 Welcome back to my channel. It is Drew here from Lone Fox and today I have a video talking all about small apartments And I personally am one that is very very well-nerced with small apartments because I have lived in multiple small apartments I actually did have one big apartment So I can't like say I lived in them my whole life But I have been living in the Los Angeles area for about six and a half years now Which is kind of a long time and as many of you know Los Angeles is pretty expensive place to live And I lived in downtown LA for five years And then I've lived in like Hollywood area for about a year and a couple of months now The current apartment that I'm in right now, which is only about 800 square feet, which I know sounds a little bit large But it is a two-bedroom so me and my roommate both live here I have one room she has the other room and then we do share like the living room dining kitchen space Of course me and my roommate did actually share Literally like a 600 square foot studio at one point and I've actually lived with her for almost like my entire time in Los Angeles we've lived together But today I kind of just wanted to share my ten top tips if you have a smaller space to just have a very efficient a Clean a pretty and a livable space that just really represents yourself But it's also very functional and very livable at the same time I know I said that two times, but you know, that's what we're going for a livable space That's pretty and functional definitely follow me on my channel You can subscribe below if you would like to follow I post brand new DIY and home decor content every single week And you can also follow my lone fox home Instagram account on the screen and also guys Do not forget in my last video the one I posted previous to this one I'm giving away eight prizes for hitting 200,000 subscribers including $100 Amazon gift cards custom DIY projects a lot of really fun stuff So if you have not seen that video yet I'll put a card somewhere up on the screen above for you guys and also I will link it in the description box below because you Need to take a check at that one. Okay, but enough rambling on let's get into these ten hacks If you have a small space and you want to make it feel bigger look bigger those sound dirty But let's just get into this I'm going in full force with the first one because this is probably my biggest tip for someone that has a small apartment And that is to elevate your bed. I was in college. I learned that I got bed risers under my bed I was able to store so much under your bed Your bed is an area where you can literally put whatever junk you under there and nobody's going to see it Especially if you have like either a bed skirt or just a really long duvet that covers it But the reason for this is that you can put either bed risers or just get a bed that is elevated I personally have a platform bed So my bed kind of just goes up like this and then back down and also keep in mind that if you don't have something like that You can get bed risers which give you an instant like eight inches of additional space under your bed This is a great space for storing anything like suitcases luggage and keep in mind if you do store suitcases under your bed You can also put more junk in them Throw it in a suitcase and put it under your bed because no one knows where to put a suitcase in a small apartment The under bed space is very very key when you have a small space get it off the floor and organize underneath Now what we want to do is build upwards and what does that mean exactly that is to use your vertical space to your advantage So as you can see behind me, I have a really large gallery wall This isn't very a key for every single small apartment But I do have space for a gallery wall in my personal apartment first What that does is when you walk into someone's space instantly it draws your eye from the floor to the ceiling because there's a Lot of stuff to look at and it makes your apartment just appear a lot bigger in my own bedroom I actually have a full IKEA shelving system in front of my bed and I use this space to my advantage to store a lot of my Decorative accessories and a lot of stuff now mine exactly isn't super super organized or clean kind of have a lot more stuff than the Typical person would that's living in their space because I don't have a storage room or an office to put all these additional items in So I like to keep these for styling purposes But building upwards definitely maximizes the amount that you can put on your walls You can have organizational systems on your walls wall shelves to hold additional things like books decor Nicknacks bits and bobs whatever you want to put on those think about how you can use the space above your TV What can you put up there? What can you use a space above the door for what can you use a space above your kitchen cabinets for? There's lots of room for using the space upwards that you might not think about You're out purchasing furniture if you do have furniture try to think about getting a more lighter toned furniture as opposed to darker furniture Because what that does in the space is it instantly brightens it up and actually bounces color and reflects it off of Furniture pieces that are brighter from the actual daylight and then it kind of bounces off the wall And it gives you a whole little bright environment to my first apartment with my roommate We really wanted to maximize the seating area because we always have people over but it was also very dark So we actually got three white leather couches which at the time were not the cutest but on a college budget You know those were okay, and they actually added a little bit more life to the apartment and the space because when you Do have darker furniture it tends to sort of absorb light and make your space look a little bit more dreary and Drab if you do not have a lot of natural light to start with when you're in need for a new Couch think about getting a lighter color as opposed to a darker one if you are in a smaller space situation This first one kind of goes back to last one about reflecting light And that is just to put mirrors in your space mirrors are amazing having reflective elements Definitely give a lot more light to your space as well mirrors bounce back light everywhere So when you do have a lot of them in a smaller space you get a little bit more of a brighter environment I personally just think mirrors open up a space so much more and they make it appear a lot bigger I don't know if you guys have walked into like a restaurant before or a store before Where that whole back wall is mirrors and you're like wow the stores humongous and then you end up walking to the mirror And you're like wow this is actually just a mirror I've done that so many times and you can do that with your space as well So having a really really large like Ikea floor mirror on one wall even just a wall mirror is great to have on the wall So a circular wall mirror. I think that adds a nice little kind of round element to a space Halfway through at number five, but we are talking about keeping your space alive This is one that not all of us are great at because I personally do not have a green thumb I actually did keep a fiddle leaf like alive for two years, which I do applaud myself on I don't have a green thumb so I do actually have quite a few faux plants