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Never Too Small Reimagining Small Space Living 1st Edition Joel Beath Elizabeth Price
Never Too Small Essential guide to your living room
Contributors
Mariah Burton
FOLK STUDIO
Mariah is a Sydney based interior designer who first entered our orbit in 2020 when we featured her CHIPPENDALE HOME (Ep 43) on NTS. She is co-director of Folk Studio, a boutique interior design and styling studio focused on residential spaces and beautiful interiors.
We love that Mariah and her team sight people as their principal source of inspiration - “not Pinterest”. Their end goal is to design spaces that make people feel a sense of tranquillity, purpose and joy and a confidence that their space reflects who they are.
Nicholas Gurney
NICHOLAS GURNEY
Nicholas specialises in transforming and enhancing small spaces, with eight of his projects featured on NTS since 2018 (and many more to come - we hope!). These include one of our most popular episodes to date - THE WARREN (Ep 23).
Nicholas’s approach is heavily influenced by his background in Industrial Design but informed first and foremost by the needs of his clients. The results are highly functional and innovative, with a focus on the clever organisation of space. Nicholas, like us, is a passionate advocate for small-footprint living and through his designs, seeks to challenge notions that it is characterised by constraint and compromise.
Jack Chen and Hidy Wong
Jack leads a small team of designers and architects at Tsai Design out of Geelong and is the architect behind one of our most viewed projects - TYPE ST (Ep 10). Jack and his team are drawn to challenging projects and driven by a desire to realise the full potential of these spaces, from small-footprint apartments to houses in tight, narrow blocks. Integrated and multifunctional furniture is often a resulting feature and their award-winning DROP LEAF TABLE - a beautiful and flexible table designed for confined living - is one of their latest projects. We are delighted to have worked with both Jack and Hidy from Tsai Design to craft this guide.
TSAI DESIGN
Hello and welcome to our guide to living better in your living room.
Perhaps the most delightful thing about doing what we do at NTS is all the inspiring and generous people we get to meet. Within the pages of this guide, we feel privileged to share with you the insights, expertise and trade secrets from some of our most valued collaborators. This is gold dust to us and we hope it will be of great value to you too. We combine this gold dust with all we’ve learnt (and believe you will find useful) about living rooms from researching and publishing more than 100 episodes of NTS.
It’s worth noting that this guide is more about styling and organising rather than renovating. It’s centred on lowintervention improvements that will deliver high impact. In this way, we trust it will contain value for homeowners and renters alike. So, whether you’re embarking on a complete redesign, looking to make a few small tweaks or starting from scratch, we’re very happy to be part of your journey. Our intention with this guide is to give you the help you need to transform your space into one you love to spend time in.
You might have a small space to work with but know this: it’s full of potential. The design that most inspires us at NTS meets constraints with creativity. We want to inspire you to do the same. Consider rearranging existing furniture, refinishing, upcycling, repairing, thrifting… DIY. This exercise does not need to come at a great cost (to you or the environment). So if your constraints include budget as well as space, then rest assured, this guide is very much for you too.
Finally, there is no right or wrong here. This is about your own style and what makes you and the people you share your space with happy. Forget about the latest trend, it will only be replaced by another tomorrow! Your space should reflect you and be comfortable and joyful for you. This philosophy guides all the decisions I make in my living space and I hope it will serve you as well as it does me. LOVE, COLIN AND THE NTS TEAM X
steps First 1.
Interior designers will often start their consultation by asking you to honestly consider how you use a space because it helps to plan the layout and choose the right furniture and accessories to suit your lifestyle. It’s easy to get carried away creating collages and mood boards of beautiful designs, furniture pieces and colour palettes, but understanding how you truly use your living room will help create a clear design direction.
For instance, if you’re someone who often does yoga in the living room, incorporating a coffee table with wheels means you can easily move it out of the way for activities. At the end of the day, a living room that is comfortable and functional to you is more likely to be a space that you enjoy spending time in.
Here are some examples of honest questions to get you started
ARE YOU SOMEONE WHO WATCHES A LOT OF TELEVISION?
If not, a small projector could be a good alternative to a TV. You can store it away and bring it out when you need it, freeing up space in your living room for other items or activities. This will also give you more freedom when it comes to the orientation of furniture and how your wall space is used.
WHERE DO YOU SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME EATING MEALS?
If it’s in front of the TV (no judgement), consider a coffee table that rises to a suitable seating level instead of opting for a dedicated dining table.
DO YOU HAVE YOUNG CHILDREN OR PETS?
If so, seek out easy-to-clean and hard-wearing fabrics and finishes. You might consider options such as a washable rug or a sofa with removable covers.
IS THIS YOUR FOREVER HOME OR YOUR HOME FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?
