Top 16 'Box-Breaking' DIY Projects to do for making a shoebox apartment feel expansive. - Goh Ling Yong
Living in a shoebox apartment, especially in a bustling city like Singapore, is a masterclass in creativity. You learn to appreciate every square foot, to see potential in every nook, and to become an expert Tetris player with your furniture. But what if you could do more than just fit everything in? What if you could make your compact space feel open, airy, and genuinely expansive? It’s not about magic; it’s about smart design and a little bit of DIY spirit.
The feeling of being "boxed in" is a common challenge for those in smaller HDB flats or condos. The four walls can start to feel like they're closing in, limiting not just your physical space but also your sense of calm and creativity. But here’s the secret: the "box" is just a suggestion. With the right projects, you can trick the eye, maximize functionality, and break free from those perceived limitations.
Forget expensive, large-scale renovations. We're talking about clever, budget-friendly, and empowering 'box-breaking' DIY projects that you can tackle over a weekend. These 16 ideas are designed to transform your shoebox apartment from cramped to comfortable, proving that a small footprint doesn't have to mean small living. Let's roll up our sleeves and expand your horizons, right at home.
1. Embrace Verticality with Floor-to-Ceiling Shelving
When you can't build outwards, build upwards! Standard, waist-high bookcases chop a room in half visually. Floor-to-ceiling shelving, however, draws the eye vertically, creating an illusion of height and grandeur. This single change can make a low-ceilinged room feel dramatically taller and more open.
The DIY approach is incredibly versatile. You can create a stunning industrial look using stained wooden planks and plumbing pipes spray-painted matte black. For a more streamlined, Scandinavian feel, look into hacking popular systems like IKEA's IVAR or BILLY series, adding extenders and custom trim to make them look like expensive, built-in cabinetry. Paint the shelves the same color as the wall for a subtle, integrated look that further enhances the sense of space.
Pro-Tip: Don't overcrowd the shelves. Leave some "breathing room" by interspersing books with decorative objects, small plants, and empty space. This prevents the wall from looking heavy and cluttered, maintaining that airy feeling you're aiming for.
2. Weave in Nature with a Hanging Vertical Garden
Bringing the outdoors in can instantly make a space feel fresher and more alive. In a shoebox apartment where floor space is precious, a traditional potted plant collection can quickly become a tripping hazard. The solution? Go vertical. A DIY hanging or wall-mounted garden adds a lush pop of green without consuming a single square inch of your floor.
Create a simple yet stunning display by mounting a trellis or a set of wooden dowels to a wall and using S-hooks to hang small pots of herbs or trailing plants like pothos and string of pearls. Another popular option is to use wall-mounted pocket planters made from felt, which are perfect for creating a living wall of succulents or ferns.
This project not only adds a beautiful decorative element but also improves air quality. Imagine having fresh herbs for cooking right at your fingertips in your kitchen, or a cascade of green leaves creating a calming focal point in your living area.
3. The "Now You See Me" Wall-Mounted Desk
A traditional desk is a space-hogging beast. For those who work from home occasionally or just need a spot for their laptop, a permanent desk can feel like an unnecessary luxury. A DIY wall-mounted, fold-down desk is the ultimate 'box-breaking' solution. It’s there when you need it and virtually disappears when you don’t.
This project can be as simple as attaching a solid piece of plywood to the wall with sturdy, locking shelf brackets. When folded down, it sits flush against the wall. When you need to work, you simply lift the surface and lock the brackets in place. You can paint it to match the wall for maximum camouflage or stain the wood to make it a feature piece.
Example: Mount the folding desk below a window. This gives you a workspace with a view and plenty of natural light, making your work sessions more pleasant. When folded down, the area is completely clear, maintaining the flow of the room.
4. Unleash the Power of the Pegboard
Pegboards are not just for garages and workshops anymore. A large, wall-mounted pegboard is a stylish and endlessly customizable organizational tool that is perfect for small-space living. It allows you to get countless items off your surfaces and onto the wall, freeing up valuable counter, desk, and floor space.
Install a large pegboard in your kitchen to hang pots, pans, utensils, and mugs. In your entryway, it can hold keys, mail, scarves, and a small shelf for your wallet. In a home office, it's perfect for organizing stationery, cables, and headphones. The key is to think of it as functional art.
Paint the pegboard a color that complements your decor—a soft pastel, a bold accent color, or a classic white. You can buy a variety of hooks, shelves, and baskets designed for pegboards, or even DIY your own using wooden dowels. This is a project where function and personal style truly meet.
5. Craft a Wall of Light with Strategic Mirrors
This is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in the interior design book. Mirrors bounce light around a room and create the illusion of depth, instantly making a space feel larger and brighter. Instead of just one lonely mirror, think bigger. A DIY mirror wall or a curated gallery of mirrors can be a transformative project.
