Parting Shots

NATIONAL DESIGN EDITOR GLEN PELOSO ANSWERS YOUR SMALL SPACE DESIGN QUESTIONS.

HOW DO I BEST OPTIMIZE THE SPACE IN MY NEW APARTMENT? Start with what is most important to your way of life: do you love to entertain, love television, love the view, love to read, etc - and make your first love the focus. Select furniture that has legs or glass so that you can see as much floor space as possible to make the space seem larger. Do your best to select furniture that has more than one function and make sure you select sofas and chairs with narrow arms or none at all, as wide or rolled arms take up space and the wide arm has the same function as the narrow one.

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO ADD STORAGE IN A SMALL SPACE? Go up. If you have a room that is ten feet by ten feet and has a ten foot ceiling you have one hundred sq ft of floor space and four hundred square feet of wall space. If I were to build a cabinet along one wall and it was twelve inches deep, I would consume ten square feet of floor and give you 200 square feet of storage.

HOW DO I PLACE FURNITURE IN A ROOM WITH LITTLE WALL SPACE? Float the furniture in the middle of the room. You don’t have to place everything up against the walls if you have smalls walls. Use an area rug to define the space as opposed to the walls. - Glen Peloso, www.grafus.ca.

Photo: Larry Arnal, www.arnalpix.com