hence this one right here Plants are your best friend. I think they can definitely just liven up a space instantly You can see the most dreary little like small living room in the world But if they have a whole ton of plants in there and you can have as many plants as you want in your apartment I just find plants that have a very pleasing effect on myself And I know a lot of you guys love plants as well And I think in a smaller space whether it be your bedroom your bathroom Bathrooms are a great place for plants and there are a lot of indoor plants that actually don't need to survive with a lot of light So you can look into those Clutter is not your best friend if you live in a smaller environment because what this does is just gonna make your space feel jam packed I feel like we can all definitely kind of sense this if you have a cluttered space If your coffee table is all completely cluttered if your console is cluttered if your desktop table Whatever it might be that you have in your small space your bed people clutter everything these days You know it just happens. I can say that I have done this before as well I've definitely learned to kind of start putting my things away as I go and trying to conceal them and just keep things off The top of surfaces as opposed to just like really cluttering my desk I used to do that all the time and have literally everything in the world on top of there including mail bills tax information Pencils pins staplers all that form of stuff now It's all in drawers and I try to conceal it and just keep my desktop nice and clean And so try to keep things a little less cluttered put things away storm and boxes Baskets wherever you can put them organization systems underneath your bed as we talked about prior so Now sometimes in smaller spaces, especially in like studio apartments, which I've had experience with in the past It's hard to kind of designate areas to specific things. So when you're in these spaces I definitely think breaking areas up either with pieces of furniture or rugs is a great way to sort of Symbolize different areas in your space. So in my living room I actually have a really large rug because in my space there is almost sort of a dining room and living room combined It's just a little bit of a section So what I did was I actually placed a really large 8 by 10 rug on the floor Which sort of grounds in the living room space and it has all the seating areas on top of it And kind of just shows you that this is the living room and then this is a dining room over here Where the table is and I kind of wallpapered that wall to section that off as well So if you are living with roommates in a smaller apartment You can section off areas to kind of give yourselves your very own spaces and to design what you like And what you want to be living in and just kind of what makes you feel happy in the end of the day so This one's just like a little miniature tip and that is to keep extra seating under your coffee table or under a console And not even extra seating you can also keep baskets with like books or blankets Or additional storage under consoles or under coffee tables You can maximize by layering which I think is definitely Amazing in smaller spaces because if you do have a coffee table in my personal apartment I have a coffee table. I actually have two additional floor pillows underneath the coffee table and a poof underneath the coffee table So that just instantly adds three more seats around the coffee table and on top of it I think it looks really cute having a layered coffee table look I can even probably add a basket to the other side Let's say you had a console in the corner by your door when you walked in or maybe you had a console with your TV on it There's a large space underneath it Um, if there's like a big gap between the legs and the floor or if it's just like a console That's like a long leg with a tabletop think about really utilizing that space underneath it and putting baskets Or additional storage means underneath those items just because it's going to give you a little bit more to work with Moving into tip number nine and this is just to use Organizational items for maybe purposes they weren't meant for in the beginning So a lot of places when you go to them, they have different organizational sections So there's kitchen organization here and then there's bathroom organization here or the office organization here Check all of those spaces out and you can utilize different organizational means for different spaces in your room I actually have right here, which you guys cannot see a blanket stand This is actually a bathroom caddy from urban outfitters a long time ago I got this and I've utilized it in a bathroom in my bedroom And also now in my living rooms if you're shopping online or if you're shopping in store Definitely check out every section of organization because you can find stuff that you never knew you needed Find organization that you maybe never thought could apply That was a bathroom organization that you can now use in your bedroom or you can use in the living room And then the last tip just adds life to the space This is number 10 and that is to add texture I think this is really really key for anybody that has a smaller space because sometimes it can feel very flat I mean, I think that a great way to add texture is with your furniture and your textiles your pillows But as you can see here, I have a really nice macrame pillow that has a whole ton of texture in it I also have a leather couch which adds another form of texture. I have a braided woven rug on the floor I have a marble coffee table I have a vintage wood box on top of the marble coffee table and then on top of that I have a shearling chair over here So instantly adding more textures to your space just gives it a more cozy environment Which is very inviting and it's very warm and it's livable like we all want that in our space We don't want a cold space, you know So if your space is super small already You might as well make it just feel super cozy because a smaller space is easier to make feel cozy as opposed to a larger space Okay, guys So I feel like that was a huge mouthful and I hope that that can help you out if you do have a smaller space These are tips I've been coming up with over the past couple of days And I've been asking my friends and family members if they thought that these were great as well And me and my roommate kind of just sat down and talked about these as well because these are definitely tips We have applied to our apartment Um, maybe not all of them in this current apartment But they are tips we've applied to past apartments and they are tips that we are going to apply to future apartments So I hope that you guys did enjoy this video Don't forget to check out my last video Which I did which has that 200,000 subscriber giveaway in it because you are not going to want to miss out on that And don't forget to also subscribe to my channel for brand new home decor and diy content every single week I'm sure there's something you could find on my channel that you're going to like and without further ado I think I will catch you guys all in the next one. Have an amazing day Give this video a thumbs up and let me know which tip with your favorite in the comment section below That was a lot and I'll let you go now for that. So have an amazing day. Bye guys