Multipurpose Furniture

If you want to live in a big city like New York, you may have to settle for a smaller apartment than you actually want. In order to live in a small space, you need to have minimalist requirements. Alternatively, if you are like most of us, who want beds, shelves, seating and so on, you have to be quite inventive and use your limited space to its best advantage.

Stylish

Creative furniture manufacturers are coming up with a variety of elegant modern solutions to the standard 'Murphy bed in the wall' approach for studio apartments. Today's ultra modern multi-purpose furniture is not only stylish but also so desirable that even if you don't need space saving furniture you will want to buy some. Companies like Resource Furniture import high-end multi-purpose Italian furniture which offer a space saving solution in a dream way. You can choose anything from shelving units that swivel into the wall revealing a pull-down queen sized, fully sprung 'Murphy' type wall bed to a beautiful coffee table that expands into a full dining room table. Other companies like Hiddenbed have also come up with designs (from around $2,000+) where you can leave your computer on the desk, while you pull your spare bed down on top of it, ready for guests.

Simple

Of course, not everyone can afford this type of high-end solution for their space problem, but if you think creatively, you can come up with some ideas that will increase your usable space. For example, if you have a small bedroom with a high ceiling, you can build a hi-platform bed with room for a desk and/or closet underneath. If you aren't so handy, why not buy a similar loft bed and desk from IKEA for just under $200. This can be an ideal solution for combining a home office and guest room in a small room.

Sliding

Sometimes just having sliding doors and windows can save a lot of space. If you have a small room, see if you can replace the regular door with a sliding one. This can give you extra space, both inside the room and outside, as you don't have to allow room to open the door since it can just slide open and shut. Sliding cupboard doors are ideal for a small galley kitchen, and they work great for living room furniture too. One Hong Kong resident, Gary Chang, an architect, can transform his whole tiny (330sq ft) apartment into 24 different spaces by using sliding storage walls! These sliding walls run on tracks and contain everything from his bedroom, guest room and living room to his galley kitchen and screening room, thereby creating a brilliant solution to a serious space shortage.

Storage Ideas

Looking at the type of storage they have in boats and RV's can also give you some wonderful ideas for a small apartment. Think of under seat or bed storage, folding tables, pulleys that take things up to the ceiling, or consider built in furniture that maximizes your available space instead of freestanding pieces. There is also often a lot of potential unused space up near the ceiling. Putting shelving or storage cupboards high up is an ideal solution for storing those things you only use once a year like Christmas decorations or Passover china.

If you have a small living space, make sure that each piece of furniture you buy is multifunctional. After all, why waste space?