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Helpful hints for maximizing limited space

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By Gail Borelli, McClatchy Newspapers 2:19 PM Thursday, April 2, 2009

“Small Room Decorating,” published by Country Almanac, is for regular people — folks who don’t live in 6,000-square-foot homes and don’t have $15,000 to spend on an area rug.

Although none of the photos in this magazine will wow you with its grandeur, apartment and bungalow dwellers will find plenty of ideas for ways to maximize their limited space.

Among the ideas and tips in the winter issue:

1. To add storage space, build an alcove for the bed, plus shelves on both sides.

2. Show as much floor as possible. Buy hanging lamps instead of floor lamps, remove skirts from upholstered furniture, choose glass-top tables and lift baskets off the floor.

3. Limit your room to two or three colors. The first color should cover 70 percent of the room’s surface (probably walls, ceilings and big pieces of furniture), and the second color should cover 20 percent (curtains, rugs, other pieces of furniture). A third accent color can add a pop in throws, pillows, artwork.

4. Don’t be scared to use a large piece of furniture. But place it against the wall farthest from the door so it doesn’t break up the sight lines.

5. To suggest walls in small homes with an open layout, run a thin steel cord across a room and hang panels of fabric from it. Use area rugs to define spaces. Place a console or sofa table between two areas and top it with a vase or lamp.

Or cover part of a wall with wallpaper and attach trim vertically at the edge of the paper to “end” the room.

The magazine also takes a peek inside what “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” has named the narrowest house in America. The two-story, 1830 townhouse in the Old Town section of Alexandria, Va., is only 7 feet wide and totals 350 square feet.

It’s a cutie. The owner has unified the interior with a calming gold and russet color scheme, using the same pattern pillows on the living room sofa and the bed upstairs.

To maximize storage, cupboards are built around the bedroom window, then topped with a shelf for extra storage.

Don’t be scared to use a large piece of furniture. But place it against the wall farthest from the door so it doesn’t break up the sight lines.

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