Secrets to tiny-home success I learned living in Amsterdam

Here are wonderful ways the Dutch make the best use of very small spaces in their houses and apartments

Left, open shelving in an apartment in the Netherlands, top right, canal houses in Amsterdam, below right, external storage is common in homes in the Netherlands.

I spent a three-year stint in the Netherlands in my early 20s, and only recently did I develop an awareness that the average house size there is significantly smaller than it is here. In Amsterdam, the average size of an apartment is 49 sq m to 65 sq m (according to a report from its  central bureau of statistics in 2022). That’s an awful lot smaller than the average apartment in Dublin, with an average two-bed here ranging from 73 sq m to 80 sq m (according to a 2020 report from Hines Europe). But apartments here certainly feel smaller than they do in Amsterdam. 

Light walls and colour pops make small rooms feel more spacious.