A small apartment that feels massive

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Apartamento pequeno, Carolina Mendonça Projetos de Arquitetura e Interiores LTDA Carolina Mendonça Projetos de Arquitetura e Interiores LTDA Modern Living Room
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In this day and age, city living is becoming more and more popular. More people are migrating into apartments for many different reasons, whether it's cheaper rent, better location, or that there's less cleaning involved. However, apartments seem to be getting smaller and smaller without a change in price. This just forces people to become more creative with their spaces and the results are stunning.

This small apartment is located in the Barra de Tijuca area of Rio de Janeiro and is a tiny 463 ft². But the architect, Carolina Mendonça, did an amazing job of making this small apartment look a lot bigger than it is. She has utilized the color white throughout the entire space to give the room a brighter and more of an open feel, thus creating the sense of expansiveness.

An open concept

Rather than block off rooms with walls and make the space feel even smaller, this apartment uses an open-floor plan for the living room and dining area. Connecting the two spaces as well as the large wall of mirrors gives the illusion of a bigger room. The dining table, which is made of glass, seats four. A glass table allows the room to feel bigger without being cluttered. The use of white in this space is great because it gives the room a sense of openness and feels much brighter. The light flows in the from the large window in the living area and brightens up the entire space.

Bright and cozy

This living area is cute and cozy. The sofa is a light beige which follows the neutral color palette of the rest of the home. The sofa is also positioned in front of the TV and storage unit, with no coffee table in between. This frees up the space to go out to the balcony and doesn't clutter up the room. The TV unit follows the white color scheme with a bit of light wood thrown in to give the space more dimension without being too much of a stark contrast. The TV unit also has an abundance of cabinets and shelves to store things that you might usually keep on a coffee table, therefore nixing the need for one. 

The mini bar

No matter how small your home is, there is always space for a mini bar. Whether you use it for wines, liquors, or coffee, this little hutch is great! The hutch features a lot of storage space which is great to hide away dishes, fancy china, more beverages or anything else you don't want seen. The most important thing to keep in mind with small spaces is that less is more! The more items you have around the smaller the space feels and the more cluttered it looks. Keeping things behind closed doors makes the room feel more open and spacious!

A dark constrast

While the rest of the apartment is white, the kitchen poses a bold contrast with its black features. This small kitchen features all the necessities you would find in a larger kitchen: a large oven, a microwave, a large fridge, and gas stove range. The silver handles on the cabinets offer a break from the black while also tying them in with the stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. The black tile backsplash also features bright white grout, making each individual tile pop against the all black features. Though the kitchen may be small, every aspect of this space is utilized to its fullest extent and the use of the color black doesn't make the space feel small at all.

Mirror, mirror on the walls

This bedroom is quite spacious for such a small apartment. It's made even bigger by the use of mirrors along the entirety of the wall behind the bed, as we saw in the dining room area. The mirror instantly makes the room feel a lot bigger than it is and reflects the abundant sunlight coming through the large window. The bed itself is fairly simple but looks very comfortable with luxurious white bed sheets. The use of light hardwood for the headboard and the wall opposite the bed provide a contrast to the white without straying too far from the bright color scheme. 

The perfect sized bathroom

Usually small apartments have very cramped bathrooms, but this home doesn't! This master bathroom features a white floating vanity with one sink, rather than two, allowing for more space on either side as well as underneath. The large mirror cabinet does well in reflecting the space to make it feel bigger while also providing extra storage space. The toilet and shower area are kept separate, which is a great idea in small apartments so one person can use the sink while another is using the other area. The shower area features simple white tile with a wooden tile floor, matching the wood in the rest of the bathroom, unifying the spaces and keeping with the theme of the bedroom.

Do you have a small apartment? Check this small space out for some inspiration!

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