A studio flat asks one room to be a bedroom, a living room, an office and often a dining room. The difficulty is less the lack of space than the lack of separation. When your bed is in view of your desk and your desk is in view of your sofa, it is hard to rest in one, concentrate at another and unwind on the third.
You can't add walls. You can make each part of the room feel different, and art is one of the best tools for it. It takes up no floor at all.
The three moods
- Rest: the bed. Calm, dark or soft, quiet.
- Focus: the desk or table. Clear, ordered, with a little energy.
- Relax: the sofa or chair. Warm, sociable, where your personality shows.
Each needs a different kind of picture. And the three have to live together in one field of view.
First, the layout
- Put the bed furthest from the door, in a corner or an alcove if there is one. You want it out of the way and out of sight from the entrance.
- Put the desk near the window, side-on to it, for daylight.
- Put the seating between the two, as a buffer.
- Use furniture as dividers. The back of a sofa, an open shelf unit or a chest of drawers at the foot of the bed marks a boundary without blocking light.
- Give each zone its own rug and its own lamp.
Art for the bed
Calm, cool and low in contrast. Something without a demanding subject.
- Blue Mountain Fog: pines in pale teal cloud.
- Star Valley: a dark blue valley under aurora.
- Liquid Metal Mist Pink: a soft violet and blue abstract.
A tapestry behind the bed works especially well in a studio. It stands in for a headboard, marks the sleeping area as a place of its own, and is light enough to hang above your head on removable hooks. See a tapestry as a headboard, canopy or room divider and art over a bed.
Art for the desk
Something with depth to rest your eyes on, and not too busy. A landscape, a skyline or a quiet space scene. Starlight City is a good example. Keep it modest in size, above or beside the screen. See wall art for the home office and small desk setup ideas.
A desk mat helps here too. It marks the work surface as a work surface, which matters when the same table is also where you eat.
Art for the sofa
This is where the bold piece goes: the one with the most colour and character. In a studio it is also the picture a visitor sees first, so it sets the tone for the whole flat. Hang it behind the sofa, about two-thirds of the sofa's width. See one canvas as the anchor of your living room.
Sightlines: the trick that makes it work
In one room, position counts for as much as choice.
- Lie on the bed and look. Whatever you see from the pillow should be calm. If the bold piece is in view, move it, or move the bed.
- Sit at the desk and look. The wall in front of you should be quiet. The lively piece can be behind you.
- Sit on the sofa and look. This view can be the most interesting.
The usual answer is to hang the bold piece on the wall behind the bed's head or behind the desk chair. You then see it from the sofa, and not from the pillow or the desk.
Hold it together
Three moods must still look like one home. In a small room, mismatched art makes the space feel cluttered.
- Choose one palette. Two or three colours for the whole flat. Vary the strength: soft versions by the bed, clear ones at the desk, the brightest by the sofa.
- Or choose one colour that appears in every piece. Blue is the easiest.
- Use one frame colour throughout. All black, or all white. See black frame or white frame.
See using art to mark out zones and the 60-30-10 colour rule.
An example in blue
- Bed: a Blue Mountain Fog tapestry behind the headboard.
- Desk: a medium Starlight City print.
- Sofa: a large canvas of Koi Attack, orange koi over a blue city, with one orange cushion.
All three share blue. Only one is loud.
Fewer, larger pieces
It is tempting to fill a small flat with small pictures. Resist it. Many little frames scattered over the walls make a small room look smaller and busier. Three or four larger pieces, one for each zone, make it look calm and deliberate. See why small art looks wrong on a big wall.
If you love small prints, gather them in one place as a gallery wall. One wall can be busy if the others are quiet.
Art that makes the room feel larger
- Depth. A picture with a horizon, a path or a vanishing point extends the room. See portals and doorways in art.
- Tall pictures lead the eye upward and make ceilings seem higher. Our canvases and posters are all portrait.
- Light pictures on a wall that gets little daylight.
- Leave some wall empty. See negative space.
A tapestry as a soft wall
Hung from the ceiling on hooks or a tension wire, a large tapestry can screen the bed from the rest of the room. It gives privacy, hides an unmade bed when someone calls, and lets you see art from both zones. It folds away when you move. Check your lease before fixing anything to a ceiling, and keep fabric clear of heaters and lamps.
Lighting changes the mood
Three lamps, one for each zone, do as much as the art.
- By the bed: a low, warm lamp.
- At the desk: a brighter, neutral task light.
- By the sofa: a warm floor or table lamp.
Switch on only the lamp for the part of the room you are using. The rest falls into shadow, and the room feels like a different place. Don't rely on the ceiling light, which lights everything equally and flattens the zones.
If you rent
- Lean canvases on furniture, shelves and the floor.
- Hang tapestries and posters with removable hooks and strips. See how to hang a tapestry without nails.
- Use a picture ledge: two screws, many pictures.
- Small holes are easy to fill when you leave. See patching nail holes before you move out.
On a budget
A tapestry for the bed wall, a poster for the desk and one canvas for the sofa covers a studio for well under $200. Buy the sofa piece first. See first apartment wall art: three pieces to start with.
Browse the tapestries, canvas art and poster prints collections.