Thinking Inside the Box (Room)

Good things in small packages

Nikki Griffiths’s box room office is a scant 1.9 m (6.2 ft) by 3.2 m (10.5 ft). My second husband wouldn’t have been able to stretch across it without bending his knees. I love that she didn’t let the skimpy proportions keep her from going big with colour and pattern.

Box rooms were originally meant to hold boxes. I did not realise that until I moved to America, where they don’t seem to have box rooms—or at least they don’t call them such. Whilst I have come across many small rooms in the U.S.—I lived primarily in the crowded Boston-New York-Philadelphia corridor—few were as wee as the box rooms of my family and friends in England. And even the tiniest rooms in the States had some sort of incorporated closet, which I’ve yet to come across in a true box room unless the homeowner added it.

When I was growing up, people I knew used their box room as a kids’ playroom, a guest bedroom for the one time a year in-laws came to visit, or storage. These rooms were usually grim and barely decorated. As a claustrophile, however, I fantasised about doing one up as a secret-garden-like space (where I could hunker down and reread The Secret Garden, of course) or laying mattresses from end to end so that the entire space was a bed from which I could gaze up at the constellations I would paint on the ceiling.

Zeta @the_house_with_the_whitestairs created something akin to my secret garden room! The fluffy faux fur tossed over the daybed obscures that this box room is also a guest bedroom.

Unless you’re a Bridgerton, chances are you have at least one room in your home that you wish were larger—and if you live in a studio apartment, you likely wish your sole room were larger. So I sifted through some favourite box rooms on Instagram for inspiration and tips.

My childhood/teenhood bedroom was not much bigger than this one, and definitely not as well thought out. Danielle Dixon made up for the lack of floor space by creating storage under the bed. And imagine the fun a little one could have hiding in the space adjacent to the desk!

In a box room or any other petite space the serves as a bedroom and an office, a storeroom, or what-have-you, using curtains to enclose the bed ensures a cosy night’s sleep sans distractions. By lining the walls and ceiling of the sleeping area in the same pattern as the bedskirt and interior curtain, Salvesen Graham reinforces the separation of the spaces. Also note the bedside sconce!

In the box room of Clair @renovating_round_the_bend, the desktop folds down flat against the wall, freeing up space when the room is used as a guest bedroom. And again, if ever a space called for sconces, it’s a box room.

This before-and-after really shows how even itsy-bitsy spaces can be useful and chic. Tracy Cole of design studio Hello Flora added storage above the desk and beneath the window, using the latter as a base for a window seat. The reeded wall panelling and the marbleised desktop add luxe intentionality. Photo by David Cole.

Love love love this room by Nicky Phillips: a ceiling-grazing shelf (reachable by standing on the bed—and the handles make the baskets especially easy to access); racks on the wall at the foot to hold notebooks, reading material, and such; a gooseneck sconce; and just enough pattern and colour. Photo by Dominic Blackmore.

So, the takeaways?

• Be ingenious with storage: under beds and settees, over desks and windows. One caveat: If putting shelves over a bed, make sure there’s enough headspace clearance.

• Light up the room with sconces, pendants, and chandeliers rather than lamps, which take up precious floor space. And don’t be afraid to opt for fabulosity—a crystal chandelier proves that the box room is no mere afterthought.

• Do be careful if placing furniture close to a radiator. I scorched the back of a chaise that way.

• No, colour and pattern do not automatically make a room feel smaller. Go for it!

I’d love to see your box rooms, btw!