Small bedroom? It doesn’t have to feel cramped.
The worst mistakes include bulky furniture, massive amounts of clutter, and ugly hanging light fixtures that eat into vertical space.
Avoid these mistakes to make your small bedroom feel big:
No storage built into your bed
You’re missing a trick if you don’t get a bed with storage.
Beds with storage come in two flavours:
- Drawers — usually two or four drawers depending on the bed size. These are perfect for linens, shoes, and other bits and bobs.
- Ottoman beds — these use the entire underside of the bed as storage. They are fantastic for bedding, duvets, games, books, and all your seasonal wares.
Buying a bed that’s too big
Cramming a double or king-size bed into a small bedroom will give you plenty of sleeping space, but at what cost? If you have to butt it up against a wall, or if there’s less than 45 cm of space around the bed, it’ll look odd and impact floor space.
Remember these dimensions:
- Single – 90 x 190 cm
- Small double – 120 x 190 cm
- Double – 135 x 190 cm
- King – 150 x 200 cm
These are standard UK mattress sizes – NOT BED FRAME SIZES. You should measure up for the bed frame to ensure a good fit in your bedroom. A small double size accommodates up to two people or one person comfortably.
A small double bed and mattress are 120cm wide and 190cm long in metric dimensions. This equals 4 feet wide and 6 feet 3 inches long. A ‘small double’ (4’0”) bed (also known as a ‘Queen’ or a ‘Three Quarter’) is wider than a single bed but smaller in width than a double.
Pictured: A small double ottoman bed with storage is ideal for a small bedroom, like the one pictured above, available from Bedstar, priced just £324.
Oversized furniture
Furniture that’s 10-30cm slimmer and narrower could free up a lot of floor space in your bedroom.
Your wardrobe, chest of drawers, and dressing table are ripe for smaller dimensions, and if you add height, you won’t lose out on storage.
For instance, you could replace a wide chest of four drawers with a tall, narrow chest of six drawers, which would give you more useful storage in a smaller footprint.
Single-use furniture
If you liked that tip about oversized furniture, you’ll love this.
You can replace your chest of drawers entirely with a wardrobe with built-in drawers or a dressing table with drawers built into the sides. You could replace your dressing table with a chest of drawers, or if you’re buying for a kid’s bedroom, you could get a high sleeper with a built-in desk and drawers.
Pictured: Julian Bowen Aurora High sleeper – White. Available from Bedstar.
Not using the back of your door
Over-door storage pockets are fantastic for jewellery, accessories, make-up, grooming products, and even heels and slippers.
Alternatively, you can get a mesh basket over-door organiser for books, trinkets, and other items that take up space on desks.
Cluttered surfaces
Whether it’s your desk, shelves, windowsill or the top of your wardrobe, cramming surfaces with clutter will only make your bedroom look smaller.
Buy some stackable plastic storage boxes to organise everything or get a storage bed (see point one above) to hide things away.
A massive de-cluttering session wouldn’t go amiss either – sell the things you don’t want or give them to family and friends.
Neglecting vertical space
Install tiered bookshelves, mesh baskets for cosmetics and items you can’t risk falling on the floor, and task lighting for getting things done.
Floating shelves are best for a minimal feel – especially polycarbonate or clear acrylic ones (these seem to disappear, helping your bedroom look bigger).
Bulky hanging light fixtures
A bulky hanging light fixture will make your bedroom look and feel smaller. It’s better to install flush downlights, or if that’s too much of a project, a flush or semi-flush ceiling light in place of your hanging pendant.
Pictured: Time Living City Block 4FT Small Double Metal Bed Frame – white, with wall lights.
Wall lights can also replace ceiling lights—consider placing these next to your bed instead of the usual lamps on bedside tables.
Heavy curtains
Heavy curtains take up more space than you think and are unnecessary when you can get blackout blinds in the window recess.
Plus, if you want curtains, lightweight fabrics like sheer and voile curtains are perfect for giving you privacy while letting light through in the daytime.