Condo living has become both a popular and efficient way to cope with the city lifestyle because of its accessibility to various urbanized and metropolitan districts in the country. It enables individuals and families to experience convenience with city living through its good locations relative to workplaces, schools, malls and daily needs. However, a popular notion of its limited space availability, common layouts and finishes has become an issue to some who want to rent a condo.
Fear not though, because even small condo spaces can bring out the best in you. Your condo in Philippines, as small or as big as it is, can be an opportunity for a great home improvement ranging from energy efficient home design that will help you cut down on expenses while keeping a unique display of your style to having your very own garden condo that can help you relax after a hard day’s work.
Proving that small spaces do not limit a condo dweller’s capacity to make a great condo home design are these superb interior design tips on how you can do away with your small condo space in Manila and wow your guests with your condo improvement projects:
1. The Traveler’s Home
Image via G A I L E at Flickr
If travelling has been a passion of you, then this condo home design would not take much of an effort. Your small condo can be made a display of all the places and time you spent travelling through your collection of travel finds, photos, maps, tickets and the cultural emblems you may have bought.
However, if you have not yet been out there travelling and roaming the world, then you can always improvise this one fun home design. All you need to focus on rare earth colors such as brown, gray and black, a look of a map and simple finds that are either woody or earthy.
To design condo living room, choosing wallpaper that looks similar to a map is your base. It is then easy to add a few good stones on top of your working desk, pillow cases that says a little about a country or some place that you prefer and a few pictures of travel destinations on your pegboard too.
2. Chic Elegance
Image via francis.gaerlan at Flickr
A timeless home design that will never fail to wow your guests is a goal that most condo dwellers look forward to when doing a condo makeover. This interior design stands out because of its sophisticated and elegant look that will give you the comforts from home of elite.
Doing this condo home design does not need to be expensive, though. You just need to have a sharp eye for details and classy finds in garage sales and in the home section of the nearest department stores. Focus on neutral bold colors of dark brown, beige and gray, have lights and fixtures that illuminate the space and the room, and do not forget to choose furniture that are polished and glassy.
3. A Trip Back to the 60’s
Image via Canadian Pacific at Flickr
Vintage and retro are two of the most timeless home designs, not to mention concepts and fashionably trending ideas today. Such can be seen in clothes and many other interior designs of establishments and restaurants that gives people a distinctive feeling of being in the cozy and relaxing old school vibes wherein disco and good company are just what you always needed.
To grab this interior idea, have the basic vintage woody colors of brown, maroon, earthy green, and dirty white plus disco colors of orange and red. Use collected objects of old typography, old catalogs, books and interesting cookware for your living room décor if you are trying to avoid heavy room furniture that occupy a lot of space. However, you may need to have a good earth-colored sofa and a woody dining table or tea set that lies around your living room area for most of the time. Hang around photos of you in black and white and maybe add some disco lights if you can find one at a reasonable price.
4. Of Prints
Image via MyNameHere at Flickr
Plains and prints are two opposite directions on the fashion map; however, you can incorporate one with the other when designing. In city living, these two will look good through the eyes of your visitors too with some fresh zebra print, colorful polka dots or just the plain black and white colors. This small condo design may be one of the easiest to grab as you will only need to remember one thing: do not overdo the prints; overdoing will just make your small condo messy and too loud.
5. Nature Lover
Image via ChicTip.com Interior Design Online Magazine at Flickr
The natural scenes of trees and mountains are effective views to ease the mind from all the busy streets of Manila. However, even when Real Estate Philippines offers locations with this kind of scenery, it is still hard to find when you are in the city, so you can always go for alternatives and improvise with your own garden condo and wide windows that do not only allow for the morning sunshine to enter your small condo unit, but also give you an energy efficient home design that will save you money spent for lights and electricity.
6. Summer-Loving
Image via Pinterest
The summer season is nearing once again and while you can’t wait for it, why don’t you decorate your small condo unit with summer-loving colors? Focus on illuminating and sunshine-inspired colors of orange, yellow, blue and pink or red.
7. With the Shades of One
Image via davemussari at Flickr
Simplicity is beauty: from having many lively colors to settling with one; why not play around the shades and tints of a color of your choice?
What makes this condo home design distinctive is its simplicity. You will only have to focus on building your interior design on a specific color and be creative in showing its range palette. Choose colors such as green because it exudes calmness to the eye or orange because it inspires energy and excitement. Whatever color you prefer, work around it using home decors and simple materials that have become parts of every home improvement such as the bed sheet, the lampshade, the wallpaper and the overall paint of your small condo.
