What is the best furniture for a small apartment? The best furniture for a small apartment is scaled to the room, does at least two jobs, and stands on legs you can see under. Get those three things right and a 500 square foot one bedroom lives like twice the space. Get them wrong and no amount of styling will rescue it.
This guide works through the decision piece by piece: the sofa, the dining table, the bed, and the storage. Everything here runs on criteria and dimensions, not brand worship. Nobody paid for placement, and the few specific products named are here because the numbers check out. For the layout and styling moves that go with the shopping list, our companion piece on small apartment ideas covers the rest of the room.
Key takeaways
- Buy an apartment-size sofa: 68 to 80 inches wide and under 36 inches deep. A standard 84 inch sofa swallows a small living room.
- A drop-leaf or gateleg dining table is the best square footage trade in furniture. The right one folds to about 10 inches deep against a wall.
- Storage beds suit most renters better than murphy beds: no installation, lower cost, and drawers where a dead zone used to be.
- Go vertical with storage. One 72 inch bookcase outworks two low ones standing on the same footprint.
- Visible legs, slim arms, and glass or open frames keep visual weight down and let the floor read as bigger than it is.
- Skip the oversized sectional, the skirted sofa, and anything deeper than 38 inches.
The sofa: apartment-size, not just small
Sofa shopping is where most small apartments go wrong, because the default product is built for a suburban living room. A standard three-seat sofa runs about 84 inches wide and 35 or more inches deep. The category to search instead is the apartment-size sofa, which sizing guides from Club Furniture and others place at 68 to 80 inches wide with a few inches shaved off the depth.
Depth matters more than width. Keep the overall depth under 36 inches, and in a living room under 150 square feet look for a seat depth of 20 to 24 inches. Deeper lounge seating forces you to either sprawl or perch, and it steals the 30 inches of walkway you need around the piece. Slim track arms buy you another 6 to 10 inches of usable seat compared with rolled arms on the same frame.
Two more criteria. First, legs: designers quoted in Homes and Gardens keep repeating the same trick, which is that furniture raised on visible legs lets the eye run under it, and more visible floor reads as more room. Skirted and plinth bases do the opposite. Second, test the footprint before you buy. Painter’s tape on the floor in the exact dimensions of the sofa will tell you in ten seconds what a product page never will.
A small sectional can still work, but only as a substitution, not an addition. A compact L that replaces a sofa plus an armchair earns its corner. A deep U-shaped sectional in a small room does not.
The dining table: drop-leaf, round, or expandable
No piece of furniture sits idle more hours per day than a dining table, which is why the small space answer is a table that changes size. Drop-leaf and gateleg tables collapse to a 10 to 22 inch deep console against the wall, then open for dinner. Apartment Therapy has kept a running guide to the type for over a decade because it works.
One named pick, because the numbers are public and verifiable: IKEA’s NORDEN gateleg table folds to 10 1/4 inches deep, opens to just under 60 inches to seat four, and hides six storage drawers in the center section. It is the rare table that functions as an entry console, a desk, and a dinner table in the same week.
If the table stays out full time, go round. A 36 to 42 inch round top on a pedestal base seats four, lets chairs slide in at any angle because there are no corner legs, and removes the sharp corners you would otherwise clip in a tight walkway. For people who host rarely but seriously, a rectangular extension table with a stored leaf covers the holidays without taxing the other 350 days.
The bed: storage beds, murphy beds, and honest trade-offs
The bed is the largest single object in the apartment, so this decision carries the most weight. A queen occupies roughly 60 by 80 inches no matter what you do, which means the real question is what happens underneath and around it.
Storage beds come in two builds. Drawer platforms put two to four drawers in the frame, which is the easy option but requires clear aisle space beside the bed for the drawers to open. Hydraulic lift-up platforms raise the whole mattress deck on gas struts, store more, and need no side clearance, though getting to the middle of the cavity means lifting the bed and moving whatever sits on it. The trade-off both share: a solid storage base sits visually heavy, so you give up the airy raised-leg look in exchange for a closet’s worth of capacity. In a one bedroom with thin closets, that trade is usually worth taking.
