The first apartment rhymes often with small space and therefore need to optimize the maximum square meters through many landscaping tips. So how to go about it and who to call? The interior designer Cyril Rheims and Valérie Laporte-Volatier of the agency The walls have ears, two professionals and regulars small areas give you their advice to arrange your first apartment without losing a crumb of space.
That’s it, you’re independent, here you are in your first apartment and you walk in decoration shops to shape your home according to your desires … Bad idea! Before you rush, make sure to adapt your needs according to your budget and available space. Optimizing the space is one of the essential rules for the development of a first apartment. And the solution is hidden in many tricks such as smart storage or furniture-saving space. Discover all the other tips …
Tip # 1: Define your needs for your first apartment
Our pro-Valerie Laporte-Volatier recommends it! Before any purchase or signature of the lease, it is important to take measurements of your future apartment. Do not hesitate to make a freehand plan if your budget does not allow you to call on an architect and define your needs to think about the function of each space (sleeping area, dinner, work …). The interior decorator also advises you to offload the superfluous upstream and avoid the overflow of recovery to not clutter more than necessary during the move!
Tip # 2: Care for separations between spaces
Having a small space quickly shows the difficulty of arranging the areas correctly while saving a maximum of surface area. For Cyril Rheims, the separation of places of life without wall must be done in such a way that one can see until the other end of the housing. The interior designer recommends playing with transparency or even semi-transparency through cathedral glass that lets the eye pass while leaving a blur and a certain intimacy. In order to be able to separate the different areas of life, delimitation can also be played out in the rupture of two soils of different materials. Concrete or tiling, very often used in apartments located in the South of France, bring a certain freshness to the interiors. The parquet floor, more present in Parisian apartments, is acclaimed for his contribution heat.
More skeptical about the destruction of partitions, our pro-Valerie Laporte-Volatier tends to keep them and use them as furniture and shelves supports, thus freeing up space on the ground.
Tip # 3: Choosing the right furniture for your first layout
The cupboards are undoubtedly the essential basis for good management. Playing with the two in one furniture, the integrated furniture and multiplying the storage solutions are unanimous of our two pros the best advice they can lavish on you to maximize your first apartment. But be careful not to accumulate the furniture, but rather the functions. Cyril Rheims reveals his favorite tip: the wooden cube size 40 x 40 cm, the height of a seat. This type of furniture not only allows to create storage volume but can be used as a coffee table or footstool to exploit the height of the walls. The coffee table and small table are two furniture recommended by our pro because many functions available to them.
Valérie Laporte-Volatier, she prefers to promote storage for clothes, dishes, books and even the administrative, by installing a dressing/closet that will exploit the height of the room, while allowing to store many things and why not “add a column to hide appliances and household products,” she says. A real rationalization of space.
Tip # 4: Treat yourself to a comfortable night space in your first apartment
Sleep is a significant element in the comfort of life of an individual. It is entirely in our interest to offer a comfortable night space, to rest and to be able to breathe a little. But how to organize a room in a small space without having the impression of being in a bunk? Cyril Rheims very often adopts in his achievements the hidden bed under podium or the bed-closet two in one and easily manageable to a finger. This solution is very trendy but also very expensive!
Valérie Laporte-Volatier strongly discourages us the retractable beds, very expensive too, which rise to the ceiling and give a feeling of choking unpleasant once reassembled. It pushes the first tenants or buyers to turn more towards multifunctional solutions like the sofa bed.
Tip # 5: Why not opt for a platform in your first apartment?
You will fall under the charm of the platform as much for its aesthetic as functional. Big storage trick, Cyril Rheims is a fan of most of his achievements because it is very convenient to hide a bed or additional storage (we can never get enough). Above, a space dedicated to work with a corner office can even slip there.
Tips # 6: Bring color to the white walls of your first apartment
Known to give an impression of grandeur, clear or even white walls will enlarge and illuminate your interior. The colorful note, according to Cyril Rheims, must be provided by the furniture and decorative accessories that adorn these walls, because “a room too colorful can quickly hit the system”. Our second pro, Valérie Laporte-Volatier, leans more towards a wallpaper or a colored wall to style the interiors.
Tip # 7: Let the light in your first apartment
As the apartments are mostly single-oriented, it is, therefore, favorable to work with natural light to obtain an enlarged and bright space, thanks to a workshop wall for example. According to our two pros, the luminous points brought by artificial lights are to multiply and are quite suitable to obtain the same results as the external light. The good plan for a small apartment according to Cyril Rheims is the dimmer switch that can change the atmosphere at your leisure. The trick of Valérie Laporte-Volatier is the appliques with exposed wires or less expensive lights such as under furniture lights!
Tip # 8: opt for smart home appliances to equip your first apartment
Once again, the two in one is your faithful friend in the layout of your first apartment. There are, for example, compact washing machines of around 30 cm in thickness, which can be fully integrated into a kitchen unit consisting of a hotplate or a dishwasher, which, according to Cyril Rheims, are necessary equipment. a good first move.
The tailor-made: the ultimate trick to arrange your first apartment
The last tip of our pro (if your budget allows) is to dare the custom. The custom furniture allows you to fully fill your surface without losing a centimeter crumb. Much more expensive than a standard furniture, it knows how to adapt to any place of your room to gain space vis-a-vis and bring you solutions of tidying up which will facilitate your first flight.
Valerie Laporte-Volatier specifies that it is preferable to be the owner before carrying out made-to-measure furniture works. However, if you are a tenant, the good trick is to make a deal with the owner to negotiate a lower rent against the installation of this type of furniture. Both parties are winners: one sees his rent down and the other finds his apartment cleverly arranged for his tenant and the following.
Thank you to Cyril Rheims and Valerie Laporte-Volatier of the agency The Wall have Ears for their advice.
Source: cotemaison