再小的房子 你也可以创造出大空间

Let go of that T-shirt you’ve had since middle school, the cracked mirror that you haven’t had time to replace and the lamp that works only when you kick it on the third try. When you’re trying to maximize a small space, every inch counts, from under the bed to unclaimed wall space over your head.

扔掉那件你从中学留到现在的T恤，那面你一直没时间更换的有裂缝的镜子，还有那盏按三次才会亮的灯。当你想充分利用一个狭小空间时，每一寸都很重要，不管是床下，还是头顶没有利用的墙面空间。

While moving is considered one of life’s great stressors, living in a small space doesn’t have to be. All it takes is some thoughtful planning and smart storage options.

搬家被看作生活中特别让人有压力的事情之一，但住在小空间就不一定要难受了。只需进行一些深思熟虑的规划，就存储空间做出明智的选择就好。

For Julia Haney Montanez, an interior designer living alone for the first time in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, purging is the first step to making the most of what you have.

对第一次在曼哈顿切尔西一带单独居住的室内设计师茱莉娅•哈内•蒙塔内兹(Julia Haney Montanez)来说，要最大程度利用你拥有的空间，首先要做的是清除。

“You have to stop being a hoarder,” Ms. Montanez, 30, said this week in her studio apartment. “The secret to small-space living is trying to avoid owning too much stuff; that’s a good practice for life. You don’t have to be a minimalist, but you have to get really creative where you store your things and maybe think twice about buying something new.”

“你得停止做一个囤积者，”30岁的蒙塔内兹本周在她的单间公寓内说道。“在小空间内生活的秘诀，是尽力避免攒太多东西；这是一种优良的生活态度。你不必做一个极简主义者，但必须在存储东西方面花些心思，或许还要在买新的东西之前三思而行。”

Once you’ve winnowed down your belongings, it’s time to consider how to use your limited space.

一旦去除了多余的东西，便是时候考虑如何利用有限的空间。

Ms. Montanez, a producer for the Architectural Digest show and a freelance designer, lives in a 450-square-foot studio. When she first moved in, Ms. Montanez spent hours looking at the floor plan and figuring out the ideal configuration for her furniture. By living in the space for a while before making any major purchases, Ms. Montanez said, you get an idea of how to make your home as functional as possible.

蒙塔内兹是《建筑辑要》(Architectural Digest)杂志设计展的制作人、自由职业设计师，住在一间450平方英尺（约合42平米）的单间公寓内。刚搬进来的时候，她花了数小时研究建筑平面图，考虑配置家具的最佳方案。她先在里面住了一段时间，之后才进行大的采购，她说这样你就会知道如何让房间尽可能地实用。

“As you live in the apartment you’ll know and understand what you need,” she said. “Do you have your freeloader friends crashing all the time? Then get a longer sofa. If not, get a smaller sofa because they take up so much space. Get to know your own space before you start throwing money at those things.”

“住在公寓里的时候，你才会知道和了解自己需要什么，”她说。“你有喜欢蹭吃蹭喝的朋友老是不请自来吗？那就买个长一点的沙发。如果没有，就买个小点的，因为它们挺占地方的。花钱买这些东西前，先研究下自己的空间。”

If you have the opportunity to splurge, Ms. Montanez recommends creating a custom piece. For her it was a California Closet and a table that doubles as her office desk.

如果你有大把花钱的机会，蒙塔内兹建议你打造一件定制家具。她定制了一套加州橱柜(California Closet)和一张可以兼作工作台的桌子。

“It was the best decision,” she said of the custom closet. “Everything goes in there.”

“那是我做出的最正确的决定了，”她这样评价定制的橱柜。“所有东西都放在那里面。”

Shoes, cleaning supplies and home office material like fabric swatches all live in her closet, neatly tucked away in designated cubbies alongside double hanging clothes racks.

她把鞋子、清洁用品还有布样等家庭办公用品全都放进了橱柜，每样东西都被整整齐齐地归置在指定的小格子里，旁边则是双排吊衣架。

“Take your dinner money for the next month and put it toward something that will fit perfectly,” she said. “It’s like Tetris, and it’s that one thing you need.”

“拿出你下个月的晚饭钱，用来购买某种刚好适合的东西，”她说。“就像玩俄罗斯方块时一样，它要恰好符合你的需求。”

Making a tight spot work can require bending the rules on traditional uses of space. Consider using a medicine cabinet for storing glassware or kitchen cabinets for sweater storage if cooking isn’t a priority. Every space has to serve a purpose, said Susan Winberg, an interior designer based in New York City. “It has to have more than one function,” she said.

