How to Furnish a Small Bedroom and Make it Useful

Adding furniture to a small room is a real challenge. The more you pieces you add, the smaller the room feels. Yet many of us have a small third or fourth bedroom we'd love to put to use, especially when we have an unexpected extra guest to accommodate.

The first thing to do is remove everything from the room. It's essential to get a feel for the actual amount of space you have to play with. Measure the dimensions of the room, and create an accurate plan on a sheet of graph paper. This will prove exceptionally useful, especially if you're buying new pieces to furnish the room.

Make plenty of copies of your plan, so you can try different layout ideas and compare them side by side. This approach is the best way to get a feel what will and won't work in the room before you start spending money.

The first key to making a small room useful, is to ensure nothing blocks the entrance. A clear path from the far end of the room to the door creates the illusion of more space by emphasizing the length (or width) of the room.

If you're changing the color of the walls, floors, ceiling and curtains, stick with light tones. These help 'open' up the room, and provide a sense of space. This is especially true for the ceiling. A dark ceiling can feel like it's pressing down on you.

When selecting furniture, go for similar colors. This is one case where you want items to blend, rather than stand out. Once again, by blending colors you reinforce the illusion of space.

If the room doesn't have a lot of natural light, look at other ways to introduce brighter lighting. Perhaps a skylight, or additional lighting on the walls and ceiling. Natural light works best in terms of giving a sense of space.

The bed is likely to occupy the greatest amount of floorspace. As this is a small room, stick with a single bed. That way, you need only supply one bedside table. Many furniture stores now supply very small bedside tables, with shelving rather than draws. This makes far better use of the vertical height available, as you can stack items. For example, you might place a bedside lamp on the top shelf, a small clock on the second, and leave the third and fourth shelves free for the guest's book, watch, rings and other personal items.

If the room is especially small, and contains a closet you access frequently, consider installing a one-person sofa bed. During the day it's a single-seater sofa, and easily unfolds to a comfy single bed ready to house an extra guest at the last minute. The advantage here, is the bed doesn't dominate the room when it's not in use.

If the room doesn't have a built-in wardrobe, only consider adding a free-standing unit if it genuinely fits on your floor plan. Ideally, a wardrobe can do two jobs (just like the single-sleeper sofa bed) and earn the space it occupies. For example, you might use it to hold some of your winter clothes during the summer, and stack boxes or suitcases on top.

It's worth looking out for a furniture bundle. You'll get a small wardrobe, dresser, bed and bedside table bundled together, in the same style and color, and for a discounted price.

Always remember to take your floor plan with you, and measure the items in the store so you can be sure they'll fit in the space available.