Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / Make your small space feel bigger

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Make your small space feel bigger · Silver FM 100.6

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  Speaker 2: You're listening to Life Kid from NPR.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: You want to float furniture? Do you want to float it?
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  Speaker 2: Girl?
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  Speaker 4: No?
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  Speaker 2: No, no, because what is that even? Like that is
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  Speaker 2: going to look so weird in my place?
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  Speaker 3: Apparently.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 3: I mean it's an optical illusion that you actually have
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  Speaker 3: a little more square footage. If everything's not up against
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  Speaker 3: the wall, you can do it like three to five inches.
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  Speaker 3: It's not like you put in the center of your
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  Speaker 3: living room. If you go to an open house where
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  Speaker 3: they've staged it, you'll notice that they never put all
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  Speaker 3: of the furniture up against the wall. They always do
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  Speaker 3: it like just a lit It gives you the feeling
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  Speaker 3: of more space.
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  Speaker 4: All right.
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  Speaker 2: Reporter Andy Tagle coming in straight away with the tips.
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  Speaker 2: I'm Mary el Sagata and today on Lifekit we're talking
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  Speaker 2: about how to make a small space feel bigger apparently,
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  Speaker 2: and I would say counterintuitively, leaving space between your furniture
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  Speaker 2: and the wall is one way to do that. We'll see,
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  Speaker 2: maybe I'll try it. I will say, I'm in one
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  Speaker 2: of those moments with my apartment right now where I'm
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: looking around and I'm like, it's time to change everything.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, even though I think it's cute, you know,
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  Speaker 2: like it's time for a new paint color, it's time
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  Speaker 2: for a new couch or whatever. But I think part
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  Speaker 2: of that is, as my life has changed, I want
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  Speaker 2: to use this space for different things, and especially in
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  Speaker 2: a small space, one room does have to perform multiple functions,
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  Speaker 2: and then you have to think about, like what is
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  Speaker 2: my priority here.
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  Speaker 3: I have a word for you. The word is zoning,
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  Speaker 3: and the idea is that you can have though even
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  Speaker 3: if you have just one space, if you have an
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  Speaker 3: open floor plan, zoning just means like you can zone
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  Speaker 3: off different areas of the open floor part. There's no
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  Speaker 3: reason why you can't have a dining room and a
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  Speaker 3: living room in a kitchen and a movie area all
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  Speaker 3: in that one open room.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Well, coming up on this episode of life Kit.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to talk more about floating your furniture. We're
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  Speaker 2: going to talk about zoning, about floor arrangements, about how
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  Speaker 2: to hang your.
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  Speaker 3: Art, lots of low budget and non permanent solutions to
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  Speaker 3: make your space your own.
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  Speaker 2: That's after the break. Okay, Andy, what do we need
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  Speaker 2: to think about when we're designing small spaces specifically, Like,
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  Speaker 2: how's it different when you're trying to make a studio
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  Speaker 2: apartment or a one bedroom your own versus a three
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  Speaker 2: acre farmhouse or a ten room mansion.
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  Speaker 3: It's a good question. Let me introduce you to Shamikh Lynch.
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  Speaker 3: She is the founder and principal designer of Maximizing Tiny
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  Speaker 3: Interiors in New Jersey. And her answer was, you know,
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  Speaker 3: in a lot of ways, a home is a home
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  Speaker 3: as a home, so you know, people got to cook,
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  Speaker 3: people got to work, kids need room to play and
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  Speaker 3: do their homework, so a lot is the same. But
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  Speaker 3: here's what she says is really essential to the design
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  Speaker 3: of small spaces. Specifically, no room can be just an
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  Speaker 3: extra room.
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  Speaker 5: You don't have any extra square footage where it's like, oh, well,
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  Speaker 5: that's just going to be decorative. Every single item in
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  Speaker 5: your home needs to serve a purpose. And our motto
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  Speaker 5: is that everything in your home should work for you,
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  Speaker 5: and work is a verb there where it needs to
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  Speaker 5: have at least two functions. Right, your living room is
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  Speaker 5: probably also functioning as your dining room and also functioning
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  Speaker 5: as your playroom.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you really have to make use of all the
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  Speaker 2: space you have.
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  Speaker 3: Every nick and cranny. And then the other thing is downsizing.
