10 small-space ideas from real homes we've toured
From Murphy beds to see-through furniture, the tricks that make 70 to 600 sq ft work, as used by the people who live there.
The best small-space ideas we've seen come from people who live with them every day. We've filmed homes from a 70 sq ft micro loft in Montreal to studios of 300 to 500 sq ft in Toronto and New York. These are the ideas that keep showing up, with links to each home so you can see them in use.
How we chose these: we went back through every home tour we've filmed so far and listed the small-space fixes hosts showed us on camera. The ten below came up in more than one home. Each example links to the full tour, so you can see the idea in a real room instead of a render.
- The bed takes over the room: 1. Fold the bed away, or 2. Build up
- The room feels cramped: 3. See-through furniture, 4. Ceiling-high curtains
- It's dark: 5. Mirrors facing windows, 10. Layered lamps
- There's nowhere to put things: 7. Pieces that do two jobs, 8. Hide the small stuff
- Everything looks too small: 6. Big art and pattern, 9. Full-size pieces
1. Fold the bed away
A Murphy bed turns a bedroom back into a living room. Elise's 300 sq ft Toronto studio came with one, and she had doubts at first. Now she folds it up each morning and uses the whole room all day.
Josh took his mom's advice and installed a Murphy bed in his 500 sq ft Brooklyn studio. His wall unit holds the bed, a side closet and shelves. With the bed up, his desk becomes a place to paint or a table for guests. In Long Island City, Jeff uses the open floor for yoga and for friends who come over to work.
Not everyone wants one. Jhenene skipped a Murphy bed in her Queens studio because she likes making her bed and seeing it each day. Choose based on how you'll use the floor.
2. Build up, not out
If the ceiling is high, the bed can go up. Jésabel's room in a Montreal shared apartment is 70 sq ft. She and her father built a raised platform with 6 feet of clearance underneath. A guest bed fits below, and it turns into seating for movie nights with room for up to six people.
She used industrial pipe for the ladder and her clothes rack, so she can take it all apart when she moves.
3. Choose furniture you can see through
Glass and acrylic take up floor space without filling the view. Elise uses a clear coffee table and a clear nightstand so light passes through. Josh found a Noguchi-style glass coffee table at an outlet, and he's had his glass-topped desk for over ten years.
Sheridon paired a clear desk with a clear chair she found on a Bushwick street. Her 300 sq ft Jersey City studio holds a full office this way, and the corner still looks open.
4. Hang curtains at the ceiling
Curtain rods placed high make windows and walls look taller. Gail mounted hers near the ceiling in her 375 sq ft Manhattan one-bedroom to make the windows look bigger. Camille ran linen curtains from a ceiling track in her Montreal loft to show off the height.
Madeline found a second use. In her Toronto apartment, ceiling-high curtains hide the mounted TV by day. At night she closes them over the window for movies.
5. Put mirrors where the light is
A mirror works best when it faces a window. Gail's entry has no windows, so she hung a mirror that catches the light from the windows across the room. Sheridon placed her big mirror opposite her window for the same reason.
Edmund's dining area in Montreal's Plateau gets the least light of any room. He hung a large mirror on the brick wall to bounce light around.
6. Go big with art and pattern
It sounds backwards, but small rooms can handle big pieces. Elise hung an oversized New Yorker cover in her bathroom. Her rug has a large print, which she finds feels more open than a small repeating pattern. She also hangs things from the ceiling and places art high on the walls to draw your eye up.
7. Make one piece do two jobs
Every piece in a small home should earn its spot. Arriane's Toronto walk-up kitchen has a table that folds down from the wall for extra prep space. Edmund's desk folds away, and a fold-down table in his bedroom works as a music corner.
Jeff's dining table rolls on wheels, opens to seat eight and stores three chairs inside. In Brooklyn, Carla's 650 sq ft apartment has a sofa bed and a daybed that have slept up to six visiting friends. Storage benches in her dining nook hide cleaning supplies.
8. Hide the small stuff
Clutter on counters makes a room feel smaller faster than anything else. Priya keeps her rice cooker, blender and air fryer in an appliance garage, a cabinet with a door that hides small appliances, in her 580 sq ft Toronto condo. Clear lazy Susans from Dollarama let her reach the back of each shelf. She even labels her spice jars on the bottom so the labels don't add clutter.
Andy skipped bar stools at his counter. He fit IKEA cabinets underneath instead, which gives him storage he uses every day.
9. Don't shrink everything
Small furniture can make a small room look smaller. Jhenene chose a full-size bed, sofa and reading chair for her 415 sq ft studio for that reason. For Gail, fitting a full-size sofa was a milestone after years of tiny New York apartments.
Pick a few full-size pieces you'll use every day, and let the rest stay light.
10. Light the room in layers
Most of our hosts avoid the overhead light. Tanya relies on a dozen lamps around her 410 sq ft Toronto studio and hangs IKEA pendants from adhesive ceiling hooks where she can't hard-wire a fixture. Elise uses a paper lantern, a desk light and an LED strip.
Maycel calls lighting the cheapest way to change how a room feels. In their Toronto condo, IKEA paper lanterns sit at different heights to throw shadows around the room.
Start with one change
You don't need to do all ten. Pick the one that fixes what bothers you most, whether that's a bed in the way, a dark corner or a cluttered counter. Then watch how you use the room for a few weeks before you change the next thing.
Every home here has a full tour on our Tours page, and we add new ones as we film them.