How to Plan a Small Apartment: A Tel Aviv Interior Designer's Guide
The best way to plan a small apartment is to start with the layout and storage, and to leave the decorating for last. When people ask me how to make a small apartment feel bigger, they usually expect an answer about paint, mirrors or clever furniture. Those things help, but a small home succeeds or fails much earlier, in the plan, when you decide how you are really going to live there.
By Maya Sheinberger | 20.02.26
How to plan a small apartment in 8 steps
Find the space the apartment has lost, such as an enclosed balcony.
Plan the storage before the furniture.
Use one floor throughout the home.
Make every divider do two jobs, and prefer sliding doors.
Keep natural light moving between rooms.
Choose fewer, lighter pieces of furniture, and leave at least 91 cm for walkways.
Plan ventilation and everyday life, not only the photo.
Keep room for surprises on site.
A real example: the N apartment in Tel Aviv
The N apartment is a 67 m² home on the second floor of an aging building in the heart of Tel Aviv. Its owner, a consultant in her thirties, wanted more than the space seemed to offer. In Israel, apartments are counted in rooms including the living room, so a one-bedroom is a 2-room apartment. N became a 2.5-room apartment. Here is what changed:
Before | After | |
Layout | One bedroom (2 rooms) | 2.5 rooms, with a half-room for work and wardrobe |
Balcony | Enclosed | Reopened: about 4 m² of the 67 m², for breadth and light |
Half-room | None | 3.06 × 2.24 m, with a wardrobe and a desk |
The apartment gained no new floor area. The 67 m² includes the balcony. The plan did the work. Here is how I think through a project like this.
1. Find the space the apartment has lost
Start by recovering the space the apartment has lost over the years, before you add anything. In N, the enclosed balcony was reopened, which brought back breadth and light. Sometimes the most valuable square meter in a small home is the one you stop filling.
2. Plan the storage before the furniture
Storage comes first because it decides how much open space you will have left. Built-in joinery, meaning cabinetry made for the room, should run all the way to the ceiling in one uniform finish. That keeps the eye moving and leaves no awkward gap on top for dust and suitcases. In N's bedroom, the joinery is the same color as the walls, so it reads as calm surface rather than as a row of cabinets. A low bench there doubles as extra storage.
Joinery can solve a problem at the same time. In the AA apartment, a custom cabinet wraps around a structural column, hides it, and holds both storage and the washing machine.
Make an honest list first. Where do the suitcase, the winter coats and the vacuum cleaner go? If the plan has no answer, they will end up in plain sight.
3. Use one floor throughout the home
A single continuous floor makes a small apartment feel larger, because every change of material reads to the eye as a border. N's floor is the same 120 × 120 cm light gray porcelain tile throughout the interior, and its functional areas are defined by furniture and built-ins rather than by walls or changes in flooring.
4. Make every divider do two jobs
If you must separate two spaces, ask the divider to do a second job. In N, the custom unit between the living room and the bedroom is also the TV wall. It is 173 cm wide and 40 cm deep, it stands free, and sliding doors close the 92 cm passage on each side of it. It's one element doing the work of two: a wall and a TV unit.
Sliding doors follow the same logic. A standard 80 cm hinged door sweeps about half a square meter of floor every time it opens. A sliding door gives that floor back. N uses sliding doors throughout, and they let you open the home up during the day and close off the private areas when you need to.
5. Protect the natural light
Daylight is the most valuable thing in a small apartment, so plan to keep it moving between rooms. Reeded glass lets light through while keeping privacy. Next to N's entrance, the deep turquoise desk sits between cabinets with clear gray glass fronts that reflect both light and space. Mirrors do similar work, and a monochromatic palette lets rooms flow into each other instead of closing in. For more options, read how to bring natural light into a dark room without removing a wall.
6. Choose fewer, lighter pieces of furniture
Furniture on slim legs makes a room feel larger because the floor stays visible. One heavy, massive piece can use up a whole room. Choose fewer pieces, and make sure each one is the right size. Leave room to move, too: the NKBA Kitchen Planning Guidelines, a North American professional reference, recommend a kitchen walkway of at least 91 cm, and 81 cm behind a seated diner if no one passes there. They are a useful yardstick for any tight passage at home. My guide to choosing furniture goes through this step by step.
7. Design for the parts nobody photographs
A small home has to work for everyday life, not only for the photo. In real life, a single fried onion perfumes the whole apartment, one glass in the sink looks like a mess, and privacy takes planning. So think about ventilation, about where the dishes wait, and about how you will host more than two people. When the kitchen is open to the living room, the hood matters even more. The NKBA recommends a correctly sized, ducted system with a minimum of 150 cfm, which is about 255 m³ per hour.
8. Keep room for surprises
An old building will change your plan at some point, so leave room for decisions on site. In N, the floor height had to be adjusted for the plumbing, and that decision was made during the renovation with structural engineering advice. In an aging building, a plan that can bend is worth more than a perfect drawing.
The real goal of planning a small apartment
A small home can look wonderful. But the real goal is a place where you can breathe, move, have people over and recharge. There are more ideas like these in Smart Design Solutions, and before you order anything, read the six questions I ask in every showroom.
Frequently asked questions
How big does a half-room need to be?
N's half-room measures 3.06 × 2.24 m, about 7 m², and it holds a wardrobe and a desk. That is enough for a workspace and full storage, and the sliding door keeps it open to the home.
What makes a small apartment look bigger?
A continuous floor, full-height joinery in one finish, a calm color palette, furniture on slim legs and light that can travel between rooms.
Can you add a room to a small apartment without adding square meters?
Sometimes you can. N gained no new floor area and went from 2 rooms to 2.5 by rethinking the layout and storage and using sliding doors. It depends on the plan of each apartment.
What color is best for a small apartment?
A monochromatic palette usually works best, because rooms flow into each other. That doesn't have to mean white. N uses color in carefully chosen places, such as a deep turquoise desk.
Are sliding doors better than regular doors in a small apartment?
Usually, yes. They free the floor a hinged door needs and let you change how open the home feels during the day. Check the wall first, because the door needs room to slide.
Do I need an interior designer for a small apartment?
You don't have to have one, but in a small home every centimeter is a decision, and planning mistakes are felt immediately. A designer is most useful before the renovation starts. Here are five reasons to work with one.
Renovating a small apartment in Tel Aviv, whether you live here or are managing it from abroad? Tell me about it, and let's see what it could become.
Maya Sheinberger is an interior designer with nearly 20 years of experience. She has run her independent studio since 2012, and it is based in Ramat Gan. She holds a B.Des with honors from the College of Management. Eight of her projects have won Archilovers Best Project awards, her work has appeared in more than 100 publications, and one of her Tel Aviv apartments features in the book The New Minimalist Style.
Photography @itaybenitphotographer · Styling @maya_livnat_harush
This post was inspired by my column on Mako (in Hebrew).
