• A small apartment can provide rental income to homeowners.Living room image by MAXFX from Fotolia.com
  
  If you are planning to convert a room in your house into a small apartment, be sure to do the planning before you do the work. Mistakes are easy and cheap to fix on paper, and difficult and expensive once they've been built. The smaller the space you're using, the more important it is to get the design right and to use every available square foot effectively.
  
  

Kitchenette

• A 28-by-15 room gives you 420 square feet of living area, which is a very small space by American standards. Trying to divide a room of this size into separate rooms will inevitably create a cramped and crowded space. Therefore, the best plan for a room of this size is to create a bachelor apartment with an open kitchenette. Install a kitchen counter with an integrated sink, refrigerator and stove on one wall to provide all the necessities without using up a tremendous amount of space. Include cabinets both over and under the counter space to maximize storage capacity while leaving the rest of the room available for other uses.
  
  

Hide-a-Bed

• A bed uses up more floor space than any other single piece of furniture. By using a built-in hide-a-bed that folds up into the wall when not in use, you will save up to 25 square feet of apartment space for daytime use. Alternatively, you could use a couch that folds out into a bed. Either way, try to find a folding bed that is easily opened and closed. If it is a hassle, you will tend to simply leave it open all day, thus defeating its purpose. An in-wall hide-a-bed can be built with a dresser or other storage behind it, so that necessities are accessible when the bed is open, but hidden during the day when the bed is closed.
  
  

Skylights

• If the room that you are converting is on the top floor and has a cathedral ceiling, consider installing a skylight or two in order to let in more light and make the space feel larger. A south-facing skylight will let in a lot of sunlight, and can be a place for hanging plants to improve the ambiance of the small apartment. A less expensive alternative to a skylight is a lightwell, a product that consists of a reflecting tube that runs from the roof down to the room and allows sunlight in. Although you can't see out of them, lightwells are easily installed and can not only brighten a room but save on electricity as well, by removing the need for lights in dark parts of the apartment.