Painting a home can do a lot more to it than give it a facelift. Today, many young homeowners are working with smaller budgets, so they can’t invest in renovations like removing walls and heightening ceilings to make rooms look bigger. One cost-effective way to make rooms feel and appear larger than they actually are is to have white ceilings!
You may lament the lack of space if you’re in the process of decorating a small room, but there are plenty of reasons why small is better: small spaces are easier to decorate, easier to keep clean, and easier to organize. These simple tips will help you make a small room look bigger without breaking the bank.
Choose a Soft, Light Hues or a Neutral Color Scheme
Whereas dark, warm colors make space feel cozy and intimate, light, cool colors make space feel open and airy. For optimum effect, select soft tones of blue and green.
Choose colors that are in the same family, and use tone-on-tone woven upholstery fabrics, textured wall finishes, and tonal drapery fabrics. Cool colors and delicate warm colors on most surfaces give a small room a more open look.
Incorporate Mirrors
Mirrors are a more obvious technique to take a small room and make it appear larger. That’s why you see many apartments with built-in mirrors along the length of walls. While this specific way of utilizing mirrors may be a little overwhelming, a more reasonable way to utilize this method of expansion would be to place large mirrors in areas of the house that don’t receive much light. This will keep the light bouncing around the room, making it look as though it’s more spacious than it actually is.
Utilize Glass and Lucite
By using materials that you can see through, anything beyond will appear farther away. For example, in a tiny bathroom, get rid of an opaque glass shower enclosure and substitute a clear, frameless one. The room is the same size but it will look bigger. Now you can see all the way to the wall at the back of the shower––it may only be three extra feet, but the difference it makes is dramatic. You can also use glass or lucite for tabletops. With a sturdy base of wood, stone, or metal, the space around the table will open up the view beyond.
Invest in having Houseplants
Houseplants won’t just make your home feel happier and boost your mood, they’ll also make a space appear more open and airy. If you’re confident in your ability to keep them alive, try investing in some great plants to hang from the ceiling or display on bookshelves. Some excellent, easy-to-care-for houseplants include pothos, succulents, ivy, and snake plants!
Let in The Light
A dark space appears cramped, so installing some much-needed lighting to illuminate the corners of rooms can help it appear bigger. You can try utilizing lamps, track lighting along with ceilings, or just getting around to replacing that lightbulb that went out on the ceiling fan in a room months ago!
Open the Way
When furniture and accessories block the view into a room, it will look cramped. By moving furniture out and away from walkways, you’ll open up the space and make it feel larger. You can also choose short pieces of furniture like an ottoman, an armless open chair, or a low table, and place large, tall pieces along a wall rather than out in the open space. If you can see the floor, the room will look larger.
Declutter Your Space
Finally, the most dreaded way to make a room appear larger is by cutting the clutter. Explore your room and open up boxes that have been taking up space in your living room, hallways or closets, and in the famous words of Marie Kondo, ask yourself if what you pull out “brings you joy.” If not, it might be time to donate it!
You don’t always have to put your money into a costly home remodeling project to make it appear larger than it does now. Sometimes, all it takes is a little ingenuity and a small budget!