It's very easy for a small home to feel claustrophobic. To ensure that the walls don't appear to be pushing in on you, you want to always be leading the eye further into your house. Glazed internal doors are ideal for this, even when they are closed, you can see into the room beyond, plus they bring light deeper into your space too. 

You'll find both modern and traditional glazed door styles that can be varnished, painted or bought ready to hang. They are perfect for every room, except for bedrooms and bathrooms, where more privacy is required.

Just be sure to opt for toughened glass and the largest possible glazed panel.

If your wall space is limited and you resent cluttering up what you have with radiators, this infrared heating panel that doubles up as a mirror, should take your fancy. The Funky Heat mirror heating panel will also stay mist free, so it's great for any room in the house.

They can be hung horizontally or vertically and just plug in to your electricity system.

More multi-tasking radiators and heating systems

Why let four legs support your furniture and take up space on your floor when you can get away with two? The more floor you can see, the larger your room will feel, so the latest double-legged, wall-leaning furniture is perfect for a compact home.

Ladder-style furniture is everywhere at the moment, again using the physics of leaning to stay upright.

And, this is a rather special two-legged desk or dressing table for those who can splurge. Hidden within is a plug with a USB socket, a Qi point to wirelessly charge smartphones and tablets and several organiser compartments.

Small homes need to look as light as possible so that they feel more spacious. This doesn't mean that you have to paint everything clinical white and fix mirrors to every available wall, but by opting for gloss over matt when it comes to the finishing touches, you can subtly bring more light in and, consequently, make your rooms feel a little larger. These copper coat pegs, for example, not only look great, but they also help to bounce light further into the room.

When making those final decorating decisions, just take a minute to think what switching, say the taps, from matt to reflective could do for your bathroom.

And, make your kitchen unit handles multi-task too, by opting for  polished chrome, copper or brass.

The same goes for those kitchen accessories. You don't have to stick to metals, just a few items that can, quite literally, take a shine, such as this milk-white, enamel-coated utensil canister. Choose saucepans and a kettle that can catch the light too. 

The way you dress a window can make all the difference to a small room, particularly if the window is on the weeny side too. 

This little window is the only source of natural light in my daughter's bedroom, so it was important to make sure that as much light as possible came in from it. Choosing a curtain pole that is quite a bit wider than the window, means that the curtains, when opened, are mostly covering the wall and not the window opening.

Whilst tie-backs can look dated in some settings now, they do have a good purpose, particularly when it comes to small windows. Be a little creative when choosing what to hold your curtains back with to create a modern twist on a classic theme.
 
Here, I've created tie-backs from PomPom Galore pom pom strings to hold the curtains further back from the window.

Dressing this little window in our lounge was even trickier as there is very little wall space either side of it.

To maximise the flow of light into your rooms and make them feel even more spacious, position mirrors with care in relation to the windows and doors. Find our more here

Most off-the-shelf kitchen units and bedroom wardrobes finish about an arm's length from the ceiling, leaving all of that potential storage space largely redundant. And, if you do decide to use this space to store suitcases in the bedroom or display rarely used jugs or vases, for example, in the kitchen, all of that stuff will require frequent dusting.

Opt instead to always take your kitchen units and wardrobes right up to the ceiling. Even if it means spending a little more and going bespoke, the extra investment will pay off as it will make your home function so much more effectively. 

Be sure to build right up into the corners too, especially important in rooms that are in the eaves. 

Read on to discover why handleless units work best in a small space here

There are lots of clever optical illusions you can employ to make a small room appear much larger and more spacious than it actually is.

Opt for furniture with legs that allow you to see some of the floor under it. The more floor you can see, the larger the room will feel. You can also get some extra storage space under raised furniture, just tuck those baskets and under bed boxes right into the middle so that they can't be seen at eye level.

Colour can also be used to play tricks with your eyes. Light and airy colours tend to move the walls out, whilst darker hues will pull the walls inwards.

For more detail on using legs to grow your rooms click here

Up until now, child booster seats have been big and cumbersome. When they are not in use they take up half your car boot or add to the clutter around your front door. When they are needed it's a struggle to get three kids together with a baby seat, child safety seats and boosters (or any combination of these) along the back seats of most cars. 

The mifold has just changed all that. Smaller than an iPad, the mifold safely works by bringing a standard adult seat belt down to securely fit a child of four years and up - although you'd need to check the laws in the country you are using it in, as some backless booster regs are based on weight and height, rather than age. 

And, when not needed, they fold up small enough to fit into your glove compartment or even your child's school bag. So that ends the hassle of shlepping bulky boosters to other people who are going to be driving your kids about. Great for travelling too! 

Visit mifold for more

Now find out about what is probably the world's smallest pushchair here

Cameras, phones, tablets, e-readers and laptops all need charging; and, soon us not so early adopters will be adding smart watches and glasses to this list too.  All this means more chargers to store and more wires snaking their way from plug sockets to devices. So, before you buy any large piece of furniture it's time to start asking whether intelligent models are available that will help you to reduce all this clutter.

Ikea has been focusing on integrating smart technology into its designs too. It's difficult to see from the image above, but place your phone on to the cross on the top of this side table and it will start charging wirelessly.

You can do the same with the lamp base above, and a number of other items in Ikea's wireless charging range. 

To discover more benefits to cutting the cord when it comes to electronic devices, read on here