In small apartments, less is more, says interior designer Nancy Peacock.

When purchasing furniture, think essentials: a place to sleep, a few places to sit, a place for your television, a place for things.

"Buy two or three lovely pieces," she said. "You have a lifetime to acquire furniture."

The first thing to consider when buying furniture — or evaluating what you have — is scale.

Furniture tends to look smaller in big, airy showrooms. So before forking over hundreds for a new love seat, measure out the piece in its future space using blue construction tape.

"People tend to forget that you have to walk, that you have to allow for circulation," said Peacock.

Be sure that the pieces in a room talk to each other, too. For instance, a low, streamlined sofa won't work well with a high entertainment center.

Furniture also has to have some "enduring quality," Peacock said. It has to be comfortable and "you have to like it."

If you can't imagine owning the piece of furniture 10 years down the road, don't buy it.

"When you approach buying furniture for a small apartment, keep in mind that you may eventually end up in a larger apartment, or ... a home," she said.

But that doesn't mean you should go for the overstuffed couch. Smaller furniture will have uses in bigger spaces.

"What's so great about the small pieces that you might use in your studio, when you move into a house, you can use it in the bedroom or the office," she said. "As your needs grow, the small, compact, comfortable pieces can be used in the peripheral areas of your home."

Studio dwellers often make the mistake of using room dividers. Unless you need privacy from a roommate, stay away from the shoji screens, Peacock said. "You want to integrate your furnishing and your lifestyle so you're not creating walls that make the space even smaller and sort of mean-spirited."

Accomplish that by making the bed a multifunctional piece. During the day, pile it with decorative pillows and use it as a couch. By night, toss the accoutrements.

Organization and storage is another way to clear up space. Remove the stack of magazines and piles of mail from the counters and tabletops and place them in colorful, woven baskets.

"The biggest visual mistake is ... surfaces full of stuff. It creates this visual chaos that makes you crazy," Peacock said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.