Decorating Attic Rooms: 6 Tips and 23 Beautiful Examples

As I mentioned in my previous post, last week I have become a lucky tenant of the attic apartment. I have always dreamed about it (who knows maybe it is the impact of numerous French movies that I have watched?). Anyhow, there is always a certain charm to live in an attic, not without reason it is a favorite dwelling for artists and bohemian society. Perhaps it is a feeling of seclusion and shelter that is associated with those rooms, or perhaps its interesting shape that creates cozy nooks here and there .

Attics are very challenging to decorate as you have lots of “dead” corners and the task of any designer is to maximise the use of them. Having lived in our apartment for four days now I can see the following problems and solutions in decorating attic rooms: 

1. Because of sloping walls, there is a constant hazard of hitting your head at some point. Solution: the furniture should be located the way to minimise this risk. For example, before placing a bed or a sofa under the slope try to stand up and see that it is safe.

2. The triangle shape of the room makes it look smaller than it is. This feeling will be even stronger if you overload the space with a lot of furniture. Solution: stick only to those pieces that you really need.

3. If the room is not so big it may be difficult to find closets that fit in. Custom made furniture might be a solution though a quite expensive one. Why not to use simple clothes racks instead? As well as it is so trendy now to display the clothes (otherwise you can always hide it behind a screen or a curtain.

4. Now ok with clothes – but where to store the rest of stuff? Here comes the next problem – the lack of storage space. However, you can always solve it by using corner between the roof and the floor. You can place there vintage wooden chest or beautiful wicker baskets and you will get attractive yet practical storage. Also, you can put your books in these corners – simply stacked on the floor they will add some bohemian flavor to the space.

5. The sloping walls might seem oppressive, especially if they are dark. I recommend going for light neutrals or pure white. Painting walls and ceiling all in one hue will create a seamless continuous look, basically, the eye will not see any visible borders and the space will look large than it is.

6. Many attic rooms have windows directly in the roof. Usually they are smaller than “normal” windows and create two difficulties at the same time: unwanted sunlight in the morning and lack of natural light in the evening. To deal with first one, you should think about appropriate window treatment – roller blinds are the best as you wan’t be able to hang ordinary curtains on the roof. And you should also think about appropriate lighting. In attic rooms forget about point lighting: instead use chandeliers, pendant lights, floor, wall and table lamps.

To get some inspiration I have made this collection of the beautiful attic rooms. Have a look at it: does any of these spaces inspire you as well?