by Brenda Bowers

Created on: July 30, 2008   Last Updated: August 14, 2008

Decorating small spaces can be fun, but it demands ingenuity and creativity. Your first concern is to decide what you want to use the small space for as each use will have a different decorating approach to meet your objectives. For example if you have a small room you want to turn into a private little Mom's space you might want it to be warm, comfortable and very feminine. In here you might want to "expand" the space to look larger by using glass topped tables as they give the room the appearance of more space since you can see more floor. They are also usually very feminine.

For this article I have chosen to guide you thru decorating a small space where storage is needed. RV's, and studio apartments fall into this category. In decorating either of these space is at a premium so every inch has to count. To make this work furniture should serve at the very least two purposes. In other words, all furnishing have to "earn their keep". The only exception to this rule is if you just absolutely "love" a piece and there is no possible way to alter it to make it more functional. I have learned over the years that when I find something I absolutely love then I should get it because it will stay with me and I will forever wish I had.

First go to Old Time Pottery ( best prices) and choose a pretty 5 x 8 area carpet to build around. It can be modern abstract or a lovely patterned all over Oriental. This carpet set the tone of your dcor. It will also center the focus and provide the color scheme. I have found that a large area rug in the center of the space bordered with the other wall to wall floor covering tends to visually enlarge the room. Some say the opposite is true, but to me it is like mounting a picture. Try this experiment: first frame a picture with no border, just picture in frame. Then reduce the size of the picture to frame it with a small surrounding border in the same sized frame. Which one looks more polished, more important and showcases the picture bringing your attention to it's content? This is the principle I follow in using a large area rug in a small space. Your furniture will sit exactly where it would sit without an area rug with portions on the original flooring, but the focus will be the center of the room and not the confining walls thus giving the room a larger appearance.

Your area carpet will also be the palette for all the other colors in the room. Choose your favorite color from the carpet and use that color if it is light or a pastel hue

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