Small but mighty — interior tips for tiny spaces, by the experts

First take an honest look at how you operate in the home. Where do you put your coat and boots when you come in the door? How do you actually use your kitchen? And do you really need a double oven?

“I don’t have overhead kitchen cabinets because I don’t need them,” Sheahan explains. “People think they need as much kitchen storage as possible and they throw in the cabinets, left right and centre, but it makes a huge difference to have that overhead space free in a small kitchen.”

Then, decide where the storage goes. “I have built-in storage in every room in the house and it makes things easy to access,” Sheahan says. “There are alcove cabinets in the bathroom behind the toilet and alcoves in the shower. In the dining area, I have a banquette bench which combines seating with storage — that contains the vacuum cleaner and extra dog food.”

A custom wardrobe was beyond her budget, so she bought an Elfa wall-mounted rail system from The Organised Store in Dundrum. The Elfa system is hung from a single wall-mounted rail (expect to pay €948 for a 180cm wardrobe interior).

“It’s infinitely customisable and so handy. It’s also really practical because everywhere I had available for wardrobes was sloped.” She enclosed the space with doors made by her builder.

In the living room, using a projector freed up the space that might otherwise have been taken up by a TV. “I don’t love having wall-space taken up by a big black square.” She also has an ottoman with hidden storage for blankets and cushions and a hammock. “I have two hooks drilled into the garden wall so I can hang the hammock and lie out in the sun.”

Sheahan’s garden is tiny but south-facing. “It’s really just a courtyard but I wanted to be able to entertain outdoors in the summer so I have a pull-down table that folds up flat against the wall and hanging chairs.” Her builder made an outdoor bench with leftover materials: cedar wood left over from cladding the upstairs extension and extra tiles from the downstairs bathroom. “It was a very practical use of waste and it gives a consistency of materials throughout the house.”

In small spaces she recommends doubling up on usage. “My guest bedroom is also my office when I’m working from home,” she says. “It also needed to house my piano and my bicycle. That’s a pretty big ask for a small room!” The answer, if you can afford it, is built-in furniture. “Custom joinery is expensive but it’s worth it. I used Borien Studio, a husband and wife team based in Dun Laoghaire, and they brought a lot of skills and experience to the job.”

Her home office desk has a storage lid. “When I’m done working, the office transforms into a music room,” she says. “The desk lid lifts up and my full-scale 88-key electronic piano is underneath it!” If you can’t afford a joiner and are handy — or know someone who is — another option is to buy flat-pack furniture and customise it yourself.

Her sofa bed is from Finline Furniture. “I asked them to make it without the arms, which is much more space-efficient. It’s built in Ireland so they can make whatever you want. And the quality is amazing.”

Emma Butler, interior designer and principal of White Meadow Design, has a lot of experience in designing small bathrooms. “Installing a new bathroom will cost between €15,000 and €20,000, even with standard materials,” she says. “First you need to take everything out and then you’ll need a plumber, and electrician, and a tiler. Trades are expensive.”

She always starts with a trip to the Sonas showroom in Ballycoolin, Dublin 15. “If you book an appointment and bring in your measurements or floor plan, they’ll help you plan your bathroom. All their products are installed in the showroom so you can try them out. You can get into the shower and see how it feels. You can sit on the loos and use the taps.”

Using a bathroom is a haptic experience — it’s concerned with the things we touch — so it makes sense to try out the items before you buy. “You might think that a shallow square-bottomed washbasin is a good idea — and they can look fabulous — but sometimes the water splashes out of them. That doesn’t happen in a deeper, rounder sink.”

Good design, Butler explains, is invisible. “You don’t see it and you don’t feel it, because it functions properly. Bad design can be as simple as a shower door that bangs or a cupboard door that doesn’t close properly. It’s a luxury not to be annoyed by bad design.”

When she’s designing a small bathroom she likes to free up as much of the floor as possible. A wall hung toilet like the Sonas Rubix (€405) will help a lot. So will furniture on legs. Small bathrooms are often lacking in storage. In a recent project, she used the Sonas Finland double vanity unit (€1,490), but with only one sink.

“A double vanity houses everything,” she says. “We also put niches in the shower for storing shampoo bottles and the like. They can be expensive because your carpenter doesn’t like doing them and your tiler doesn’t like doing them — but go for it! Messy counters will make you feel like you don’t have enough space.”

For small bathrooms, Butler recommends either a neutral palette or a colour scheme that’s dark and bold: “Go for one or the other. I love colour drenching a bathroom by painting everything in the same colour, including the skirting boards and ceiling. I’d go luxurious with features like brass accent taps — they’ll look classy for a very long time — but the accessories don’t have to be expensive. I recently styled a bathroom with fluffy towels and candles from Penneys.”

White Meadow Interiors is based in Carlow and offers 90-minute design consultation in your own home (€300 within Leinster) — see whitemeadowinteriors.ie. See also sonasbathrooms.com, @workerscottage, finlinefurniture.ie, organisedstore.ie