We all want our homes and rooms to feel bigger and brighter than they are. Small spaces, whether it’s a room in your home or your entire home, can be made to feel even smaller by poor lighting, misplaced and oversized furniture, curtains, decor, and clutter.
You don’t have to do a full renovation or knock down any walls to make any space feel larger (though, sometimes this makes for an amazing transformation), there are design tricks you can implement to make a room feel larger and look bigger than it is.
Remember – light and bright is the moto here.
LIGHT WALL COLORS
Light colored walls will make a room seem larger by visually expanding the eye. If rooms flow together, use one main color on the walls and make the framing on the windows, crown moldings and baseboards pop with a bright white. Monochromatic color schemes allow the eye to easily move around a room without abruptly being stopped by other competing colors. The use of colors should be in your accents – a throw, pillows, artwork, and décor.
USE MIRRORS + LIGHTS
Hang mirrors across from windows and on dark walls so that the light from windows and ceiling lights is reflected and makes spaces feel more open.
Add tables, floor lamps and updated lighting to dark spaces and corners in your home. The brighter you can make your spaces, the larger they will appear.
STAY AWAY FROM BULKY + DARK FURNITURE
Choose furniture that doesn’t sit low to the ground or is skirted, but shows off its legs. If you have a skirted piece, consider removing the skirt for an instant update. Outdated or bulky legs on the couch or sitting chair? Shop for new legs – they usually twist and turn off – and replace with something more aesthetically pleasing.
Avoid bulky, oversized furniture pieces (an extra long, extra deep couch for example) that make the room visually smaller. Try to stick with lighter, neutral pieces that blend into the backgrounds and expand your space versus visually weighing down your space.
Consider glass pieces such as French doors vs. wooden doors, glass coffee table vs. wooden and glass shower door vs. curtains to expand spaces. Seeing through something instead of having something that provides a visual barrier will immediately expand the space.
SPREAD THE WEIGHT THROUGHOUT THE ROOM
When guests enter your home, don’t place a large, heavy piece of furniture right at the front of the house. Guests want to walk into your home with room to turn around, greet you and set their things down. Spread the weight of big furniture around the room so that you achieve balance to all sides of the room.
Also, spread the weight of big furniture around the room so that you achieve balance to all sides of the room. Consider size and height when you place things, you don’t want to have two large pieces near each other in one room. Instead, the pieces should be on opposite walls and opposite sides of the room.
HANG CURTAINS HIGH + WIDE
This quick tip will add instant height to your ceiling and make your windows appear wider, simply by hanging curtain rods closer to the ceiling and wider apart to frame your window more. This curtain placement tricks the eye to think the window is larger and the ceiling taller that they actually are. If you have multiple windows next to each other, use one long curtain for the entire space instead of separate rods and curtain sets which chop up
This curtain placement tricks the eye to think the window is larger and the ceiling taller that they actually are. If you have multiple windows next to each other, use one extra long curtain rod to cover all the windows in the entire space instead of separate rods and curtain sets, which chops up the wall and shrinks the window area.
LIMIT FLOORING STYLES
Continuous flooring in one style and color will make any space look more spacious. You don’t want to have hardwoods throughout your entire living space and then break up the kitchen with tile. If you do use hardwoods, a medium to light color will make your space feel larger than dark hardwoods would. Avoid heavily patterned rugs that chop of spaces and instead, if you have to have
Avoid heavily patterned rugs that chop of spaces and instead, if you must use a rug, look for designs with small patterns, solid or monochromatic patterns, solid colors and vertical stripes which can make a room feel longer.
DECLUTTER
Nothing will help your space look larger if you have clutter everywhere! If you have things on every countertop, the mantel, shelves and floors, your space will look messy and small unless you declutter. The eye cannot flow smoothly over spaces and furniture with objects in the way.  Remove objects that you don’t use daily and store them out-of-sight.
What else do you do in your home to help small spaces feel bigger?
Anna Sanders says
I also try to be a minimalist and keep only the things I needed for long-term basis. I laso put efforts in my drywall concecpts and be craftsy with it.