8. Strokes of an Artist
Image via CocteauBoy at Flickr
“Music and design are two branches of art, and they are somewhat merged when a composer is inspired by a space”, says Enriquez, an architect and interior designer. Similarly, you can be inspired with the same thing: combine music with patterns of color when you design condo living room during your condo home improvement project.
If you are one of the music junkies or one of fans of the entertainment industry’s finest, then these two designs are definitely for you to choose from or combine with. Get inspired with the artists you love, may they be the classic OPM artists like the Eraserheads, the APO Hiking Society or world-renowned ones like The Beatles, or you favorite Hollywood movies and stars like James Bond or Marilyn Monroe.
Choose any base color for your wallpaper but make sure that together with your music décors (such as old CDs hanging, posters and framed photos of your artists of choice posted on your wall, good lights, cassette cases on your open bookshelves and just your guitar lying around), they all fit together like a puzzle. You can go for vibrant colors of electric blue to toned-down shades of green and brown.
9. The Palace
Image via bogowonto2010 at Flickr
You are a royalty, so always feel free to design your condo unit, no matter how small it is, like a palace. Be glamorous and creative about it as it does not need to cost you a fortune to make your small condo look shimmery and splendid.
Take advantage of your window space by using and choosing attractive and vibrant curtains and of your desk space by putting on mirrors. What is important in this home design is that you play around Disney-inspired colors and furniture with cute outlines of fur and patterns of swirls and polka dots. However, you can go for the bold but still shimmery look if you do not like a lot of things going on.
10. Hotel California
Image via studio15interiors at Flickr
When traveling or visiting a new place, one exciting part of it is when you get to sleep over a nice and cozy hotel room. May it be the luxurious five-star hotel that becomes cheaper when you put it in your home or just the simple hotel room with a working air-condition, dimmed lights and a TV set, work around it like you are going to sell it to yourself.
11. Sunshine, Coffee and Pancakes
Image via suzettesuzette at Flickr
Small condo architecture is just perfect for a coffee place themed interior. That tea set your mother has long been keeping can now be used on your polished wooden table or that khaki couch that you have been eyeing for some time has a reason to be bought now. Go for colors that soothe your senses and remind you of a good coffee on a Sunday morning such as brown, vintage pink, orange, beige and lots of greens.
12. House of Glass
Image via ChicTip.com Interior Design Online Magazine at Flickr
Glass is class. Let the sunshine in the morning and let the moon cuddle you to sleep at night with a sight so good when you can clearly see it as you look outside your condo in the Philippines. Not only is it an energy efficient home design when you utilize a lot of glass, but it is also very stylish, classy and relaxing.
Just a reminder: Do not forget to hang on a good quality of blinds or curtains that can block the sun when it is getting too hot or too bright.
13. A Painter’s Gallery
Image via karyodimejo2010 at Flickr
Have you ever been to an art gallery wherein all paintings are just hanging around against a background of bold monochrome colors of black, gray or white? Yes, you got that right. If you love paintings and artworks and have a habit of framing them against the wall, then opt for a bold design.
This is very simple. Choose one among the three monochromatic colors and set them as your wall paint. Hang your favorite painting of nature or city living and make sure to use the space wisely and creatively.
14. White is In
Image via Design Inspirattion Gallery
“…White is proving to stay in power”, according to Elle in reference to the recent looks for Spring 2014. As white clothing is still on the loop today, so does the white-dominance in condo home design.
White is very preppy and simple. It automatically gives a clean appearance to your small condo and even widens the look of your space. It is very cool in the eyes and can even be cooler for the room temperature as white easily releases the heat when compared with black and other colors.
15. HollyWOOD
Image via ChicTip.com Interior Design Online Magazine at Flickr
A stereotype of a modern interior design includes glass and other polished materials as your place’s foundation; however, wooden ceilings and everything is such a timeless home design that we cannot completely wipe of the chart. Although having wooden materials for your condo such as furniture and specialized condo architecture, it is definitely worthy of attention and of your time as it gives you a break from very modern, city living scenery.
16. The Bookworm’s Niche
Image via Design Inspiration Gallery at Flickr
Do you have too much books that you do not know where to put? The solution is through interior designing by using all your loved books as the décor. This condo improvement technique allows you to organize all your reading materials so that they would not look like just a stack on corners of your condo and to utilize them to make your condo home design more interesting and appealing.
