In an ideal world we’d all live in vast, spacious homes, but financial realities conspire against us and many, if not most of us have to make some concessions with regards to the size of our homes. As a result, it’s likely that they’ll be at least one room in our home that we wish were a little larger.
Fortunately, nine tenths of reality is perception, and interior design is no exception. We can’t make square metres magically appear, but there are a few tips and tricks that we can use to make a smaller room look and feel larger than it is.
So read on, and learn how trick your eyes and make a living room - or any room - look larger.
With a smaller room, particularly a living room, we must aim to turn cramped into comfortable. We don’t want small, we want cosy. Soft skinned furniture can help to create a cosier atmosphere making the space feel more comfortable and less cramped.
Strategically placing furniture is a great way to make a smaller room appear bigger than it is. Position the main sofa so that your back is to the dining area to free up floor space.
Use a squared rug to give a room the appearance of greater breadth.
By adding a few carefully chosen decorative elements you can vastly improve a room’s appeal, as well as diverting attention from its smaller size.
Interior designers often install lights strategically to create interesting focal points such as shelves, sculptures and artwork. You can use this technique to place focus on certain areas of the room while taking it away from other areas, thus distorting the perception of the room.
Colors have the ability to brighten, lengthen or dwarf spaces. The right colour can make your room feel much larger.
Brighten up a boring space, and make it feel as though there’s more going on with the addition of a few colourful accents.
Open windows allowing in lots of natural light will drastically increase the feeling of space in any room.
Painting a wall half way to the ceiling will give the illusion that the ceiling is much higher than it actually is.
Keep furniture to the corners so as not to eat into the room’s space.
Rugs can be used to draw attention to a certain area of the room and divide the space making it appear larger.
Installing wall mounted shelving will provide more storage and perhaps free up space in your small room, but more than that it will draw your eyes upward encouraging you to survey the space in its entirety.
Painting with neutral colours is one of the most economical options for making your room feel bigger.
Details such as attractive art pieces can divert attention away from a room’s small size. However, be careful not to go overboard as a cluttered room will have the opposite effect.
The room’s atmosphere depends very much on the way furniture is distributed, so take care where you place the furniture.
Read on for more great advice about maximising space in a smaller home.