Here’s a truth they don’t tell you about tiny bedrooms: the mainstream furniture industry doesn’t care about you. Until my first grown-up apartment — an absolutely charming Victorian-era condo conversion — I didn’t realize that there was a special category of bedroom furniture scaled for pint-size rooms. I was 22, navigating life on my own for the first time in my quaint-but-cramped double bedroom.
The place wasn’t tiny, but it wasn’t large enough for all the furniture to fit without feeling cramped. Does that ever happen to you? You see these beautiful, individual pieces of furniture, and they LOOK LIKE THEY WILL ALL FIT TOGETHER when you purchase them.
But then you get home? Total fail.
Cue the overstuffed folding chair wedged in the corner so you can squeeze into your room.
I’ll never forget standing bewildered in the middle of my über-tiny bedroom trying to formulate a game plan. The bed frame I’d chosen from Target (nothing special — just your standard pine bedframe variety) dwarfed the rest of the room so much that I had to slide sideways along the wall to access my clothes. The nightstands?
Forget about it. There wasn’t enough room to walk around them AND open the drawers. Sure, I could have squeezed a traditional dresser into this bedroom.
There was JUST enough room to slide it in sideways. Problem was, there would only be about eight inches of walking aisle left between it and the wall. Seriously.
Eight Inches. I measured. It was around that time that I first stumbled upon the magical world of petite bedroom furniture.
Spoiler alert: “Small” does not necessarily mean “well-proportioned” or even “good-looking.” Let’s just say I learned quickly that certain pieces had been merely reduced in size by copying and pasting a standard bedroom into Adobe Illustrator. shrink wrapped. BUT! The pieces that ARE out there?
They’re dreamy. My platform bed is only twelve inches tall versus the standard 16″-18″. I never realized how much higher ceilings looked with a shorter bed until I upgraded.
The shorter stature also means that I can actually see out the window from bed without having to crane my neck. Score! This bed frame also comes with built-in drawers underneath (and I mean built-in like STEALTHFurnitureStoreHaveYouBeenBreachingOurPrivacy kind of built-in.
Not the “pop-off-every-two-months“ lift-up kind). I use the drawers for out-of-season bedding and clothing. They’re also deep enough to actually be useful.
SIDE NOTE: Same goes for bedside tables. You’ll notice I’ve chosen these adorable roll-top nightstands instead of traditional bedroom tables. Most bedside tables measure anywhere from 24″-28″ wide.
Mine are only 18″ across, but they’re still SO cute next to my petite bed frame! But here’s the best part: I can actually WALK around them without stubbing my toe every dang morning. (I will never forgive that stupid dresser for causing me so much pain.) ANYWAY. Where was I?
Oh yeah. Furniture scaled for smaller rooms is harder to FIND, that’s where. My local retailers feature one style of bed frame, dresser, desk, etc. and THAT happens to be designed for Large Rooms with Spacious Walk-in Closets.
I haunted every nook and cranny of local, independently-owned furniture stores for months (hello, my name is Anna and I have a slight Anthropologie addiction). Several internet purchases later and I became proficient in measuring room spaces in IKEA garages (i.e. know where the dickens those bumper stickers are at all times). Thankfully, IKEA understands the struggle.
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The HEMNES collection comes in BOTH 24″ and 18″ widths, which means you can still get that uber-cute Scandinavian look without sacrificing space. I chose their 3-drawer chest option in the smaller size. Notice a theme here?
Everything should be shorter and wider, NOT tall and thin. Proportion, proportion, proportion. My friend bought a micro dresser once that was too tall for her room and it made the whole space look off.
Just because the piece is scaled down doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention to the ratios. Look for furniture that down-scaled overall, not just one dimension. For those looking for quality vintage pieces (don’t worry, I’ll get to that), furniture from the mid-century was often made in smaller sizes to accommodate city living.
Check out some vintage stores in your area and you’d be surprised what you can find. I scored this absolute beauty of a teak chest of drawers from the 1960s at my local vintage shop and it’s smaller than most furniture made today but crafted SO well. And unlike some beds/boot heads I could mention, the drawers slide on smooth va-va-voom tracks – not puckered-up wax paper like some (“Remove stickers for smooth rolling action”….lol sure).
Anywho. With scaled-down furniture, comes scaled-down storage. Since my current bedroom is only outfitted with four pieces (bed, nightstands, dresser) I have to be choosy about what I keep out and what I tuck away.
Do I miss having tons of storage cubbies throughout my bedroom? Sure! But having less furniture means I’m forced to only keep out the things I NEED and LOVE.
Win-win. Don’t fall into the trap of buying baskets, boxes, bags, and drawers just because you CAN. Buy less and choose well, friends.
Your future self will thank you when you don’t have to tripple-blockbuster-jump through your bedroom just to close the door. Remember earlier when I said small bedroom furniture doesn’t HAVE to cheaply made or look like it’s still living with it’s parents? Who wants to talk about where to find quality furniture?
Online furniture stores like West Elm and CB2 typically carry “apartment-sized” versions of their popular collections. Yes, they run you just as much as their king-size counterparts, BUT these scaled-down furniture pieces are seriously LIFE-CHANGING if you have small bedroom real estate to fill. Get creative and look for multi-functional furniture!
I had a local carpenter build me a custom headboard with “floating” nightstands attached directly to the headboard itself. Lost precious floor space? Check.
Side tables that didn’t look like they were crammed into the room?
Double check. Not enough room for nightstands at all?
Consider wall-mounted lighting sconces instead of table lamps. Having your light source closer to your bed also creates a cozier atmosphere when reading in bed. Just make sure you hang them at the proper height!
I hung mine WAY too high the first time around and ended up having to hire an electrician to return and lower them. Whoops. Oh, and side-note about buying stuff from your local carpenter: cheaper than buying nightstands and having him modify your headboard to add-ons.
TL;DR: Small Bedroom Furniture CAN be gorgeous AND fit properly. It just might take some hunting. You’ll know you’ve found the right pieces when you stop noticing that “everything is smaller.” Trust me.
You won’t miss the overcrowded furniture spread once you find furniture that fits your room the way it should.