Knowing how long you’ll live in a space can influence your layout and what furniture you choose. You might be more inclined to use built-in furniture in a forever home or wish to spend less on furniture items specific to your space if you plan to move again in a few years’ time.
Once you’ve settled on how you will (honestly) use the living room, you can start planning your layout. This can be as simple as a rough sketch of your living room with a basic idea of where you want items to be.
Observing how natural light enters and moves within your living space throughout the day and seasons can be a helpful place to start. Consider whether you want to face towards or away from daylight when sitting on the couch or where to place your TV to avoid direct sunlight and glare. From there, you can identify where larger items, such as your sofa, coffee table or an armchair, should be placed.
Another key tip is to consider how you and your guests enter, leave and move around the living room. The placement of furniture can often dictate how people navigate the space. Does the space feel cramped when multiple people are sitting in the room? If so, could you resolve this with a different layout?
Use this planning stage to really consider the dimensions of your space and how your existing or desired furniture and its orientation will affect how you and others will use the room.
Budget
Having an idea of how much you are willing to spend on your design from the beginning will save you time, energy and, let’s face it, heartache.
Redesigning or improving a living room doesn’t have to come with a high price tag, but having a figure in mind for your project will keep you on track and help you decide what you should prioritise and what might need to wait.
PRIORITISE
To help you prioritise your must-have items, we recommend putting a price value against each item you want to add or change in your living space. Everyone values items differently, depending on how they use them. For instance, someone who spends a lot of time reading, relaxing or watching television might be more inclined to spend $2,000 on a sofa and yet much less on a floor rug. Or, if your living room needs to be your storage workhorse, you might be inclined to spend more than others on a coffee table or ottoman to include integrated storage. Try to plan out which pieces or touches have greater value to you and your lifestyle before grabbing your wallet. And remember to include the cost of freight, accessories, installation and even tools or cleaning costs (if necessary) – it all adds up!
BREAK IT DOWN
Once you’ve made a list of everything you want to acquire or change in your space, spend some time splitting it into two stages to narrow your focus. ‘Stage one’ would be the items that you feel you need immediately for the space to function as you need it to. This might include key furniture pieces and lighting. ‘Stage two’, however, would include items that you want but don’t necessarily need right away, such as artwork, mirrors or some new plants.
Dividing your design needs into two stages will keep your budget under control and create a clear wish list of items or tasks that you can work towards in the future. Remember, you don’t have to finish your living room project all at once (it’s not a renovation challenge TV show!). In fact, you’re more likely to be delighted with the outcome if you don’t rush your decisions.
Be open minded
At NTS, we’re big fans of DIY (more on this later) and upcycling — our studio and our homes feature a mix of DIY, second hand and locally designed and made pieces. Are there items you already have that could be repaired, repurposed or refinished? Or have you considered buying second hand or vintage? If getting creative with DIY or purchasing second hand are not natural instincts for you, these routes are well worth considering. On top of being kinder to the environment, they can also have the added benefit of making your budget stretch a little further too. Either way, it’s definitely worth shopping around in vintage and charity shops or keeping an eye on platforms like eBay, Gumtree, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace and Instagram for specific pieces. There are often ways to find that special something at a price that you can afford, especially with some patience and effort.
To get you started, here is a list of items to consider in your budget so you can add/delete
TWO/THREE-SEATER SOFA
FLOOR RUG
COFFEE TABLE
ARMCHAIR
ABOVE NTS Creator Colin Chee’s apartment featuring treasured second-hand furntiure and DIY touches.
Finding 2. your style
Finding your style
Style is a visual way of telling your story and expressing your personality. Often, when we think about our design style, we tend to pigeonhole ourselves into one particular look — such as Scandinavian, mid-century or vintage. While those design styles can be very helpful in informing decisions around things like furniture and finishes, individual style comes from a much deeper place. It reflects who you are by providing a window into your values, your past and what brings you joy. And just as you change and evolve, so can your style.
Styling is often perceived as something polished — carefully curated colour palettes, perfectly placed furniture and decorative objects. But it can be more natural and eclectic than this. You may be surprised to see that if you group together the furniture or decorative objects that you love best, somehow, they just work together. And what could be better than being surrounded by objects that make you happy?
You might have your grandmother’s old armchair beside your modern sofa or your child’s drawing framed next to an original painting — wonderful! Not every element needs to be cohesive or match the overarching style of your home. It’s these sometimes accidental curations that tell your story and make a space that’s truly unique to you.
So how do you bring it all together?
Mood boards
A mood board is a great way to pull all your style inspiration into one place and can set the tone for your living room design. If you’re looking to get the creative juices flowing, start by creating two separate mood boards.
