Welcome to Amplified Apartments: Home Edition, a special edition of ForRent’s Amplified Apartments series, featuring amateur interior designers whose winning decor hacks will save you space whether you’re on the first or fifteenth floor.
Amplified Apartments: Home Edition enters the home of Here Comes the Sun blogger Kelly Moore. Moore channels her passion for cooking, crafting, and DIY into her blog and her life. The Wilmington home she shares with her family has space for the necessities. And after a productive and canny design effort, Kelly found space for much more.
Determined to make lemons out of lemonade, the creative mother took a total of 62 square feet and presented her family an office space, craft and mud room. With a determined mindset, Moore took small nooks in her home and revamped them. While building a separate mudroom was impossible in her rental home – making an orderly corner for the necessities was. She then applied the same organization-heavy compact design to her daughter’s closet, and her office.
Read on to hear the DIY blogger’s careful methodology and how she elevated her double digit confines to new functional heights, usable spaces.
If you could describe your design concept using 5 words what would they be?
Functional, clean, minimalist, comfortable, and organized.
Did you have to make any compromises when designing your space?
When designing my space, I didn’t want to compromise on anything. I feel like I have all the storage and functional solutions that I need. There’s no overcrowding. It works.
You have a knack for making small spaces functional. What’s your process like for designing these spaces while keeping utility in mind?
My process is always evolving. I’ll try one furniture set up and a few months later decide that I don’t like it, and I’ll move things around again. I just keep rearranging things until a find the set up that fits what we need functionally, while also being aesthetically just right.
When it comes to design, people often end up needing less space than they think they do. Have you found that to be true in your mudroom, office or craft area?
Our current home consists of an open concept dining room and living room area plus a very small eat-in kitchen. Having three bedrooms and four people leaves little space for anything “extra” like a man cave, a craft room—top of my wish list—or a designated playroom. I would obviously love some of these things. But I’ve learned how to work with what I’ve got. When dealing with space issues, you need to think outside the box.
“Use areas of your home in non-conventional ways. It’s challenging, but worth it.”(Tweet This)
Your use of neutrals on the walls and in the furniture colors gives your home fluidity and, in tight areas like your daughter’s craft room, the illusion of more space. Was that a conscious decision on your part?
Unfortunately my neutral walls are not by choice. I would love to paint my walls but since we rent, it is not allowed. When choosing furniture, I like to choose neutral colors such as white and gray. I bring color into my home with bold curtains, throw pillows and wall decor.
Were you concerned about losing storage space when you converted your daughter’s closet into a craft room? How did you overcome that problem?
Since storage space is an issue in small spaces, it may be hard to lose some of it in order to create a craft space like I did for my daughter. She has a tiny room and all of her wall space is taken up by her bed and dresser. When I realized that she had plenty of room for storage in just one side of the closet, I utilized the other side for her craft area. I made sure to raise her bed a bit to fit fabric storage bins below. Storage solutions are so easy to find these days.
What are your go to stores for home furnishings and decor?
I really love the home decor at Target and Home Goods. Pottery Barn is also a favorite of mine but way out of my budget. I browse the Pottery Barn catalog and then try to DIY my favorite items.
What’s your number one tip for solving the small space problem?
To make the best use of a small square footage, use wall space instead of floor space. Build up. Shelves or baskets on the wall are great for storage. Also, think double duty.
“You don’t always need a lot of space—just enough to fit the neccessities.”(Tweet This)
My “office” is located on a wall in my bedroom – so I put up a desk, and a hanging organizer is on its way. Keeping your supplies off your desk will make the area feel much more spacious. If wall storage is not an option, tuck baskets into cubbies or under tables, like I did in my entryway. It’s the easiest way to keep your room clean and simple.
For more design inspiration from Kelly Moore, see here blog Here Comes the Sun, here.
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