Living room makeover - photo by Wonderlane (flickr.com/photos/wonderlane)

Home design tips: Creating a spacious look for your condo

Most condominium units are limited in space, which makes this a challenge for interior designers.

Aside from space-saving storage cabinets and furniture, there are tricks to make cramped spaces look wider with the use of the right colors and materials such as glass and mirrors. For instance, bed room closets can utilize full length mirrors on its sliding doors to make a small room look more spacious while the doors just glide to the sides when accessing the clothes. It creates a classy ambiance as well, thus a combination of aesthetics and function indeed. This was what we did for the dining area of one of the condo design projects I worked on. We utilized a full-length floor-to-ceiling mirror to create an illusion of additional space.

Another tip is to use home appliances that are not bulky. If the budget permits, why not invest on a thin LCD TV instead of the usual box-type TV monitor. There are other appliances with slim designs, such as one-tub washing machines, or you can incorporate some appliances to your shelves such as the microwave oven and other kitchen gadgets to avoid clutter on the countertop.

Browsing over a wide range of home appliances online or at your favorite store, you have many choices for refrigeration, cooking, laundry, clean up, electronics and more. The latest home appliance designs are mostly contemporary and functional, so it really is up to the home owner or interior designer to choose an appliance that matches the design theme and would blend well within a limited space. With many brands of appliances in the market today, one can choose sensibly for a slim yet full-featured design.