In a bedroom you cannot knock down, storage is the whole problem. You cannot build a fitted wardrobe, you cannot move a door, and you cannot lose the floor you have got. What you can do is stop trying to add storage and start using the volume above head height instead.

Use the wall above the headboard

A slim shelf across the wall above the headboard is the highest value square foot in a small bedroom. It holds books, a lamp, and the things that otherwise end up on the floor, and it does not take any floor space at all.

Go narrow. A shelf deeper than about eight inches looks substantial but holds nothing useful, because books and storage boxes need the depth. Mount it with removable pads or adhesive strips, or lean a ladder shelf against the wall if the bed is not against it.

Under the bed is free storage

Everyone knows about the space under the bed and most people use it badly. Low, flat boxes on castors slide under almost any bed without lifting the mattress, and they turn the single largest void in the room into usable space.

Raise the bed on blocks or a slatted base if the clearance allows. Six inches makes a real difference to what fits underneath, and it also makes the room read as less crowded because the floor is visible under the bed rather than filled.

A leaning mirror changes the room

A full length mirror leaning against the wall is the cheapest way to make a small bedroom look bigger, and it costs nothing to install. It bounces light back into the room from the window, and it doubles the apparent depth.

Lean it rather than hang it, and angle it very slightly so it does not sit flat against the wall, because a flat mirror reflects a flat room. A few degrees makes a surprising difference to how much depth you get.

Vertical space beats horizontal space

Anything that goes up frees something at floor level, which is the currency of a small room. Hooks over the back of the door, a rail on the wall for jewellery and bags, tall narrow shelving rather than a low wide unit.

The over-door hooks are worth their own mention because almost nobody thinks of them. They hang on the back of an existing door, need no screws, and there is usually a good few inches of unused space on the inside face of a bedroom door.

What to leave alone

Do not paint the walls a dark colour to make the room feel smaller on purpose. It works, and it makes the room feel like somewhere you are storing things rather than sleeping. If the room is very small, one light wall and one accent that is not the wall opposite the window is enough.

Do not fill every surface either. A small bedroom with a bed, a shelf, a leaning mirror and one lamp looks considered. The same room with a shelf on every wall looks like the solution ran out of options.

None of this needs a hole in a wall or a landlord’s permission. The deposit guide covers what to avoid, the lighting guide covers the lamps, and the no-drill guide covers the shelf.