Make a One-Bedroom Feel Luxurious – Westminster-Canterbury

If you’ve been living in the same home for years, or even decades, chances are good it doesn’t fit your current lifestyle. Especially if you’re now having to take the time to clean and maintain more space than you use. While there are many benefits to downsizing, one of the biggest drawbacks of moving to a space with less square footage is that it can feel small. This blog post will show you how moving to a senior apartment in a community like Westerminster-Canterbury can actually provide you more opportunities to enjoy life, and how to decorate a one-bedroom apartment so it feels bigger.

Get More with Less

By matching your living space to your current lifestyle, you could see several benefits, including:

• Lower cost of living: The smaller your new space, the more quickly you’ll start saving money on expenses like heating and electricity.
• Less maintenance: Cleaning and maintaining a big living space can be difficult. At Westminster-Canterbury, we’ll take care of everything, including repairs to appliances, heating, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical. Plus, we offer dining and housekeeping.  
• More socializing: Once the maintenance is taken care of, you’ll be able to pursue your hobbies and interests. We offer a calendar full of fitness and wellness classes, clubs, committees, happy hours and social outings. Plus, the beach is right outside.

How to Decorate a One-Bedroom Apartment for Maximum Appeal

Decorating small spaces requires a bit of forethought. Here are some decorating tips for apartment decor and how to lay out a small apartment to feel bigger:

Design 

• Organize: To keep your space clean and organized, have a designated place for everything you own.
• Declutter: The fewer belongings you have, the larger your space will look. Before you dive into the layout and design of your apartment, start by purging unnecessary items.
• Reflect: Mirrors can help create a greater sense of openness by tricking the eye into perceiving more space. Plus they reflect natural light, making a room brighter.
• Open up: Letting in as much natural light as possible will help your space feel bigger, so where possible, eliminate  curtains. If you want privacy, hang curtains made of lightweight material to let in sunlight. Also, use a curtain rod that extends far beyond the window frame so you can push back the curtains to expose the entire window.
• Lighten up: Using light-colored wall paint like beige, ivory, taupe or light gray will keep your space from looking cramped. You can then add an accent wall or statement pieces to draw the eye.

Furniture

• Simplify: Where possible, eliminate unneeded furniture. Extra pieces like nightstands, coffee tables and side tables can make a room feel crowded. 
• Focus: A bold bedspread, funky couch, potted plants or an interesting light fixture can spice up your apartment and provide a focus point without overwhelming it.
• Scale it down: If a piece of furniture takes up most of a wall or reaches from floor to ceiling, it’s too large. To create a sense of roominess, always leave a space between the edges of your furniture and the walls.
• Go low: Furniture that’s lower to the ground creates a feeling of openness because it leaves more space above it.
• Show leg: Furniture with exposed legs allows light to pass underneath, keeping the room from feeling tight or cluttered.
• Add storage: To help with storage in your smaller space, consider multipurpose pieces like bed frames with built-in storage, or benches and ottomans that open up.

Layout

• Think flow: It doesn’t take a lot of furniture to fill a small space. But if you bump into things while walking through, it can actually make the space feel smaller. Think of the path you’ll take when walking through the room and try to keep the path as open as possible.
• Cluster: Another decorating idea to make your area feel larger is to keep as much floor space open as possible by arranging furniture to one side.

A Larger World Awaits You

Just imagine what you can do if you free yourself from responsibilities for home maintenance, cooking and cleaning. You’ll  be able to explore a whole world of social opportunities, classes and clubs, right outside your door. If you want to learn more about the active, beachfront lifestyle at Westminster-Canterbury or see our one-bedroom apartments and featured housing for yourself, contact us today.