Think of ‘Mood Board A’ as your ultimate design outcome and ‘Mood Board B’ as a cheaper alternative or the board that changes and evolves as you do throughout the process. Having two mood boards will allow you to pick and pair different items and materials together from each depending on your budget, style and look and feel. For instance, you might have an armchair and sofa on ‘Mood board A’ that you love but together, are beyond your budget. ‘Mood Board B’, on the other hand, might feature more affordable alternatives. Ultimately, you might decide to prioritise the armchair from ‘Mood board A’ and as a result, purchase the sofa from ‘Mood Board B’. The result being an overall look that still works and importantly, stays within your budget.
There are a plethora of online tools that can help you with putting together your mood board. Our favourite is Milanote but Pinterest and Canva are also popular options. Use your mood board to collect textures, colours or specific living room furniture pieces. The more specific and detailed you can be, the better. This approach will help you build towards your desired outcome more naturally and will prove more successful than gathering images of living room spaces you like.
ABOVE The resulting design for Chippendale Home
Here are three tips to keep in mind
AVOID PRECONCEPTIONS
Start by collating colour schemes, furniture pieces and accessories that you like without worrying about any preconceived concepts or ideas you may have had or notions of ‘what goes with what’.
Try to find images of these items on a plain white background to avoid visual clutter on your mood board. This will help you curate different pieces and see how they interact with one another against your space.
LAY IT ALL DOWN
While it is easy to bring together all the items and objects your heart desires, it’s also important to see how these new pieces will complement existing elements in your home, such as treasured furniture, flooring, window placements, pre-existing artworks and the colour of your living room walls. Consider taking photos of these key elements to add to your mood board as well.
Including these elements in your mood board will bring the old and new together and help you visualise what does and doesn’t work together in your space. Most importantly, it will prevent you from making mistakes you may later regret!
GIVE IT SOME TIME
Once you’ve pulled together the overall feel and mood of your ideal living room, put your mood boards down and give yourself some time to mull over your choices. You can revisit the mood boards and make any edits or adjustments if certain aspects aren’t sitting right. Trust your gut. If you are half-hearted about a design element, revisit it and question why you feel that way and what you can do to change it.
On page 15 you’ll find an example of a simple moodboard Mariah and the team at Folk Studio put together for CHIPPENDALE HOME along with an image of the final apartment.
There are some great resources and design templates to be found on platforms like Milanote if you’re in need of some additional tips and inspiration. We especially love their nifty web clipper extension that lets you quickly and easily save text, images, links and video to your moodboard without having to screen grab them. You can check out the Milanote moodboard Colin put together for his recent apartment renovation HERE .
Colour is such a personal and subjective thing. You may want to keep things neutral as Desmond Wong did in his Hong Kong Apartment CITY VEIL or instead let colour rip as gon architects did in central Madrid Home SOLA HOUSE pictured on the left.
If you lean towards a more flamboyant, or eccentric kind of design style, you may be tempted to resist the idea of a planned colour scheme. However, anchoring your space with a base tone can make a big difference, and looking at your space and what’s already there can be a great place to start.
If you have concrete floors and white walls for instance, your base colours would be grey and white and these colours might determine the colour of your sofa. Selecting a grey or white sofa, given it’s such a large piece in your space, would then allow you to have fun with colour across other pieces like an armchair, your coffee table, cushions or a rug.
Once you have decided on your base tone then you might move on to deciding on what accent tones you want to bring in. Typically, two or three accent tones work nicely, or if you really want a loud or bold room, you might have up to 10 accent colours. Either way, defining what these will be from an early stage can create some helpful parameters.
OPPOSITE Warm tones of peach, gold and brown feature throughout The Warren along with vivid pops of red, blue and rich greens from the owner’s extensive house plant collection.
IMAGE CREDIT Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzmán + Rocío Romero)
Some tips and ideas…
CONSIDER MOOD AND EMOTION
Think about how you want (and want others) to feel in your space…Cosy? Energised? Calm and peaceful? Work with the colours that evoke this mood or emotion for you.
BE PLAYFUL
Unexpected pops of colour can surprise and delight and create a sense of playfulness.
CREATE COHESION
Use colour to connect your spaces and create a sense of harmony and visual calm.
SET THE SCENE
If you have some special artwork or some strong patterns in your decor or furnishings, you might decide to keep colour muted and neutral elsewhere to allow these pieces to shine.
ABOVE A neutral and calming colour scheme as seen in City Veil
IMAGE CREDIT Archetypal Limited www.archetypal.hk
ABOVE Pastel colours have a soothing and unifying effect in Villa Montserrat
IMAGE CREDIT Yiannis Hadjiaslanis
Defining 3. zones
Defining zones
Now that you’ve thought about defining your sense of style, it’s time to think more deeply about how your living space functions. We touched on this earlier, but let’s start talking about zones. The reality is that when it comes to small-footprint homes, a living space will likely need to perform several different functions.