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  Speaker 3: All the experts I spoke to said that, like more
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  Speaker 3: than furniture size or picking the wrong paint color, what
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  Speaker 3: is really the enemy of small spaces is clutter. If
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  Speaker 3: you have a small space that you want to rearrange,
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  Speaker 3: the very first thing you need to do is declutter,
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  Speaker 3: because once you pere down to the things that you
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  Speaker 3: really need, it's a lot easier to see how much
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  Speaker 3: space you actually need for storage, how you can get
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  Speaker 3: creative with solutions, and overall it can just help you
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  Speaker 3: be more intentional with planning your space.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I always think that I've tackled my clutter, and then
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  Speaker 2: there's another round of decluttering and I'm like, what, Like,
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  Speaker 2: I thought I needed this thing six months ago, but
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  Speaker 2: it turns out I really don't.
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  Speaker 3: The clutter monster always lives again after tackling your clutter
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  Speaker 3: or your latest clutter monster. At least you want to
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  Speaker 3: organize your stuff in a way that actually makes sense
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  Speaker 3: for your life.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: Faith Roberson is a professional organizer and decluttering coach in
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  Speaker 3: New York City, and she lived for a while in
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  Speaker 3: a five hundred and fifty square foot studio, and she
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  Speaker 3: wrote the book What Stays and What Goes How to
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  Speaker 3: organize with intention and create space for grace. What she
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  Speaker 3: told me is when everything has a specific home and
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  Speaker 3: a specific purpose, you're gonna work better and you're gonna
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  Speaker 3: feel better.
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  Speaker 4: The key to small spaces is learning how.
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  Speaker 6: To disperse things in multiple areas in order to create
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  Speaker 6: a flow, in a sense of harmony in the space.
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  Speaker 6: I had to start to think, Okay, where am I
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  Speaker 6: going to put my workouts gear?
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  Speaker 4: You know? Where am I going to put this? Under
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  Speaker 4: my bed? I had storage of course, that's like a
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  Speaker 4: no brainer.
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  Speaker 6: And also using the height of the cabinets was important,
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  Speaker 6: just going all the way up to the ceiling.
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  Speaker 2: She talks about flow. What does it mean for a
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  Speaker 2: space to have good flow?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? I feel like this is a term that you
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  Speaker 3: hear a lot when it comes to designing. Decorating, but
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  Speaker 3: the definition is a little bit slippery. So Shamika told me,
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  Speaker 3: when she thinks about flow, she thinks about how well
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  Speaker 3: all the elements of a home are working together for
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  Speaker 3: the people who live in it. So, for example, in
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  Speaker 3: your kitchen, you know, when you go to put your
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  Speaker 3: dishes on the drying rack, is it easy to do?
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  Speaker 3: Is it right?
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  Speaker 1: There?
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  Speaker 3: Are you tracking water all over the floor with every dish?
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  Speaker 3: That might be one example. If you have to dig
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  Speaker 3: in and out of a closet every morning, if you
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  Speaker 3: have to hop up and over workout equipment every day,
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  Speaker 3: might be time to rethink.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense. And then you also, if you
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  Speaker 2: think about that ahead of time, then you know what
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  Speaker 2: you might need to buy or repurpose rather than just
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  Speaker 2: sort of aimlessly going to a storage store and getting
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  Speaker 2: stuff that's not going to work for you.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I know that experts gave you a lot of
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  Speaker 2: tips for the apartment from the ground up. Really, so
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  Speaker 2: let's start with the ground huh, let's do it. Yeah, coverings,
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  Speaker 2: what'd you learn about that?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, general rule, I would say from the experts across
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  Speaker 3: the board, rugs are a good idea in small spaces.
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  Speaker 3: They are a quick and easy way to add warmth,
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  Speaker 3: to add texture, personality to a space. So if you
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  Speaker 3: don't have one, you want to add that to the
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  Speaker 3: top of your list. Another great thing about rugs zoning,
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  Speaker 3: so they are a great way to create distinct areas
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  Speaker 3: in your home. I thought this was a wonderful tip
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  Speaker 3: from Shimika. She works with a lot of people who
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  Speaker 3: live in open floor plans, and she says sometimes she
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  Speaker 3: doesn't even have to buy something new, she'll just reor
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  Speaker 3: in a room by switching up a rug.
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  Speaker 5: Everywhere the rug touches is the living room right, that's
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  Speaker 5: the living room rug, like lion king. Everywhere the light
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  Speaker 5: touches is yours. And even if your even if your
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  Speaker 5: dining room is right next the lit room, which mine is,
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  Speaker 5: there's a dining room rug right that says you know,
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  Speaker 5: this is where the dining room is. So rugs really
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  Speaker 5: help for that to define those spaces.