You can achieve a high-end look on a budget by sourcing a collection of inexpensive, unframed mirrors in various shapes and sizes from places like IKEA or Daiso. Arrange them in a tight, gallery-style cluster on a wall opposite a window to maximize the reflection of natural light.
For a more seamless look, purchase square mirror tiles and affix them to an entire section of a wall—perhaps behind a sofa or in a narrow hallway. This creates a powerful illusion of a whole other room, doubling your visual space in an instant.
6. Install "Invisible" Under-Cabinet Lighting
Dark corners are the enemy of an expansive-feeling space. They make a room feel smaller and more enclosed. One of the most common culprits is the shadow cast by overhead kitchen cabinets. DIY under-cabinet lighting is a relatively simple electrical project that makes a world of difference.
Modern LED light strips are incredibly easy to install. They often come with an adhesive backing, so you can simply stick them to the underside of your cabinets. They are low-profile, energy-efficient, and provide bright, direct light onto your countertops. This not only makes your kitchen more functional for cooking but also eliminates those gloomy shadows, making the entire area feel more open.
This trick isn't just for kitchens. You can add these light strips to the underside of floating shelves in your living room or inside a dark wardrobe to make the spaces feel more integrated and less like black holes.
7. DIY High-and-Wide Curtain Mounting
How you hang your curtains can dramatically alter the perception of a room's size. Most people hang the curtain rod just above the window frame, but this visually "chops" the wall. The 'box-breaking' technique is to hang your curtains as high and as wide as possible.
Mount the curtain rod 4-6 inches below the ceiling, and extend it 6-10 inches wider than the window frame on each side. This does two things: hanging the rod higher draws the eye upward, creating an illusion of height. Extending it wider allows you to pull the curtains completely clear of the window when they're open, letting in the maximum amount of natural light and making the window itself appear much larger.
For the DIY aspect, you'll simply need to measure, drill, and install the curtain rod brackets in their new, elevated positions. Pair this with light, airy curtain fabrics (like linen or sheer cotton) in a color similar to your walls to complete the effect.
8. Build a Secretly Smart Storage Ottoman
Every piece of furniture in a shoebox apartment should work double or even triple duty. A DIY storage ottoman is a perfect example of this principle. It serves as a coffee table, extra seating for guests, and a footrest, all while hiding away clutter like blankets, magazines, or remote controls.
You can build one from scratch using plywood to create a simple box, then add foam padding and upholstery fabric to the lid. For an even easier "no-build" version, find two identical wooden crates, fasten them together, and create a custom upholstered lid to place on top. Add caster wheels to the bottom to make it easy to move around.
This project allows you to choose a fabric that perfectly matches your decor, adding a custom touch to your living room. It’s a workhorse piece of furniture that keeps your space tidy and versatile. As we often tell clients at the Goh Ling Yong practice, multi-functionality is the key to unlocking small-space potential.
9. Construct a Space-Saving Platform Bed with Storage
The bed is often the largest piece of furniture in a small apartment, taking up a huge amount of floor space. Reclaim that valuable real estate by building a DIY platform bed with integrated storage underneath. This project eliminates the need for a separate, bulky dresser, freeing up an entire wall.
There are many free plans available online for building a platform bed using plywood or by hacking IKEA's KALLAX or STOLMEN shelving units. The idea is to create a sturdy base for your mattress with built-in cubbies, drawers, or even a lift-up mechanism that reveals a massive storage cavity underneath.
While this is a more ambitious DIY project, the payoff is immense. You gain a huge amount of hidden storage, streamline the look of your bedroom, and create a cozy, elevated sleeping nook.
10. Define Zones with an Open-Backed Bookshelf Divider
In a studio or one-room apartment, creating distinct "zones" for living, sleeping, and working can make the space feel more organized and intentional. A solid wall or screen can feel oppressive and block light. The perfect DIY solution is to use a tall, open-backed bookshelf as a room divider.
An open-backed shelf (like the IKEA KALLAX) defines the different areas without completely blocking the line of sight or the flow of light. It maintains a sense of openness while still providing a psychological separation of space. You get the benefit of a divider plus a ton of extra storage and display space.
Carefully curate the items on the shelves. Use a mix of books, plants, and decorative objects. This ensures the divider feels like a beautiful feature rather than just a functional piece of furniture, adding character to both "rooms" it creates.
11. Paint the "Fifth Wall"
Everyone thinks about painting the four walls, but they often forget the "fifth wall"—the ceiling! Painting your ceiling a light, cool color (like a pale blue, soft grey, or even just a crisp white that's a shade lighter than your walls) can have a surprising effect. It draws the eye upward and creates a sense of airiness and height, almost like looking up at the sky.
