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Don’t let a small living room get you down. After all, challenges and limitations can lead to the best, most creative solutions. From structural changes to decor suggestions, we’ve listed ideas on how you can make your small drawing room work for you.

1. If you can, consider big-ticket design changes

Open up the plan
If your home has a small drawing room interior, you can make structural changes to the space to expand the room. Consider keeping the compact space from feeling claustrophobic by opening it up to another room. Bring down walls and experiment with an open plan layout – a drawing-cum-dining room, or a living-room-cum-kitchen.

Exaggerate architectural features
Large architectural features help create an illusion of a larger space or height. Take this image, for example. The proportions of this room feel exaggerated thanks to the tall windows (and their wide frames) and the ample natural light streaming in.

2. Choose the right furniture

Downsize the number of seats
The living room furniture needn’t always include sofas, armchairs and a table all together. For small drawing rooms, think of utility first. Choose small-scale furniture pieces like chairs, stools, pouffes, small settees and loveseats.

When picking out chairs, consider armless ones, because they take up less space. Don’t overcrowd your drawing room with too many pieces; you can also consider floor seating.

Consider invisible furniture
Drawing room furniture designs in acrylic or glass are ideal pieces to sprinkle around in your drawing room layout. The transparent nature of the materials help the furniture ‘disappear’ and can make the room look visually light.

Get creative with coffee tables
Two small side tables, an ottoman or a stool can all double as coffee tables. Here, the ottoman serves as a tabletop for keeping curios and trays and is also a place to put up your feet and relax.

3. Lighten up the interiors with design tricks
There are several materials and elements that together can make a drawing room’s interior design look light. Take this living room, for example. The grey drawing room wall, white ceiling with white pendant, the glass doors, glass-top coffee table with slender legs and the shallow shelves, all create an unobtrusive visual, thereby making the room seem breezy, clean and big.

4. Put the walls and ceiling to work
Wall-mounted or floating shelves
To avoid making the room look cluttered, a wall-mounted bookshelf can come to the rescue for displaying books and curios. Also, mounting storage on walls, especially on the side walls, encourages you to look up, making you notice the length and breath of the drawing room, thereby creating an illusion of more height. In this space, the shelf has been created right up at the height of the ceiling.

Consider a wall-mounted TV and media unit
Instead of a bulky wooden media unit, opt for built-in ones that can tuck in everything – from a DVD player, wires, remotes, CDs to books and curios. Include doors in some sections if you plan to store less attractive tech, and paint or veneer the unit with the same colour as your walls to reduce its visual impact.

5. Use mirrors or reflective surfaces
A compact drawing room interior can feel cramped and boxed in. Experiment with mirrors or furniture with reflective surfaces, as these can create an illusion of extended space, while also serving as pretty decor staples.

If you do have a window in your living room, position the mirror across from it – it will reflect the view outside, giving the impression of an extra window. Alternatively, you could choose mirror-finished coffee tables, chairs or seats that make the small room seem larger than it is.

6. Use soft partitions to create intimate areas
Who says that small spaces cannot have intimate, private corners? Like in this modern small drawing room, use a drawing room partition to cordon off one area from the rest. Choose wooden or fabric screens, curtains, louvred blinds, sliding or pocket glass doors.