Do you live in a small apartment? Do you know there are several ways to make your apartment look more comfortable and inviting? First of all, you must check out the way the light from the windows reflects in the rooms at different times of the day. Arrange your furniture according to the light so that you do not blind someone visiting you. Another thing to look at will be the color of your furniture. Some colors can make your room look smaller and cold whereas some colors make it comfortable and cozy. These are warm colors such as; brown, red, yellow or orange. You can use rugs if you are not allowed to paint. Also you can use sofa covers to add color to your room while at the same time saving wear and tear on your furniture.

What you should also take into consideration when choosing a color is cleaning; you should choose something easy to clean, like brown or gray. White is never a good idea unless you plan on never living in your home! Small furniture is best with a small living room, like a love seat or futon couch which can also converted into a bed in a single room apartment. If you don't want to get rid of your current bed for budget reasons you can try a bed that looks like a bunk bed but without the lower bunk. You can store your stuff under the bunk and enclose it with a curtain so that no one can see your unmade bed up top, which can be very useful for bachelors.

Decorative screens can make a room look like there are two or more rooms. Curtains should allow the light in so that the room looks bigger. You can use a small bistro table as a dining table which is intimate and a great coffee talk spot. You should never let your clothes or laundry lay around because it makes your apartment look cluttered and small. Another way to make your apartment look bigger is plants, hanging from the ceiling or on the walls. Mirrors also make your room look larger; use a focal point and angle your mirrors towards it, which will give the illusion of depth.

Another trick is to have some storage, like little decorative boxes to keep your things in, so that they don't lie around. If you have a lot of magazines, get yourself a magazine holder and put all your magazines in it. Get yourself a footrest with storage in it or a coffee table with storage underneath, to throw the things lying around in when you have a surprise guest. Make yourself some wall shelves to get rid of the tabletop mess, put your collectibles also on these shelves and enjoy all the free space you have created for yourself. The best part is you can do all these by yourself without spending too much money.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Interior Design