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  Speaker 2: It can be a little hard to know what size
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  Speaker 2: right to get.
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  Speaker 3: I would say generally speaking, you want to go bigger
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  Speaker 3: instead of smaller. When you go too small, the ratios
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  Speaker 3: can be off and it can make a room feel accidental.
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  Speaker 2: It reminds me of when Kristen Wegg used to do
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  Speaker 2: this on SNL. Where are those doll hands? Yeah, it's
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  Speaker 2: like the proportions are off right. Yes, you're like, this
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  Speaker 2: is like normal size person and with like little baby
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  Speaker 2: doll hands. Is there's something unsettling and I think that
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  Speaker 2: that happens when your rug is too small.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that is exactly right. The proportions are off. So
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  Speaker 3: to help us think through ratio, all turn to Alexandra Gator.
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  Speaker 3: She's a home to core expert who specializes in making
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  Speaker 3: over small spaces for her YouTube channel. It's really fun,
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  Speaker 3: definitely worth a watch. She told me, if she had
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  Speaker 3: to put a number to it, you want to to
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  Speaker 3: cover around seventy five percent of a room with your rug. WHOA, Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's a lot, like more than you think. You know.
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  Speaker 3: You may want to have a clear walkway in between
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  Speaker 3: one space or another, one room or another, but generally speaking,
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  Speaker 3: you want to have at least the two legs of
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  Speaker 3: a couch, the two legs of any chairs, or if
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  Speaker 3: you can fit everything, like if you can fit an
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  Speaker 3: entire living room set on a rug, that's a good idea.
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  Speaker 2: I will say, rugs can be kind of expensive, especially
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  Speaker 2: if you're getting a big one.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely a higher ticket item when it comes
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  Speaker 3: to redecorating. So I did a little bit sourcing online
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  Speaker 3: for you. Rugs USA and Ikea seem to be a
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  Speaker 3: couple of the top spots people turned to for low cost,
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  Speaker 3: brand new quality rugs. Facebook Marketplace and offer up also
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  Speaker 3: not bad ideas for second hand.
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  Speaker 2: Options coming up. How to arrange your furniture to make
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  Speaker 2: your room feel bigger. That's after the break. Okay, let's
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  Speaker 2: move on to furniture arrangement. We were talking about floating furniture.
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  Speaker 2: Can you just explain exactly what that means and why
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  Speaker 2: we're supposedly supposed to do it?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, So floating means you don't put your furniture, say
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  Speaker 3: a couch, right up against the wall. You just need
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  Speaker 3: some space behind it. And what that does is create
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  Speaker 3: the illusion of additional depth and it can actually make
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  Speaker 3: a room seem bigger. Another version of that is you
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: can also float your furniture into the middle of a
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: big open room or big long room, and you can
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: use it to zone the space into different sections. So,
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  Speaker 3: for example, you can turn that couch sideways and define
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  Speaker 3: a space too like this is living room and this
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  Speaker 3: is the dining room or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: What do we do about the back of the couch thing,
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  Speaker 2: like having to look at the back of the couch.
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  Speaker 3: You anchor it. That was Alexander's idea. If the floating
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  Speaker 3: feels weird, maybe you put a little console there. Maybe
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  Speaker 3: it's your desk, right, you anchor it. You put a
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  Speaker 3: rug underneath that whole thing so that you have your
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  Speaker 3: specific zones and it grounds the whole area.
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  Speaker 2: What about the size of your furniture, Like, how do
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: you decide how big of a couch to get or
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  Speaker 2: how big of a table to get?
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  Speaker 3: I would say overall, And surprisingly the experts cautioned more
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: against going too small rather than going too big. Like
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  Speaker 3: the first example that came to my mind was like
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: a dorm room in college that hasn't been decorated yet.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: You see a big blank wall and all they have
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: is like a teeny tiny picture or two from home
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  Speaker 3: on that big blank wall, and it just doesn't look great.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't feel right.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 3: Apparently there's a name for this kind of feeling.
