Nate Berkus Just Shared a Sneaky-Good Small-Space Living Tip (It’ll Double Your Space!)

He may have plenty of space to flex his design muscles now, but back when Nate Berkus was just getting started in the design sphere, he had to get creative with small-space living. Berkus explained in a recent Instagram video that one of his favorite small-space solutions in his first New York City apartment was using one of the closets in his tiny space as a media center to keep electronics clutter out of view and to keep the space looking clean and elegant.

“A small space requires some really creative solutions, always, if you want to live graciously in a space that doesn’t have a lot of square footage,” Berkus said in his video. “One idea that I’ve done in the past in my own tiny, under-500-square-foot apartment … was I looked at the wall of closets that came with the apartment and I thought it would be so much more elegant to live here if I tucked the TV inside one of the closets.”

There was still plenty of storage space underneath the TV once it was mounted on the closet wall, and Berkus even added a few extra shelves to make better use of the space.

“It also helped me because I didn’t have a wall; it was all a wall of windows,” Berkus said. “And so by putting the TV inside a closet, and you open both doors to watch TV, which I did every single night, it really helped with a small space to make it feel really elegant and gracious.”

Tucking your TV inside an existing closet may also help you with a living room layout or a tricky bedroom layout, too. You can then have your couch or chairs face the closet wall, whereas before you may have been stuck with them facing the opposite way and blocking off access to the storage space. As Berkus said, creativity is key when working with small spaces. So think outside the box (and maybe inside the closet) to make the best use of the square footage you’ve been given.