为了让一个局促的空间变得不那么局促，可能需要打破传统的空间利用规则。不妨用药品柜来存放玻璃器皿，或者在不经常下厨的情况下用厨房橱柜来存放毛衣。每一个空间都必须尽其所用，纽约的室内设计师苏珊•温伯格(Susan Winberg)说。“它必须具有不只一项功能，”她说。

Ms. Winberg typically takes on larger residential projects, she said, but with two children in their 20s, she began designing projects with much more limited space. Her daughter’s San Francisco railroad-style apartment, for example, had a Murphy bed alcove with no bed in it, she said. They put her bed elsewhere in the apartment and converted the alcove into a closet.

温伯格说她通常会承接较大的家居项目，但现在两个孩子都已经二十多岁了，因此她开始为极其有限的空间做设计。例如，她女儿位于旧金山的铁道风格的公寓，设有一个放墨菲床的壁凹，但壁凹里却没有床，她说。她们把她的床放在了公寓的其他地方，并把壁凹变成了一个壁橱。

If you have limited closet space, prioritize where you store your things, Ms. Winberg advised. The Murphy bed closet is tucked away, so Ms. Winberg’s daughter uses that area to store winter clothes and boots, saving her more accessible closet for things that she uses more regularly.

温伯格建议，如果橱柜的空间有限，就得对你要存放的东西按重要性排序。由墨菲床凹改造而成的那个壁橱是隐藏式的，于是温伯格的女儿就用它来存放冬装和靴子，从而把用起来更顺手的橱柜留给更常用的东西。

If you’re working with a dresser, add another piece or shelf above the dresser for extra storage, she said.

她说如果你要制作一个梳妆台，可以在梳妆台上再添一层搁板或者架子，用来存放更多东西。

Madeline Fraser, one of the founders of a new app called Homee, which offers personal design services and a virtual showroom, summed up a similar approach to coping with small spaces in two words: up and out.

Homee是新上线的一款提供个人设计服务和虚拟展示厅的应用程序，其创始人之一马德琳•弗雷泽(Madeline Fraser)把应对狭小空间的类似方法总结为两个词：向上和向外。

“The use of the wall space is where you’re going to maximize your overall space,” she said.

“利用好墙壁空间，可以让整体空间最大化，”她说。

Ms. Fraser recommended putting storage on walls with open floating shelving, an affordable option, she said, especially for renters who can easily Spackle the wall when it’s time to move out. And shelving can go beyond the living room and bedroom, too.

弗雷泽建议在墙上安装开放式置物板，以便存放东西，她说这是一个经济实惠的选择，对租客来说尤为如此，搬家的时候他们可以轻而易举地用斯巴克(Spackle)填料将墙壁修复。此外，置物架也可以出现在起居室和卧室以外的地方。

Open shelving in kitchens, especially in a galley or small kitchen, can make the room feel more open. “When you have cabinets, it can appear closed off like there’s a wall there,” she said. Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, I have to have cabinets,’ but you can easily do open shelving and arrange your kitchen stuff to look cool. It will feel more like a restaurant.”

把开放式置物架安装在厨房里，尤其是飞机或船只上的厨房或者很小的厨房里，会让空间显得更为开阔。“如果摆放了橱柜，会制造出一种封闭感，就像在那儿有一堵墙一样，”她说。每个人都觉得，“噢，‘我必须拥有橱柜’，但你也可以方便地安装开放式置物架，把厨房用品摆放得很酷。这会令人有身处餐厅之感。”

To keep things looking tidy, Ms. Fraser suggested bringing symmetry to open shelves by displaying dishes, cutting boards and kitchen accessories stacked in clusters or leaning against the wall. Books and bookends offer a way to ground shelving, too, she said. And for miscellaneous items, wire baskets can help contain odds and ends that may be without a home.

为了让所有东西看起来都很整洁，弗雷泽建议把盘子、砧板和厨房配件集中摆放或者使其靠着墙壁，从而给开放式置物架制造一种对称感。她说，书籍和书挡也可以成为一种落地式置物架。至于杂物，铁丝筐可以帮忙收容或许无家可归的零碎物件。

At a bare minimum, get the mattress and box spring off the floor, Ms. Fraser said. Every big piece of furniture should have legs if possible, to provide storage space underneath.

弗雷泽说，至少不要让床垫和弹簧床座紧挨着地面。如果可以的话，每一样大件家具都该有腿，以便在底下空出储物空间。

“You can get an iron-rod bed frame that gives you more storage under your bed,” she said. “You can do a bed skirt and put a lot under your bed. Your mom will not be happy with you if she comes over and sees the bed on the floor.”

“你可以买一个铁栏床架，好在床底下存放更多东西，”她说。“你可以做一条床裙，然后把很多东西都塞到床下。你妈妈来看你时，如果发现床紧挨着地板，是不会高兴的。”