Defining zones in a living room changes the entire perception of a space. With many people opting for open-plan, multi-purpose room designs and with the increase of workfrom-home lifestyles, creating zones can help transition between tasks and modes like, relaxing, working or entertaining. Having assigned spaces for dining or storage (if these functions take place in your living room) can make a room feel larger, more spacious and much more organised.
When we think about zoning, it’s not uncommon to picture different rooms or physical partitions that separate the living space from the rest of the home. But creating zones can be done in a myriad of ways. It is all about creating a defined design flow that is aesthetically appealing, highly functional and unique to you.
Bulky furniture, such as sofas, television cabinets, armchairs and dining tables, can act as subtle barriers or dividers for zones. How you arrange your furniture is key to distinguishing different areas in a living room. When designing their small mid-century home in Paris, CRUSSOL (pictured below), architects Ophélie Doria and Edouard Roullé-Mafféïs of Space Factory arranged their sofa against the dining room seating to create two separate spaces, one for eating and one for relaxing.
Incorporating movable furniture can allow for greater flexibility in a living room as you and your lifestyle change. WATERLOO STREET (pictured below) is a perfect example of how a small living space was optimised to suit tenants who didn’t want to be locked into specific configurations.
To accommodate their needs, designer Desh Chew from Three-D Conceptwerke included custom-made white cabinets on wheels that the clients could shift around to create space as needed.
Chew also selected two tables on wheels that could be pushed together to create a large table for dining with friends or separated into two individual work spaces, and an adjustable wall mounted swing arm lamp that could be directed over the tables as they move around the space.
Loh, Wong Weiliang
IMAGE CREDIT Justin Loh, Wong Weiliang
Curtains and sliding doors are, perhaps, the more obvious ways to divide a space. In many NTS episodes, we’ve seen curtains and screens used to successfully maximise the function of a living room space, accentuate different areas and hide storage and clutter. With many small homes designed to be multifunctional, curtains can play a great role in dividing living room zones as life transitions from day to night and night to day, concealing storage or establishing a sense of privacy.
The beauty of curtains is that you can easily change the style, material and fabric, and they take up little to no space (which is a major tick for small homes!). Lauren and Nicholas Russo employed a multipurpose curtain in KAROOT , originally designed for their own young family. The curtain was conceived to establish privacy between the living zone and adjacent office nook (as pictured on the right) but could also be drawn across the nearby kitchen to soften the overall space both visually and acoustically.
Similarly, a door or screen can physically section off and open an area to help create functional and dedicated spaces in the living room. A simple sliding door panel is used in the ROSENEATH APARTMENT in Melbourne, designed by Fieldwork architects. The sliding door enables interplay or immediate privacy between the living, sleeping and office zones of the apartment.
ABOVE A simple sliding door panel in Roseneath apartment enables interplay or immediate privacy between the living, sleeping and office zones of the apartment.
If flexibility is the priority and total privacy is less of a concern, screens and other freestanding or built-in furniture such as bookshelves can be used to establish zones. Co-founder of Studiomama, Nina Tolstrup, designed the METAMORPHIC WARDROBE COME SPACE DIVIDER, a flexible wardrobe that contains storage and can be opened into different formations to provide privacy and flexibility without building walls or permanently dividing a space.
Similarly, bookshelves or other freestanding cabinets and shelving units are a simple (and sometimes, a lighter-touch way) to create zones, as seen in EL CAMARÍN (pictured below) in Buenos Aires designed by IR architecture. Incidentally, this particular bookcase was the original inspiration for the living room belonging to NTS Creator Colin and remains one of our all-time favourites.
Consider styling up shelves or cabinets with small and sentimental ornaments that leave enough space for the area to still feel open.
LEFT Studiomama’s Metamorphic Wardrobe come space divider can be opened into different formations to provide privacy and flexibility without building walls or permanently dividing a space.
BELOW Bookshelves separating the living zone from the sleeping zone as seen in El Camarín
IMAGE CREDIT Fernando Schapochnik
Using contrasting paint colours is a quick, budget-friendly way to visually separate areas without committing to major physical changes. In Project 26 (not yet featured on NTS at the time of publishing this guide!) designed by Singapore-based interior design firm Resistance (and pictured below), a dramatic shift from a dark green painted entrance area to a stark white living room was employed to create “visual cues to slow down and unwind”. A more subtle execution can be seen in the Paris apartment, VILLA SAINT-MICHEL , where Nicolas Bossard uses pops of colour throughout the apartment to highlight modes and zones, including a burgundy-rose feature wall in the seating area of the living room.
