Living in a small space is tough, especially when your decorating options are limited by rental rules and landlord laws. Let these ideas inspire you to make the home (and space) you want.

Open-Air Furnishings: It's tough to maintain openness in a crowded apartment room, but choosing armless furniture helps create an airy, unfettered look, giving the illusion of more space.

Back Up Your Furniture: "Floating" furniture makes for a great floor plan, but it leaves a wide expanse of sofa-back in the open. Use that dead space to your advantage by slipping a slim glass-top console behind the sofa for a small office area.

Curtained Bookshelves: One this apartments often have going for them is open wall space. Re-work a pair of sturdy bookshelves into an attractive storage wall, and cover them with curtains that match or complement your window treatments.

Find Versatile Furniture: Can't find a spot for extra pillows and throws? Go low with scootable ottomans that seat and store. They can pull extra duty as a side table, too, with a tray on top.

Exploit Your Kitchen Walls: Prevent crowding on less-than-roomy kitchen counters by looking to the walls for storage. A magnetic strip mounted high on the wall provides a resting place for knives. Hang a line of hooks close to the ceiling to organize space-hogging pots and pans. Perch rarely used small kitchen appliances or large pots above the kitchen cupboards.

Hide Unattractive Storage: You might be lacking a dedicated home office, but you still probably have a set of unsightly steel file cabinets that need a home. Cover them up with fabric, and they become a convenient side board!

Keep Loose Paper at Bay: Sometimes there's just not enough room for everything. A small apartment requires you to get serious about organizing, starting with space-consuming paperwork. A simple Parsons table leaves plenty of room for color-coordinated storage boxes underneath and office supplies up top.

Smart Home Office: Make your living room pull double duty! Mount open shelving the length of the room, all the way to the ceiling. Rest a glass top over short file cabinets, then cover with fabric and hook-and-loop tape to create a long desktop.

Undersink Know-How: Think above and below for finding extra storage — above bookcases, cabinets, and shelves, and below sinks, countertops, and tables.

Best Use of Awkward Corners: Help the area blend with the rest of the room by adding accessories, such as a thrift-store lamp with a new shade.

Original Bookshelf Use: Co-opt small spots of empty wall for attractive storage. Find (or build) a bookcase that fits the wall space, and fill with matching baskets or containers.

Space-Conserving Seating: Most apartment living rooms have space for a sofa, coffee table, and maybe a chair — definitely not enough seating for hosting a group of friends. Solve the problem with fabric-covered cushions that make sitting on the floor not a big deal. When they're not needed, the cushions can be stacked or stowed.

Be Storage-Savvy: Extra closets are storage are a rarity in apartments, so make do with your own storage shelves.

Bare Wall Cover-Up: Dingy white walls are a trademark of apartments and rentals. Cover them up and create a neat picture display by stapling fabric over a piece of corkboard. Hang it on the wall and pin pictures, swatches, or clippings to it.

No-Hole Art: It's a common dilemma among renters: How do you include art in your home without losing your deposit money because of holes in the walls? Art doesn't have to be the framed, put-a-hole-in-the wall variety. Collect objects that highlight an interest, and use them to add oomph and color to a room.

Craft Hideaway: Projects in progress can really mess with your orderly living area. Group all your supplies in one shelving unit and tuck it into a corner.

Focus on Details: Add graphic accent pillows to the couch and any chairs. Invest in several rugs to cover up standard apartment flooring. Place a table lamp on top of a stack of books to show your home is anything but cookie-cutter.

Make Your Own Coffee Table: Shove a pair of ottomans together to make an impromptu coffee table. Top with a piece of glass (or a large mirror) to create a place to spread food when entertaining.

Light Fixture Fix-Up: Standard apartment dish light fixtures leave much to be desired. You can cover them up by tacking a scarf or square of neat fabric to the ceiling over the light fixture. The fabric hangs far enough down that it won't heat up or scorch, and the pretty colored light shines through below.

Make your space work for you, and feel free to get creative!