How to Decorate a Small Bedroom: 15 Space-Saving Ideas That Really Work

Decorating a small bedroom can feel like piecing together a puzzle. However, with the right approach, even the most compact spaces can be transformed into stylish, functional, and organized havens.

Whether you’re working with a studio, a tiny box room, or a shared area, these clever hacks for small bedrooms will help you make the most of every inch.

From foldable furniture and mirrored walls to smart storage solutions and vertical shelving, here’s how to craft the bedroom of your dreams—even when you’re dealing with limited space.

📷 The White Honey Home

Best Ways to Save Space in a Small Bedroom

Spacious homes come at a premium these days, and everyone wants in. We want light, airy rooms with clean lines and space for all our things, but it doesn’t always work out like that. So, we have to be crafty and clever in the way we decorate and use the room we have. Here are a few useful tips on saving and creating the illusion of space:

Use Mirrors to Make Your Small Bedroom Feel Bigger

This is probably the oldest trick in the book. You’ll find that placing a mirror opposite or near a window will reflect more light to shadowed places. This brightens the room, making it feel bigger.

📷 Molly Madfis

Mirrors can be used to resize the outdoor space too. Position one in your living room so you can see the garden – this creates the illusion that your room is bigger and brighter.

📷 Monica Awe-Etuk

Or you could always go with the classic mirror wall – they’re great at reflecting a range of spaces. But be careful, if you have a cluttered room you may end up seeing more mess and the room will feel smaller.

Choose Multi-Use Furniture to Maximize Storage and Function

📷 Lauren Bumgardner

You can find many innovative storage solutions in furniture shops these days. So, look for coffee tables that double up as a blanket or pillow store. Purchase wardrobes with hooks on the inside door and ottoman beds (more on those later). Or choose a sofa which turns into a bed for guests.

Use Floating Shelves and Vertical Storage to Save Floor Space

📷 Laura Sandoval

If you’re stuck for cupboard space, you can find loads of storage savers like racks that give you extra shelves and keep your plates organized.

📷 Laura Wo

Floating shelves are excellent too. You’re not confined to a structure that needs to floor, and you can place them as high or low as you like.

There’s one key thing you can do to give yourself more space though, and that’s decluttering. This doesn’t always mean throwing things away – sometimes it means placing things in storage boxes and keeping surfaces clear. But you should regularly check use-by dates on items, donate unneeded things and just tidy up after yourself. As the inimitable Marie Kondo says,

“Tidy your space, transform your life.”

Space-Saving Bedroom Hacks That Actually Work

📷 Hanna

The main thing a bedroom needs is a bed. So, when you have a small bedroom with limited space, you need to choose the right, smart frame. We’ve mentioned these already but we think ottoman bed frames are the ideal choice for the space-challenged.

📷 Dreams

In addition to being convenient with their cool hydraulic lifting mechanism and mountains of storage underneath, they’re totally stylish too. They can be super swish and affordable, so don’t think you have to sacrifice style for substance. What’s more, they often look like classic divan beds, so your things are kept hidden and safe too.

Creative and Unexpected Space-Saving Hacks for Small Bedrooms

You’ll be able to find hundreds of other ideas for bedroom space-saving, but here’s a breakdown of our fave ideas:

📷 John Lewis & Partners

For the fashion-lovers out there with more clothes than space, consider investing in some space-saving hangers, which allow you to hang four items from one hook - helping you use all the room in your wardrobe from top to bottom.

📷 Viktoria Dahlberg

Over-the-door storage is particularly useful in bedrooms where you may have more bags, shoes, or accessories. You can get reasonable over-the-door shoe organizers from most home living stores, or you could purchase some multi-purpose hooks and rails to personalize your door storage.

📷 Brianne Penney

Drawer organizers are life-savers too. They’ll keep your clothes and accessories in their place, and make sorting and finding things easy as pie.

We’ve already mentioned multipurpose furniture, but hideaway and fold-out furniture is a gamechanger. The most underused space is vertical space, so why not consider installing a fold-down, wall-mounted table? These babies are a marvel and make the perfect desk for smaller rooms.

📷 Kate Chipinski (Rug: Ruggable)

Hanging things off the wall is the ultimate way to keep your floor clear and your room looking bigger. Above is a rack in which blankets are hung on, not only a cozy feature but also saves space.

📷 Holly

If you must use floor space, try to get two-for-one items like corner and end-of-bed benches. These create additional seating in small spaces while providing valuable storage for clothes or spare bedding. Plus, they’re lightweight and moveable, meaning they can be used in whatever room they’re needed.

📷 Aenny Chung

Let’s not forget the classic bunk beds. These old favorites are perfect for room sharing as they make use of vertical space more than floor space.

At the end of the day, figuring out how to decorate a small bedroom doesn’t mean you can’t have a nicely furnished space. If anything, you need to be more creative by thinking up and well as around. Just remember to keep your floors as clean as possible, to declutter where you can, and just like ottoman beds, get sneaky with your storage.

Want to see your small bedroom transformation before you commit to furniture and layouts? With the DecorMatters app, you can plan, visualize, and experiment with real furniture pieces in your space. Create a layout that works, find stylish storage solutions, and bring your room to life—virtually.

UP NEXT: 28 Cozy Living Room Ideas You'll Love from Interior Designers

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This article was contributed by Jack Teare, Head of Content at Affinity.