Getting the most out of a small room.
Irate Fetus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I’m moving into a new place with some friends, we’ll be splitting a 4 bedroom house and all of the bedrooms are kind of small. My room is 9x10 with the entrance in the southwest corner and a closet as well (the door opens outward) so space is at a premium. There’s a large window centered on the north wall.
I’d like to fit a full bed frame in there and a desk with enough room for two monitors, I can mount them on the wall via brackets to save space.
How do you get the most out of a small room? Where should I shop? Is IKEA generally good or is the construction kind of shoddy?
I’d like to fit a full bed frame in there and a desk with enough room for two monitors, I can mount them on the wall via brackets to save space.
How do you get the most out of a small room? Where should I shop? Is IKEA generally good or is the construction kind of shoddy?
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Room Plan
hmmmm I'd push the bed against the wall, and if you need shelving maybe do a tiny 18"W x however tall you can get shelf next to the desk. also, maybe get a set of drawers to go under your bed on the side facing the door?
Here a few space saving tips.
1) Lose the bed, I recently got rid of my double mattress on the floor and replaced it with a daybed. After that I was able to fit in a dresser next to the computer which is a real improvement. You shouldn't have any item taking more that a quarter of your room space.
2) Go the futon route. Not the collapsible sofabed thing but actual Japanese futons. That way you can fold it up and put it in your closet.
2) Get an L-Desk for the computer and push that against the corner. More surface area and it eats a useless corner
3) Opposite wall shelves, you can get away with one or two cheepy bookshelves along the wall.
4) If space permits, shelving in the closet. The idea is to maximize vertical space, and you are going to need it so you can store your futon.
That bed is not going to work in that room. If you are bent on keeping it, then make the room a "bed-room" and don't go in there unless you want to sleep. If you want your own space, bed's gotta go.
You want a twin bed. Anything larger, and you'll feel too cramped to do anything in your room. If you're set on a frame, put the bed on bed raisers, or loft it. (Lofting the bed will enable you to put the desk & screens under the full-sized bed, giving you more space.) Move the bed so it's up against your longest wall lengthwise.
Push your desk into the space against the wall left over by your desk if you haven't lofted it. The L-shape recommended by Halkun is a good idea, or a "compact computer desk," which is what fits in the program you linked to. Then bolt the screens to the walls.
That will give you roughly 5 X 10.4 feet of space on the other end of your room to work with. And even more if you loft the bed. So you can fit anything else you want. I recommend vertically oriented things, especially if you're looking into shelves.
Keep in mind, if you have people over, an unlofted bed will double as a seating area. So getting a thick blanket you don't really care about is a good way to keep your sheets/regular blankets clean. Or you could get another chair. The layout I suggest does have space for another one.
Also, keeping your walls a light color is best. It makes things seem less cramped.
Stick the bed into the corner, unless you are getting friends to stay in on a regular basis, you don't actually need access on both sides.
If possible elavate the bed, store all of your stuff under that. Elavate the bed even more would give you more stoarge again.
Use the inside of the door of your closet for more stoarage.
At the base of your closet, put in a small organiser at the base, some basic shelves and stuff, that will work as well.
Satans..... hints.....
they can make a tiny room much more usable
if not, there are some fancy murphy beds out there that put a transformer to shame:
Also putting a shelf or two over the door is a good spot when limited for space. It will make the room seem less cramped when entering compared to having the same shelf on another wall.
Have you thought about what to put on the free wall space? A big mirror can also help create a feeling of space, but if must of course work and also not put a reflection of the sun on your computer screen.
Also consider using blinds rather than curtains for the window as it takes up less space.
I picked up the cheapest bedframe that Ikea has to offer for a full bed so my brother in law could stay at our house this summer and quite honestly I thought it was going to be horrible, but it is a decent bed, and was pretty cheap to boot, I think we paid $50 for the frame, $50 for slat, and like $100 for the mattress.
It doesn't look super spectacular but for the price but it is very much functional and easy on the wallet.
edit: as was suggested getting some storage underneath your bed will help, the bedframe I bought has about 6"-10" of storage space underneath, so we generally put smaller things underneath, but you wouldn't be able to fit much under there
double edit: this is the frame I bought this summer for our guest room
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80185066/
You will want this frame.
http://m.ikea.com/aa/en/catalog/products/art/10249873/
(Sorry about the mobile link)
They aren't the greatest frames. But they could easily be worse.
Satans..... hints.....
I like the VUNTERCÖT model.
I would be terrified of that pulling the ceiling down. I went with one of these for a tiny room.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10247987/
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.