Murphy beds solve a different problem. Folded up, the bed disappears and returns its entire footprint to the room, which is why they belong in studios where the living room and bedroom are the same room. The costs are real: prices run well past a comparable platform bed, most units anchor to the wall and many need professional installation, and renters should clear that with a landlord first. There is also the daily ritual of folding away your bedding. Studio dwellers interviewed by Apartment Therapy mostly report the routine becomes automatic, but it is a routine. The verdict: murphy bed for a studio you plan to stay in, storage bed for everyone else.
Storage: go vertical, keep it mostly closed
Small apartments fail at the floor and win at the wall. A 72 inch or taller bookcase on a narrow footprint stores double what a long low credenza does, and it pulls the eye upward, which makes the ceiling feel higher. Keep the deep pieces shallow too: a console at 12 to 15 inches deep handles an entryway or the wall behind a sofa without choking the walkway.
Choose closed storage below eye level and open shelves above it. Visible clutter shrinks a room faster than furniture does, and doors and drawers are the cheapest way to hide it. Save the open shelving for the things worth looking at.
In the living room, swap the single large coffee table for a nesting set or a storage ottoman. Nesting tables stack into one footprint, then fan out when people come over, and Apartment Therapy’s reviewers recommend them outright for living rooms of 200 square feet or less. A lidded ottoman does triple duty: footrest, extra seat, and a bin for the blankets.
What not to buy for a small space
- The oversized sectional. Designers tell Homes and Gardens this is the most common small room mistake, and a U-shaped sectional is the worst offender. If it leaves less than 30 inches of walkway, it does not fit.
- Anything deeper than 38 inches. Deep lounge sofas and oversized armchairs read as luxury online and as obstruction in person.
- Skirted or plinth-base upholstery. You lose the visible floor that makes the room feel open.
- The full entertainment center. A wall-mounted TV and a slim media console do the same job on a tenth of the visual mass.
- Reclining sofas. They demand wall clearance behind and floor clearance in front, both of which you do not have.
- A crowd of small pieces. Five tiny tables clutter a room that two right-sized pieces would calm. Fewer, slightly larger, better.
The cheat sheet
| Furniture type | What to look for | Dimension guideline |
|---|---|---|
| Sofa | Apartment-size, track arms, visible legs | 68 to 80 in wide, under 36 in deep, seat depth 20 to 24 in |
| Dining table | Drop-leaf, gateleg, or round pedestal | Folds to 10 to 22 in deep; round 36 to 42 in seats four |
| Coffee table | Nesting set, glass top, or storage ottoman | Nesting sets for rooms of 200 sq ft or less |
| Bed | Drawer or lift-up storage base; murphy bed in studios | Queen footprint about 60 by 80 in; leave drawer aisle clearance |
| Storage | Tall and narrow, closed below eye level | 72 in or taller, 12 to 15 in deep |
Frequently asked questions
What size sofa works in a small living room?
An apartment-size sofa between 68 and 80 inches wide with an overall depth under 36 inches. In rooms under 150 square feet, aim for a seat depth of 20 to 24 inches and keep at least 30 inches of walkway around the piece. Track arms and exposed legs make the same frame read smaller.
Is a murphy bed worth it in a small apartment?
In a studio, usually yes: folding the bed away returns its entire footprint to the room every morning. In a one bedroom, usually no. The wall installation, the higher price, and the daily fold-up routine outweigh the gain when the bed has its own room. A storage platform bed delivers more practical value there.
Round or rectangular dining table for a small apartment?
Round, if the table stays out full time. A 36 to 42 inch round pedestal table seats four, has no corners to bruise a hip in a tight walkway, and lets chairs tuck in at any angle. Rectangular wins only when it folds: a drop-leaf or gateleg table that collapses against the wall uses less space than any round top.
Ready to test these pieces in person? Our guide to the best furniture stores in NYC maps where to actually sit on them. More buying guides live in our Reviews section, and the rest of our small space coverage runs in City Living.
Sources
- Club Furniture: The Ultimate Guide to Apartment Size Furniture
- Homes and Gardens: How designers use furniture to make a living room look bigger
- Homes and Gardens: Small living room layout mistakes experts want you to avoid
- IKEA: NORDEN gateleg table specifications
- Apartment Therapy: The Best Nesting Coffee Tables for Cramped Living Rooms
- Apartment Therapy: What It’s Really Like to Sleep on a Murphy Bed Every Night