Tiny bedrooms can present significant decorating challenges. Apartment residents, as well as homeowners, feel the pressure when faced with balancing the need for storage and the hope for a stylish, uncluttered space. The only non-negotiable item in a bedroom is the bed, so there are lots of small bedrooms decorating ideas that can help you make the most of the area you’ve got. Even though decorating small spaces can be tricky, there are some standard rules of thumb to guide you. Keep color palettes simple, and “stuff” to a minimum. A white bedroom, for instance, will feel airier and less cluttered. Take advantage of all kinds of bedroom storage. Underbed storage, in proper, is a boon to a room with limited closet space. A loft bedroom, though charming, can present a challenge for furniture installation. We have pulled together ten samples of how you can use mirrors, color palettes, multipurpose furnishings, and other small bedrooms ideas that will help you to live large in your small space.

1. White Wash

Including a bright, white aesthetic will keep your small bedroom feeling uncluttered and airy and. UFM Designs created this beachy bedroom on in Los Angeles by whitewashing the walls and covering the bed in white linens. A lined rug makes the room appear wider.

2. Mirror, Mirror

This accessible yet striking tiny bedroom in a small London mews apartment takes advantage of a mirrored wall behind the headboard to produce the illusion of more space. UFM Designs designed the room, using a neutral color palette and modern furnishings to make it seem anything but cluttered.

3. New Directions

City living often means getting original with small spaces. Our designers designed this tiny bedroom in a Los Angeles townhouse. Turning the bed horizontally below the window maximizes floor space and creates a cozy window seat. As a bonus, the wall map—a compelling eyeful—distracts from the narrowness of the room.

4. Creative Arrangements

Attics often have storage areas under the eaves that can be reclaimed as sleeping nooks. We maximized the floor space in this bedroom by carving out a cozy area for a bed, leaving plenty of swinging space in the center of the tiny bedroom for a suspended ball chair.

5. Undercover

No space for cabinets or freestanding dressers in your small bedroom? Forgo a traditional bed frame and tuck your storage right under your mattresses. Many furniture retailers offer ready-made storage beds with built-in drawers. These twin-size storage beds were custom-built by Cole built, a general contractor in Nova Scotia.

6. Go Vertical

While decorating this small bedroom for Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women & Children in Los Angeles, designer Jessica Bennett wanted to build “a sanctuary for the women who would be calling the room home.” She hit her target with this cool gold-and-white color scheme and designed the appearance of a larger space by decorating “up,” thanks to the sunburst mirror, valance, draperies, and striped paint pattern.

7. Dual Purpose

To minimize the clutter of an over-furnished small bedroom, choose furniture with many purposes. For instance, Deborah Houston Interiors furnished this Miami bedroom with a ready-made daybed that can serve as both seating when the young client’s friends visit and a bed when she goes to sleep at night.

8. Lofty Living

Maximize your floor area in a small bedroom by lofting your bed and building storage and workspace below. This bed, designed by Hamilton Snowber Architects, features custom-built cabinetry, but the same effect can be produced by placing a ready-made chest of drawers and desk below a lofted bed.

9. Focal Point

Create the most of your small bedroom by expanding your opinion of a headboard. In this Austin, Texas, home, the PPDS design team created a focal point in a small bedroom by installing eye-catching wallpaper on the recessed wall behind the bed and keeping the remaining walls a neutral white.

10. Let There Be Light!

Instead of placing your bed on a regular wall facing a window, think about using the window as a backdrop for your bed. This mentor suite in Toronto, Ontario, may be small on squared footage (it’s only 8.5 feet wide), but the two surfaces of windows overwhelm the small bedroom with light, making it feel bright and airy.