This is one of the cheapest and easiest DIY projects on this list, but the impact is significant. It subtly tricks the brain into perceiving the room as taller and more open than it actually is. Avoid dark or warm colors on the ceiling in a small space, as this can have the opposite effect, making it feel like the ceiling is lowering in on you.
Tip: Use matte paint on the ceiling to hide imperfections, and be sure to use plenty of painter's tape and drop cloths to protect your walls and furniture.
12. Create Cohesion with a DIY Color Palette
A chaotic mix of colors can make a small space feel cluttered and visually noisy. Creating a cohesive and limited color palette helps unify the space and make it feel more serene and expansive. You don't need to buy all new things; you can use DIY to bring your existing items into harmony.
Choose a simple palette of two to three colors (e.g., white, grey, and a single accent color like navy blue). Then, use spray paint or chalk paint to transform mismatched items. Paint that old brown picture frame white. Give that thrifted lamp a coat of navy blue. Reupholster a dining chair cushion with fabric that fits your new scheme.
This project is about creating visual calm. When the eye can sweep across a room without being jarred by a dozen competing colors, the space feels more intentional, larger, and more restful.
13. Tame the Clutter with DIY Drawer Dividers
Clutter is the number one enemy of a spacious-feeling home. Messy, jumbled drawers are hidden clutter bombs. A weekend spent creating custom DIY drawer dividers for your kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom can be a sanity-saving, space-creating game-changer.
You can create custom-fit dividers using thin pieces of hobby wood or even sturdy foam core. Measure the interior of your drawers and cut the pieces to create a grid that perfectly suits your needs—small compartments for spices, long ones for cutlery, square ones for socks. A hot glue gun is all you need to secure the pieces together.
When everything has a designated home, you'll be amazed at how much more you can fit into each drawer and how much easier it is to find things. This organized foundation makes it easier to keep your surfaces clear, which is crucial for making a small apartment feel expansive.
14. Carve Out an Entryway "Mudroom" Nook
Even the smallest apartments need a designated "drop zone" by the door to prevent keys, mail, and shoes from taking over the living space. You can DIY a slim, highly functional entryway nook even in the narrowest of hallways. It signals a transition and keeps entry-clutter contained.
Mount a narrow floating shelf on the wall for mail and a small decorative bowl for keys. Below it, install a few stylish wall hooks for coats and bags. For shoes, build or buy a very slim, wall-mounted shoe cabinet that tilts out, or simply place a small, neat tray on the floor.
By containing all the entryway chaos to one small, vertical space, you keep the rest of your apartment clear and open. As Goh Ling Yong advises, giving every item a home, especially near the entrance, is fundamental to maintaining order in a compact living environment.
15. Achieve Lift-Off with Floating Shelves
Bulky furniture that sits on the floor can make a room feel weighed down. Floating shelves, which are mounted directly to the wall with no visible brackets, create a light, airy, and modern look. They provide valuable storage and display space while maximizing the sense of open floor area.
Install a series of long floating shelves in your living room to hold books, art, and plants, replacing a heavy media console. Use a few small floating shelves in the bathroom for toiletries or in the bedroom as minimalist nightstands on either side of the bed.
The key is that the more floor you can see, the larger the room will feel. By "lifting" storage up onto the walls, you free up that precious floor real estate and create a much more open and flowing environment.
16. The Ultimate Illusion: DIY Acrylic Bookshelves
For a truly "box-breaking" effect, this project is hard to beat. Clear acrylic, also known as lucite or plexiglass, is a designer's secret weapon for small spaces because it's visually weightless. DIY-ing clear acrylic bookshelves creates the illusion that your books are literally floating on the wall.
You can purchase pre-cut acrylic shelves online or have them cut to size at a specialty store. Installing them is similar to any other shelf, but the effect is anything but ordinary. They are perfect for a narrow hallway or a small corner because they provide storage without adding any visual bulk to the space.
This works for more than just books. Use a small acrylic shelf in the bathroom for perfumes or in the kitchen for your spice jars. It’s a touch of modern magic that adds function while taking up virtually zero visual space, making it one of the most effective tricks for making a shoebox apartment feel boundless.
Your Space, Your Rules
Living in a shoebox apartment doesn't mean you have to live in a box. With a bit of creativity, some basic tools, and a willingness to try something new, you can completely redefine the boundaries of your home. These 16 DIY projects are more than just weekend activities; they are empowering steps towards creating a space that is not only functional but also feels open, joyful, and uniquely yours.
Don't feel like you have to tackle them all at once. Pick one that excites you the most—maybe it's bringing in some green with a vertical garden or finally taming that entryway clutter—and start there. You'll be amazed at the impact one small change can make.
So, which 'box-breaking' project are you ready to try first? Share your plans and your own favorite small-space DIY hacks in the comments below! We'd love to see how you're making your compact home feel like a castle.
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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