A small house is not always an inferior option, and it may even be a better investment for many. You will have to pay less in rent/mortgage, property tax, and maintenance, which all adds up to a significant amount at some point down the line. Therefore, unless you have a huge family or a tiny house, you are far better off than you may have imagined.
Where small house owners do end up making a mistake, however, is in organization and planning. The one disadvantage with smaller homes is that if you do get something wrong while planning and decorating, the mistake will look and feel magnified. Be intelligent and implement the home improvement ideas we have for you to get the most out of the space you have.
Intelligent Storage to Clean Up Clutter
Nothing makes a small space look smaller than clutter. If you have dishes piling up in the kitchen, clothing scattered about in the bedroom, and too much furniture in the living room, you need a storage upgrade. Consider the following intelligent, little tricks suggested by top designers like Benjamin from Benjamin Rugs And Furniture to keep your rooms as clean and organized as possible:
- Rotating cupboards can provide vast storage space concerning the small amount of floor space they take up.
- Transparent wall shelves utilize space and look gorgeous in the process.
- Beds can become storage space by adding a drawer below them.
- If the structure can support it, you can add a lot of concealed storage that utilizes the space outside the external walls.
Use Clever Lighting and Matching Colors to Make Everything Look More Spacious
A small home should feel cozy, not cramped, and that’s precisely why getting the lighting and wall colors right is so important. Bright illumination and lighter shades on the wall are ideal for achieving that effect, so choose white, off-white, cream, beige, and other lighter shades that reflect light off of them.
As far as lighting is concerned, keep the few tips below in mind.
- Maximize natural light by installing large, sun-facing windows.
- Mirrors on the opposing walls of those windows can make the room look even more sophisticated.
- Use small, numerous lighting sources that can be turned on/off individually to provide the illusion of a larger space.
- Dimmer switches let you control the luminosity to save power and match the mood with greater control.
Maximize Natural Light and Improve Insulation with Double Glazed Windows
Those big window cutouts on your small house are quite an efficient way to make use of the sun for lighting and heat during winter. On the other hand, if you live in a state like California, that extra sunlight through the extra-large windows can make it unbearably hot when the summer months arrive.
The cooling costs will go through the roof, even with blinds drawn. Therefore, double glazed windows are an ideal option to make large windows even more useful in houses of any size. To get a better idea of how that works, go through the following points:
- There are two panes of glass, separated by a vacuum or neutral gas.
- The vacuum or neutral gas does not allow conduction to occur between the two sheets of glass.
- This translates to ideal insulation; sunlight keeps your room looking bright, but the outside heat cannot affect the indoor temperatures.
- Electricity bills are lowered, and the life of your HVAC system is extended.
- During winter, the same lack of conduction through those large window panes keeps the heat in and cold out.
A Smaller Roof is More Cost-Efficient for Solar Roofing
Houses of any size can benefit from solar roofing, but as far as cost efficiency is concerned, getting a solar roof installed on your next home improvement project is going to be more cost-efficient if the property is a small one. A brief look through the points below should help in understanding how that’s true:
- A smaller house will inevitably require less energy.
- In cities like Sacramento, where sunshine is plenty, even a small grid can produce a lot of solar energy.
- Therefore, even a small rooftop solar panel installation would be sufficient.
- Small grids cost less to put in, making the payback time much shorter.
- Down the line, small properties can become completely self-reliant for energy needs.
- Smaller homes also have a higher chance of producing excess solar energy.
- You can store or sell the excess energy to the city grids.
You can find out more here on the Semper Solaris website, as they will give you an estimation regarding how much it would cost to get a small solar panel installation in Sacramento. A consultation and inspection visit from the solar Sacramento company officials will be enough for them to tell you exactly what will be needed, based on the size, location, and power consumption habits of your home.
Efficient Appliance Selection and Placement
Selecting the right kind of appliances, furniture, and electronics is crucial to making a small home look gorgeous and feel spacious. For example, you can buy that giant screen TV that you always wanted, but select a model that is ultra-thin and can be wall-mounted with minimal separation between the wall and the back of the TV. Wall mount a surround sound system and put a couch/pull out bed in front of the flatscreen to enjoy a home-theatre experience with your family and friends.
That convertible couch will also prove to be exceptionally useful when you have guests over, but not a guest room to spare. Turn the sofa into a bed and the living room into a temporary guest room, without having to put in any extra effort.
Choose everything from your refrigerator to the dining table carefully, so that they take up only the minimum amount of space. Foldables are the way to go for furniture because they can necessarily be as big or as small as you need them to be. Electronics, on the other hand, should be slim and slick, but only as long as they do not sacrifice the purpose which they are supposed to serve in the first place, of course.
External Décor Ideas for the Yard
If the house is small, it would be natural for the yard space not to be unusually significant either. However, that also means less yard work! To maximize your external property, irrespective of how small it might be, consider the following ideas:
- Add flowering, small shrubs along the pathway.
- Choose to plant just one or two large trees, but ensure that they are at a sufficient distance from the house.
- To prevent a branch breaking, falling, and destroying the roof after a storm, don’t opt for trees if the gap can’t be maintained.
- Opt for small trees around the house to create a safe, lush, and natural boundary.
- Hang beautiful potted plants on your porch for added greenery.
- Keep your gardening patches small and restricted to keep the yard looking tidy.
There is practically almost nothing you need to sacrifice just because you have a small house, if only you are smart with the design, layout and everything else that goes in and out of your property, right from the beginning. Hopefully, these tips will help you improve, redecorate, and renovate your tiny house into a spacious and cozy little home.
