How to Design Small Rooms

City living usually means small rooms and spaces. That does not mean your place needs to look like a dorm. Jennifer Adams, shows us how one New Yorker turned her small rooms into a showplace.

Host: City living usually means small cramped up rooms and spaces but that doesn’t mean that your place has to look like a dorm room. Top designer Jennifer Adams shows us how one New York interior designer turned her small rooms into a show place. Jennifer: We have a very special treat today. We’re with the exclusive interior designer Patricia Felton in her own New York apartment. She’s done an amazing job with a small space and having several different functions in each room, we can all learn a lot from her. Thank you Patty for having us in your house. Patricia: You’re quite welcome. Jennifer: So tell me about this living room in particular, I noticed you have a seating area over there, over here, over there, what do you use this room for? Patricia: We use it for company. It will seat a lot of people and people don’t have to be talking to one big room. They’re definite separate seating areas so if people want to go and talk in the back, two people by themselves in the back, they can or people sitting around and having hors d’oeuvres on this table before dinner, it’s easy to do and there still can be people in the back having their own conversation. Jennifer: Let’s go into your dining room. You’re dining room cannot be any larger than like 8x9 yet it seems like you have a lot of function in this space. What did you do to design the space? Patricia: I bought an old table that has the capacity to put leaves in it so I could actually in this very small room seat 8 or 10 people. I did build these cabinets on either side to house my silver and my dishes so I don’t have to go into the kitchen, it’s all right here. Jennifer: I love your guest bedroom. I’ve never seen a guest bedroom that has so many purposes in one space. Patricia: It’s also my office. Jennifer: Wow, it looks like it’s a whole seating area where you can have cocktails or tea. Patricia: I could do all of those things. But it this is functioning one night, it’s a guest bedroom, this daybed is actually a mattress and people sleep on it. and the bathroom is right at the door so it does function as a bedroom. Jennifer: Shower curtains can be tricky for people you want to be creative and you took a space that you used and you functioned to take showers everyday and it looks like the powder bath, I love what you did with the crown molding detail. What a great master bedroom. On your bed you did a good use of using several different fabrics but still have it feel calming because you matched the background tones from this fabric to that fabric and you even have a real dominant pattern here. But all the background tones match so it’s very successful. Patricia: This is my favorite piece in the apartment. It’s a very old mirror and it increases the space, the appearance of the space in this very little entry and it gives a significant amount of drama to the room. This is our bar room. Jennifer: It’s a great use of space. The area between the entry and the living room. You’ve done such a magnificent job with your apartment and we’ve learned so much. Thank you so much for having us Patty. Patricia: Thank you. Host: Thanks a lot Jen and if you want to get more great decorating ideas from Jen, make sure to check out her blog, it’s at bettertv.com.