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  Speaker 5: They call it the dollhouse effect, where you know, if
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: you put too many small things in a space, it
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  Speaker 5: creates visual clutter. It almost looks like a mistake because
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  Speaker 5: the scale is off. Let's say I have a sofa
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  Speaker 5: that it's eighty four inches. If I have a five
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  Speaker 5: x seven ruck, it looks like there's something missing, something
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  Speaker 5: else needs to go there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm thinking about too. Like regarding the size of
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: the furniture, obviously, you also have to think about how
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: you're using it and what your priorities are. Like for me,
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  Speaker 2: I really wanted an extra deep couch this time, just
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  Speaker 2: to be able to fit more people on it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't have to go small just because you're
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: in a small space. You do want to be purposeful
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: with the large furniture that you buy. You want to
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: make sure that you're buying it for the right reasons,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: with the lifestyle that you have in mind. Another question
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: that I had was, you know, what if you have
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: something that you really love, you know, like a keepsake
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: family heirloom that you love, but isn't super practical. And
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  Speaker 3: Faith had a really good answer for this, like can
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  Speaker 3: you make it functional? You know, you don't necessarily need
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: to buy something new, you don't need to toss, you
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: don't need to put it in storage. Faith told me
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: about this hutch that she's had for a million years.
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  Speaker 3: Think it was like an entertainment center or something I
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: got on Craigslist. And then I added a.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: Pole and made it into a wardrobe.
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  Speaker 6: And then here I brought it here and I just
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  Speaker 6: added shelves and turned it into like a shoe cabinet.
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  Speaker 4: It has lived nine lives.
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  Speaker 6: And it's big, and my living room isn't that wide,
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  Speaker 6: so it takes up space.
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  Speaker 4: But it's all about how you style it, right.
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  Speaker 6: So then I put this really beautiful like plant next
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  Speaker 6: to it, and I think I have like a lamp
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  Speaker 6: on the other side, and it becomes.
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  Speaker 4: A part of like art in the space.
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  Speaker 6: But it also solves a really big issue that I have,
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  Speaker 6: which is not having a home from my shoes.
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  Speaker 2: I love that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I love having that piece that stays with you and
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: that you can alter over time.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk more about walls. What about wall pape
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: and wallpaper? What did you learn?
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: So I have some news for you, Mariel. I know
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: that you have some feelings about this, but apparently the
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: accent wall is out for small spaces.
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  Speaker 2: You know. I like my accent wall. I think it
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: looks nice.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure that it does. Let me explain to you. Basically,
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  Speaker 3: they were saying, if your goal is to make your
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: small space bigger, they were saying, you want continuity. I
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: was kind of expecting them to say, you want white
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: or light colors. I was expecting, you know, invite light.
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  Speaker 3: You want to make it as sunshiny as you can
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: in a small space, to expand it, avoid darker, moodier tones.
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  Speaker 3: But really no, they were like, whatever you like, go
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  Speaker 3: for it, but what is important is to be consistent
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: in your palette. One idea that was popular was color drenching.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: So Shamika said, if you don't have fancy trim, if
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: you have just like plain baseboards, you could paint the
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: trim the same color. So go from your baseboards all
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: the way up to your ceiling. Consider doing that all
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: the same color. And that continuity can create some extra space,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: can create extra height and depth for you. Wallpaper, Alexandra said,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: wallpaper on ceilings is the thing that's popular. Yeah, you
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: could go big.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's that hard to do though you break in mind.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: She said, it's a commitments. Yeah, she did say it's
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: a commitment, So something to think about slightly less of
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: commitment but can help you make your space bigger curtains.
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  Speaker 3: So one good idea is just to hang your curtains
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: a little bit higher and a little bit wider than
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: your window frame. One guide I saw said about six
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: to twelve inches higher than where your window frame is.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: And then you want to extend your curtain rod four
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: to ten inches beyond that frame, and doing that can
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: help extend your eye. And then Alexandra I had a
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: great rule of thumb about how long your curtains should be.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: Making sure your curtains just kiss the floor.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: If I'm like pooling curtains, it just collects dust. It
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  Speaker 2: doesn't look like you've thought it through. So just kind
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: of kissing the floor is the rule that I.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: Love to follow when it comes to curtains.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Just kiss the floor.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: What about art? I have a gallery wall, and although
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: I think that I did it partly because I don't
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: know how to do anything else, Like in terms of art,
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  Speaker 2: I feel like when I've just had a big piece,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: it's never been big enough, or two big pieces, they've
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: never been big enough, and then everything feels kind of empty.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: I guess I wonder is there a science to this,
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: like to how to hang your art in small spaces
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  Speaker 2: to make it feel bigger.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: So one rule for you, Shmika said, for hanging art,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: the center of your art should be at eye level
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: when you're hanging art. So for gallery wall specifically, Shamika said,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: you know it is okay to go on vibes. She
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: said she aims for roughly two to four inches of
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: space between frames or between items. She did say that
