Small spaces are a decorating challenge, especially when you're not allowed to move or alter the built-in furniture and are forbidden to purchase paint, wallpaper, flooring or window treatments. Yes, options are limited when confined to a 12-by-8-foot cell. But not impossible -- here are some tips:

Arrange like objects into groups. For example, stick (with soap or toothpaste) the five permitted personal photos in a cluster on the wall. In a separate area, stack your three books together.

If your cell has a full door with a window, prepare a removable "blind" for privacy. Take a thin piece of cardboard, like a magazine or book cover, and fold it so it's just wider than the window. Fit it into the window frame, curving it slightly so you can remove it easily (the guards won't let you keep it up for long). Either that or get ready for a photo of you on the john on Perez Hilton.

Give visitors an ironic "house" tour, a favorite of New York hipsters confined to cramped studios. Show guests the cot and pronounce, "This is the master bedroom." Half-turn toward the sink and toilet: "Complete with en suite facilities." Point to tattered Bible and dated People magazine: "And behold, the library."

Embrace minimalist, industrial chic. Because an ornate decorating scheme centered on antique French furniture isn't going to happen. Besides, stainless steel bathroom fixtures are très on-trend.

Keep the area near the door clear. Nothing junks up an "apartment" like having to kick crap out of the way while crossing the threshold. And keep the place clean. Paris won't have a cellmate, so there's no excuse for not having a spotless home away from home.

Sleep with your head toward the door. Sounds counterintuitive, but feng shui experts advise that lying down with feet pointing to the doorway generates bad energy. Something about how that's the way they move dead bodies from the room.

Make a decorative border with makeup. Using your thumb or pencil eraser as a stamper, apply eye shadow or eyebrow pencil to the printing surface. Then stamp a stripe around the wall in a desired thickness. Maybe alternate in a pattern: two fingerprints of blue eye shadow, followed by one eraser dot of brown eyebrow pencil. Neatness is critical. As is not getting in trouble for defacing state property.

Perk up the place with flowers. In your case, Kleenex flowers tied with dental floss and dangled from the doorknob.

Imagine what you could do with the place without incarceration and if money were no object. Half the fun of decorating is planning anyway, right? You could do a pulldown bed that tucks into the wall during the day. Or maybe one of those expensive Roche-Bobois sofas that flips into a bed (don't call it a futon). Of course, you'd get your real estate broker to snap up the adjoining cell and ask your architect about the best way to smash down a wall or two. Y'know, really open up the space.