17. Staircase to Heaven
Image via ChicTip.com Interior Design Online Magazine at Flickr
When you got a lot of vertical space in your condo, like most condo in Philippines are, call for a professional and arrange for a condo architecture makeover. Utilize the space and do not let it go to waste by building a loft and staircase to it. Aside from making things more interesting within your small condo unit, you are also adding storage space on the loft, along the stair and even under the stairs! You can further renovate and innovate in your condo by adding a working space just below the stairs and putting bunk beds on the loft so you can welcome your visitors for an overnight any time.
18. Sweet, Sugar, Candyman!
Image via davemussari
Candy and happy colors are not only designed for a kid’s bedroom but for grown-ups too. You can always choose furniture such as sofa and couch pillows with colors that brighten up the condo space and make your visitors feel lively. Choose pink, orange, yellow, green, blue and lime for your decors and lavender for your wall paint so not to hurt the eyes of everybody.
Be careful of the color blocking and make sure not to overdo putting candy colors as this will only be irritating and distracting for both you and your guests.
19. The Men’s Room
Image via cke interior design at Flickr
Or are you that gentleman who is still a fan of action figures?
Either is perfect for college students. Choose from bunk beds full of combinations of pink and green or black and red. Add your own style and materials that tell something about you like a portrait or a poster of your favorite boy band or cartoon show.
20. A Night Out with Friends
Image via Clifton Leung Design Workshop at Flickr
A lounge with some of your favorite pals is a good place to be after a hard day’s work; why not bring the look home and create your own condo home design inspired by it with a simple and easy solution: light control.
It is an energy efficient home design, in addition to the comfort it brings to your small condo. These dimmer switches are inexpensive ways to save on your electric bill. Their light control feature is proven to increase comfort and may even productivity in some people. Best locations to put on these dimmers are in your living room and bed room.
21. The Modern Family
Image via Osool Magazine at Flickr
A lot of interior design ideas are offered by the internet and by professionals today and one feature is very common to the new looks they suggest: the smooth and elegant look of bringing in toned-down colors and polished materials from lights to furniture and decors.
22. The Professional
Image via Clifton Leung Design Workshop at Flickr
There are people who are really just too busy at work that their condo units are basically, just for resting, sleeping and taking a bath. If you are one of them and you do not hang out in your pad too much, then opt for the simple bold look with a combination of black, white and brown colors. Together with the furniture and appliances that are positioned accessibly to you as you get home like the TV and a very cozy sofa which you can convert into a bed to save space and money, you get your well-deserved rest and a home that can welcome your guests during a vacation leave or break.
23. Slippery Tiles
Image via army.arch at Flickr
No, do not fill you condo entirely with tiles. That would definitely be a sin. However, you can choose parts of your unit to design with such like a wall of condo living room that supports the stairs.
In filling in those walls with tiles, do not simply settle for the basic bathroom-looking ones, no. Choose figures that mean a thing or two to you or culture-inspired images that you can ask professional artists to create over your tiles so to add character and to blend in with, maybe, a monochromatic theme or a summer-loving interior design.
24. The OC
Image via ChicTip.com Interior Design Online Magazine at Flickr
Having an organized place is a habit more than it is a design, but you can always arrange your furniture and blend colors well as to create an easy-to-the-eye design making your small condo unit instantly tidy and neat.
Avoid heavy room materials that eat up a lot of space like big cabinets that do not have a plenty of storage space inside; opt for open book shelves that utilize your condo unit’s vertical space and allow you to stack on your books and pantry materials with organization. Also, use monochromatic colors of white and black to give an easy clean look without even having to do a general cleaning.
25. The Simple Ones
Image via cristian.thuglifeCristianThugLife at Flickr
The most timeless home design would be The Minimalist. You do not really have to go for anything loud or some things fancy, just your simple condo unit with a simple arrangement and neat sheets for sleeping in. Install built-ins such as hanging book shelves and even hanging lights to give your condo architecture a little interest, but it is also fine to just leave it be. What is important to this simplistic look is that you keep things neat and tidy so not have a cluttered space.
There are only three things which every Manila condo dweller must keep in mind in choosing the design most suited for his or her condo lifestyle: good planning, maximum use of space, and self-expression. It is always important to be as organized as you could be and efficient when it comes to planning and designing your space so no time and money would be wasted. Also, it is your condo unit and as small as it is, you should allow it to represent you, your interest and make you feel at home.
