buy any mirrors, make sure to decide on where to put them so that you know what size to get! - Next, what part of your home will the mirror reflect?
Putting a mirror across from a window might give you a lot of backlight and make it hard to see anything in the mirror. Also, placing a mirror across from a bookshelf or other busy area could reflect a lot of clutter, which might make your home feel more cluttered and less open. Before you place your mirror, place it in a few spots to check what your mirror will be reflecting. - Finally, what’s your budget?
I’m sad to report that mirrors can get very expensive very fast! If you’re working on a tight budget, it might be best to save up for a mirror or shop around for mirror deals. You can wait for your favorite brands to have sales on their mirrors, or you can go to your local thrift stores/Facebook marketplace to find mirrors that will do!
4. Light furniture
Are you sensing a light theme yet? Small apartments can be hard to decorate because you don’t have extra light from giant bay windows or grand ceilings. You have to fit a lot of stuff into a tiny space, so it can feel dark, little, and crowded real quick! The key is to add as much light as possible, from lamps to candles to even furniture!
When you’re on the hunt for furniture to fit in your small apartment, try to find lighter furniture pieces that can bounce more light around the space. White, cream, light gray, tan, light wood, and wicker are my favorite colors and materials to look for.
If you love your black couch and bedframe, don’t toss it out! There is room for dark furniture, especially in a cozy apartment, but make sure to balance it out with lighter rugs, nightstands, side chairs, etc. Otherwise, you might start to feel like you’re living in a black-on-black billiards room or movie theater!
Adding lighter furniture throughout your apartment will keep it alive. The light accents or bases can even highlight your dark furniture and turn them into statement pieces!
Finally, if you’re not able to replace dark furniture at the moment, there are plenty of ways to creatively lighten them up in a budget friendly way!
Dark couch/chair – try adding a light throw pillow or blanket. Here is one of my favorites from Amazon, it’s so pretty and super light, perfect for just a little throw.
Dark bedframe/comforter – try using a light duvet cover! I bought this white one from Amazon and I looooove it wow, it’s soft, crisp white, and the texture makes it look super cozy.
Dark wood furniture – try sanding or painting! I’ve sanded dark/yellow/orange wood furniture into a beautiful light wood tone. I’ve also painted multiple furniture items a nice bright white so that they really lighten up a space! If you do this, send me a before and after picture! I love seeing furniture flips.
Dark carpet/floor – try adding a nice bright rug! We lived in an apartment with dark purple carpet throughout and it was horrible to me. Luckily, I found some amazing area rugs from Home Depot that went on a major sale during Black Friday. A huge light rug can truly transform a space!
5. Bring in life (plants)
Even if you don’t have a lot of space to decorate, I highly recommend you bring some houseplants into your home! Adding nature and greenery truly livens up any space, even a small apartment.
You can always find incredible houseplants at local nurseries – if you’re in Utah county, try the Shade Home and Garden. WOW it’s my heaven on earth.
There are also typically houseplants sold at home improvement and grocery stores. I’ve found incredible houseplants at Walmart, Smith’s, Lowes, and Home Depot.
Need a more budget-friendly option? Try checking Facebook marketplace! You can also ask your friends or family members if they have plants that you can grab a cutting of.
If you want to start small with some plant cuttings, you might LOVE a propagation station! I am just starting one of my own and I’m so excited to have a few of my favorite plants sprouting roots together. Amazon has some great options like this one. You can also just use or collect some old jars/cups to use. All they need is a change of water every so often!
Okay, okay, you hate working with dirt? You might enjoy skipping potted plants and instead using air plants!
If that’s still too much, there are amazing fake plant options on Amazon that you can use to decorate your small apartment. This is one of my favorites, my goodness how pretty!
6. Landlord rules…
Chances are, there are plenty of things in your apartment that you wish you could change but can’t. Whether it’s the cinder block walls, the purple carpet, or the outdated orange cabinets, I feel your pain! Luckily, there are a lot of nifty tools you can use to decorate your small apartment in non-permanent ways. Here are a few ideas:
- Stick on wallpaper/contact paper. If you have some ugly surfaces, try covering them with some removable stick on wallpaper. You could get a pretty pattern for a wall or even a marble style for a counter!
- Fresh hardware. An easy way to upgrade any room temporarily is to simply switch the hardware. You can find great deals on knobs/cabinet pulls/etc. at your local hardware store. There are also incredible options on Amazon or Etsy.
- Rugs. As mentioned earlier, rugs can truly brighten up a room, especially if you can’t replace some dark flooring! My best tip on this one is to find some options you love and then wait for a big sale to buy. Big rugs are expensive no matter what, but you could save a lot of money by shopping for rugs during big sales like Memorial Day or Black Friday.
- Art (especially DIY art). Artwork can temporarily mask a lot of permanent design choices that you can’t really change. Whether you have big, boring walls or ugly eye sores (I’m talking about you, random hanging wires in my living room), some sort of artwork might be the key to upgrading the design of your space. Some great news about artwork is that there are a lot of ideas on the internet for how to recreate amazing art pieces on a budget! You can buy and paint your own canvases, tie yarn around a stick, or even tackle some macrame projects. Plus, hanging handmade artwork in your home feels much more intentional than buying some overpriced pieces from Target, right?
- Finally, here’s my super big recommendation to use command hooks! I love using Command Hooks to hang art, make temporary mudrooms, organize cleaning supplies, and more! One time I used a knock off brand of command hooks around my apartment, and when we moved out I could not get them off! I had to ask my neighbor to scrape them off my walls with a butter knife, which took over half an hour. How embarrassing is that?! Anyways, please learn from my mistakes and stick to the name brand version.
7. Be thoughtful
Finally, remember as you add things to your small space – be thoughtful. You don’t have a lot of extra space to work with, so make intentional choices about what you’ll make space for. Soon, as you slowly decorate your small apartment, it will feel like home! I can’t wait to see your cozy spaces! Good luck!
