Designers like Arianne Bellizaire of Arianne Bellizaire Interiors know that proper space planning is essential to any design, especially when designing for small, cramped spaces.

“We put this philosophy to use in a recent project,” she says. “The client’s living room, dining room and kitchen were all connected in this open-concept high-rise unit, but each individual space felt tiny and crowded. We spent much of the first part of the design process on figuring out just the right placement of elements, as well as the size of the pieces of furniture we wanted to use in the spaces, to turn the rooms from heavy and crowded to light and airy.”

One especially important detail to keep in mind?

“No matter how beautiful a room is, if it doesn’t address the main functions of the space and/or the furniture layout prohibits easy traffic flow throughout the room, it’s not a great design,” says Bellizaire. “Once we figured out the main function of each space, identified the focal point of each room and selected the right furniture pieces, we were left with rooms that looked twice as big as they originally did with much more usable space!”

For more information on Bellizaire and her designs, check out ariannebellizaire.com.