To steal a line from interior designer Jeremiah Brent, “Design is having a major moment.” And to that, I say finally. There once was a time when moving into your first “grownup” apartment meant spending hours hunched over a hex wrench trying to wrangle an impossible number of screws and mismatched slats of faux wood into some semblance of a futon. Somewhere during the process, there was probably wine involved, and then, when the burden of at-home furniture assembly became too much for one person to bear, there were probably tears involved. And then you found yourself foolishly longing for simpler days when all you needed to furnish your tiny space was a set of XL twin-size sheets and a white board to hang on your dorm room door so you could send passive aggressive messages to your roommate without ever having to actually speak to her. But I digress.

These days, the beautiful world of home design is taking a cue from the convenience and accessibility of fast fashion — and honestly, it’s about time. With mega trendy and ultra affordable retailers like Zara and H&M launching home collections brimming with chic furniture options, cute accessories, and easy starter pieces, adding interesting design elements to your home is really as easy as picking out something you like. “The cool thing about design right now is that it’s not expensive,” Brent said while presenting Air Wick’s new Life Scents collection at New York City’s ABC Kitchen earlier this month. (As it turns out, fragrance plays a key role in making you feel more comfortable in your small space, but more on that in a minute.) “It’s having that moment fashion had 10 years ago, when girls were getting their entire outfits from Forever 21, and they looked amazing.” 

If anyone knows a thing or two about stylish design, it’s Brent. The dreamboat designer continues to impress the world with his creative chops, and boasts quite the roster of celebrity clients (if you recall, Rachel Zoe had him design her entire home on reality TV a few years ago). So when Brent wants to discuss design with you, you listen.

Which is exactly what I did. As someone who’s constantly kidding-not-kidding about my impossibly box-like living arrangements, I turned to Brent for help brainstorming ways to give my studio apartment the grownup makeover it desperately needs. And his ideas, unsurprisingly, were spot on. So how do you make a small space seem bigger and better than it actually is? You follow Brent’s five foolproof design tips, of course.