7 Steps to Visually Expanding A Small Room - How To Make a Small Room Look Bigger

7 steps to Visually Expanding A Small Room

A small living space in your house can be cozy and inviting, or it can be cramped and confining. You have a couple of options if you have a small room. If you have room to expand, you can knock out a wall, and combine two small spaces into one. This takes a lot of time, mess, money, and effort. A much quicker option is to visually expand the room, using colours and other methods to make the room look bigger.
Rustic White Bookcase by Hampshire Furniture
1. Declutter - Clutter can make a room look smaller and confined, so one of the first things you should do is to declutter the room. Go through the shelves, and clear off any unnecessary items. Its okay to leave some items for decoration, but most of the clutter should be cleared away. This alone will help to make the room appear larger. If you don't have anywhere to move stuff to, using good storage boxes and baskets can help. Rustic White Bookcase by Hampshire Furniture 
Mr and Mrs Smith in Chalk Weald


2. The right colours. Use light colours when choosing your paint or wallpaper.  Light colours will help to visually enlarge the room. You don't need to paint everything white, though. Light yellow will brighten things up, and add some warmth to the room as well. If you are okay with the size of the room, but have a low ceiling, then you should paint the ceiling white will give the illusion of height. Paint with a sheen finish can  be light reflective. Mr & Mrs Smith in Chalk Weald from Colour and Paint.
How to Hang Curtains to make the window look bigger



3. Dress the windows.  Curtains shouldn't obscure the windows when fully open, they should hang either side of the window frame to maximise both the light coming in and the view going out and about 4-6 inches above the frame to add height.









Holed Mirror from ArtHouse4. Use Mirrors. Try installing a couple of mirrors in the room to provide the illusion of space and to reflect light. Holed Mirror from Arthouse 














Sunday Armchair from sofa.com5. Small Furniture When furnishing the room, use smaller items when possible. A large bookshelf will tend to overwhelm the space, making it look smaller. Do not try to fit as much furniture in the room as you can. A few essential pieces, strategically placed is all thats needed. A couple of chairs, covered in light colours will make the room look larger, while heavy furniture, like a large dark sofa  will tend to make the room look smaller.   Sunday Armchair from Sofa.com 




Bonaldo Tree Lamp6. Light up the corners. You want as much light in the room as possible to make it appear larger. If you can install extra lights, some recessed lighting in  the ceiling or some strategically placed wall sconces will add sufficient light to the room on cloudy days, or at night. If you can't install lights, then some floor  
lamps in the corners of the room will brighten things up. Remember, the brighter the room, the larger it will appear. Bonaldo tree lamp from Go Modern 




Lake picture by Tesco7. Hang artwork. One or two pictures featuring outdoor views such as the seaside or a mountain top view will create the atmosphere of "outside inside"    
Wall art by Tesco SS15 collection.

  








Emma xx
Little House Lovely



7 Steps to Visually Expanding A Small Room - How To Make a Small Room Look Bigger



Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this. I am trying to redo our home with brighter colors and smaller items.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I also did your window dressing tip and what a fantastic difference I really can't believe what a change its made - Thanks a bunch!

    ReplyDelete

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