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: the thing about gallery walls is sometimes in small spaces
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: they can get a little bit busy, So you want
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: to make sure if you're doing it in a big
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: open space that you have a piece of furniture to
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: anchor it. A nice open, sparse hallway is a good
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: idea for a gallery wall. You could do a gallery
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: wall in a corner to create the illusion of space,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: so it doesn't necessarily need to be one flat wall.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Another one is like a triptic situation. So if you
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: have a piece of art that you really like, you
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: can print it out over three get like three frames,
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: blow it up like over your bed. Say, that can
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: create the illusion of like expanding the wall. And then
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: generally speaking, having different frame textures, different frame depths, you know,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: like shadowbox situations can create more visual interest, create more
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: depth there. What about mirrors, Yes, is my answer. Yes,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I want them. Good for small spaces, helps expand the space,
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: helps catch more light. Alexandra said a lot of people
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: are really into floor mars right now, very popular. But
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: she said, hanging mirrors, small ones in your gallery wall,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: ones that you can hang over the door for space
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: saving measures, all the mirrors, all the time.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, these are all such great ideas. And I'm in
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: the midst of a lot of home improvement right now.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I don't even know when this started or how this happened,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: because I thought I was in a place where I
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: was like settled in the apartment. I'd made a lot
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: of changes, and I was like, okay, now we're good.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: But suddenly here I am in the vortex again and
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: it's fun, but it's also kind of I don't know.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I have this sense of urgency to it, like I
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: need to do everything now and the space isn't good
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: enough as it is right now, which I think is
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: a trap. I guess. I just like I try to
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: remind myself that it's okay to let this unfold over time.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: Right as long as your house still feels like home
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: when you get back at the end of the day.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: You know, I think that's what's important. There's always going
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: to be something left to be done.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: Right. I was talking to Faith about the a similar idea,
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: and she said, if you haven't found your flow in
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: your home yet, you should just keep working at it
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: and doing that. Finding that flow is kind of like
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: doing a jigsaw puzzle. There's always like one more piece
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: to put back together.
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: Have you ever put a piece in a puzzle and
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: it looks like it should fit right, and then there's
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: like this little sliver of space and you convince yourself
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: that it's the right piece, and then you start building
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: on the puzzle and you can only go so far
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: before you're like, oh, this is not and it's messing
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: up the way I can move forward. Organizing is like that.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: That reminds me of Saddoku, when I'm very far down
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: the Sudoku puzzle and I'm like, oh my god, that's
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: not good thing. I did this in pencil, But it's
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: understanding that we do kind of have to live our
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: lives in pencil.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: You're right, your home never looks like a magazine or Instagram,
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: but like, would you want it to?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Andy, thank you so much for this.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's been a pleasure. Let me know if you
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: fill your furniture.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna try it.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I'll try it.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Maybe I'll do a little stuff behind it. All right, folks,
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: it's time for a recap. Take Away one. To make
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: your small space feel bigger, you want to start by decluttering.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: When you get rid of.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: The stuff you don't actually use or one around, you
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: will literally have more space and it'll be easier to
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: make a plan and reimagine your home in a way
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: that flows. Take Away two. Small spaces need to work
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: harder for you, so make the most of your vertical space.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Think about high up shelves, for instance, and get creative
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: with your storage. For instance, I just got a couch
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: and it has storage built into the seats. Take Away three.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: You can have big, beautiful furniture in a small space,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: but you have to be mindful of proportion and scale.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: You want to make sure the space flows and that
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: it's usable. Also, this is about trade offs. If your
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: couch takes up most of the living room, you may
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: not have space for a big dining table. So think
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: about your priorities and how you actually want to use
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: your home. Take away four. In tight spaces, you can
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: create the illusion of height and depth. That might look
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: like floating your furniture or painting the walls creatively, or
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: use a rugs or a console table or a bookshelf
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: to separate your space into zones. It could also mean
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: adding mirrors or hanging your curtains higher. You've got a
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: lot of options. All right, that's our show. If you
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: love Life Kit and you want even more, why not
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: follow us on Instagram at NPR Lifekit. There you'll find
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: videos featuring our favorite tips and comics on topics like
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: how to talk to your baby and how to turn
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: your lawn into a native plant garden. You can find
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: those by following at NPR Lifekit. This episode of Life
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Kit was produced by Claire Maury Schneider and reported by
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Andy Tagle. It was edited by Sylvie Douglas. Our digital
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: editor is Malica Gharib and our visuals editor is CJ. Rikalan.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Megan Kane is our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Margaret Serino.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Engineering support comes from Tiffany Varricastro and Becky Brown. I'm
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Mariel Sagara. Thanks for listening. M.