How to Maximize Floor Space in a Small Apartment

Create more floor space out of thin air by taking advantage of vertical storage, small furniture and eye-opening tips for limited-size apartments. Use these ideas for everything from living spaces to closets. You’ll have more floor plan than crammed floors! We’ll give you some inspiration from our organizational experts here at Pottery Barn to help you find your floors once again.

Go Vertical

When you haven’t seen your floors in a while, it’s time to get creative with vertical storage. Every inch of space counts in a small apartment. Maximizing your wall space on your walls is possible with wall organizers that look more like artwork and floating furniture than storage. 

Build your own command center or workspace with a variety of wall cubes with baskets, caddies, pinboards and hooks. Baskets and caddies hold all sorts of odds and ends from books to office supplies. Also, hooks aren’t just meant for coats. Hang your headphones and charging cords on hooks to keep them from getting tangled and stepped on.

You might only have a sliver of available wall space, but don’t worry! Add a narrow floor-to-ceiling bookcase to get items up off the floor. You’ll feel like you just added on another room. For the bulkiest items, like your bike, specially designed wall-mounted bike racks turn your entryway into your very own transportation hub, complete with built-in shelving to hold your helmet and gloves. 

Go Horizontal

If you can’t go up the wall any higher, go across and around. Install a series of ledges and shelves that function as more than displays for artwork. Put ledge shelves and display shelves above windows and also just below the ceiling to use up empty horizontal space. It’s a perfect functional space for books and other piles of reading material that used to occupy the corners of your floors. 

Go High

Identify other unused nooks and crannies in your apartment where you’ll be able to aim high. If you have closets, grab more floor space by using storage hooks installed up above the inside of the closet door. It’s prime and otherwise unused space for holding seasonal bags, purses and coats. Do you spot a few unused corners in your closets? Add closet corner shelves where you’ll store folded sweaters or a basket filled with seasonal scarves. When looking up, don’t forget doors. Hang over-the-door storage shelving, racks and other organization accessories to bring even more items, especially those bulky shoes that tend to pile up, up and away from your floors. 

Go Low

Easily maximize your apartment’s floor space by using underbed storage baskets and boxes. They’re beautiful enough to stack under your tables or bureaus where you can see them. Plus, they’re still functional in other spaces when you run out of room underneath your bed. 

Go Double

Make furniture do double duty in your apartment to double your empty floor space. Creative furniture pieces for small spaces include benches, ottomans and cubes with storage shelves underneath, or with lids that lift for storage. Cocktail and coffee tables that do the same with lifting tops simultaneously double your storage and floor space. Having functional furniture like this means spare pillows, blankets and bedding won’t take up space on the floor or on furniture. 

In the bedroom, make a low and long bureau play double duty as storage for clothing. Use it as your bedside table. By eliminating the need for a side table by your bed, you’ve freed up floor space.

Consider dual-purpose lighting, such as a floor lamp with a built-in shelf. Floor lamps in general are ideal space savers because they can fit into the smallest nooks and crannies without taking up much floor space. They still provide light without taking up space on a side table.

Go Small

Proportion counts in a small space, too. One large piece of furniture in a room can actually trick your eye into thinking the space is larger than it is. But this primarily works with one main piece. The other furniture should be small in proportion. Small furniture includes slim upholstered pieces and tables that don’t compromise on style or function while still fitting into compact footprints. Consider small dining tables with leaves that fold down to conserve space. Make use of corners with corner desks, tables and storage units. By the time you’ve integrated all these practical pieces into your apartment, you’ll have used every square foot of space beautifully – with additional floor space to spare.