My 36m² London flat: how a furniture maker lives small

HOME STORIES · A 36M² LONDON FLAT

I’m David Norman. I started Furl in my garage in Nottingham, and my London flat is a one-bedroom of 36 square metres. It has to be a living room, an office, a guest room and somewhere my daughter can sleep. This is how it does all of that without feeling small.

One colour, walls and ceiling

The living room is painted in Farrow & Ball No. 302 Tailor Tack, on the walls, the ceiling and the woodwork. With no white ceiling there’s no hard line where the walls stop, so the eye doesn’t find the edges and the room reads bigger than it is.

A sofa bed you’d sleep on every night

A one-bed flat needs a second bed. Friends stay, and my son needs somewhere to sleep. Mine is the Tokyo sofa bed. It’s compact with slim arms, so it doesn’t eat the room, and it has an 18cm-deep mattress, so it’s a proper bed rather than a polite one. Every Furl sofa bed opens to a 200cm-long bed, from single (80cm wide) up to super king (180cm).

Keep the kitchen and office minimal

The secret to enjoying a small space is being a bit conscious about what you leave out. The kitchen and the desk have only what gets used.

Clutter isn’t a dirty word

Photos, pictures, things you want to keep: you just need somewhere to put them. Storage goes inside the furniture, and shelves go on the walls rather than cabinets on the floor.

A king-size bed instead of a wardrobe

The bedroom is exactly 3m × 3m, and it has a king-size bed. The bigger the bed, the better you sleep, so I chose the bed over a wardrobe. It’s the Air ottoman bed. It looks like a standard bed on tapered wooden legs, but the whole mattress platform lifts, with up to 38cm of storage under it. Clothes, the iron, gym kit and water all live inside.

Dark walls for better sleep

The bedroom is Farrow & Ball No. 289 Inchyra Blue, walls and ceiling, with blackout blinds. A pitch-black bedroom is the single biggest improvement I’ve made to how I sleep.

Questions this flat answers

How do you make a small flat feel bigger?

Colour-wash the walls and ceiling in one shade, choose furniture with slim arms, and keep storage on the walls or inside the furniture.

Can you fit a king-size bed in a 3m × 3m bedroom?

Yes. You lose the wardrobe, so put the storage inside the bed. The Air ottoman bed gives up to 38cm of depth under the whole mattress.

What sofa bed works in a one-bedroom flat?

One that’s compact, with slim arms and a proper mattress. I use the Tokyo, which has an 18cm mattress.

What paint colours are in the flat?

Living room: Farrow & Ball No. 302 Tailor Tack. Bedroom: Farrow & Ball No. 289 Inchyra Blue. Both on the walls and the ceiling.

Another small London flat: see how MJ fits a whole studio into his.

See the Tokyo sofa bed