Small rooms for many people can feel uncomfortable and confining. However, do you know that the actual area of a room is not the only thing that decides on how large it is? In fact, the way of furnishing and decorating can have an enormous influence on this. With some design tricks, we can help you to fool the viewers’ eyes into thinking your rooms much greater than it appears.

1. Use Light Monochromatic Colors

It is often said that light colors make a room look bigger and brighter because they can make the walls more reflective, making a room more open, airy, and inviting. This also helps to maximize the effect of natural light into the room.

Different colors divide a room into different sections, interrupting the eyes of viewers and this makes that room look smaller. By contrast, monochromatic colors will help the eye of viewers to be able to move easily around the room without much interruption.

Another note for wall trim and moldings is to paint them the lighter color than its walls. By doing that, the walls will be farther back, and the room will look bigger.

2. Take an Advantage of Glass

It is reasonable that Glass is one of the most popular materials in the current architecture because it can come up with both functional and decorative purposes. Regarding the area of a room, again, glassworks as a visual barrier instead of separating a room into many small rooms like other materials. This advice seems to work best for a bathroom renovation. For example, using glass shower doors connect sections of a bathroom and remain in the whole area. Another replacement for wooden doors is French doors or any other types of the door with interior glass panels.

In addition, using glass is very cost-effective and time-saving. If you want to change the layout of a room, glass partitions will be a great alternative to drywall as it does not overload the space and reduce additional lighting. It is also considered a beautiful, stylish, and modern product.

3. Hang Mirrors

Mirrors are often considered being used to check people’s appearance. But they have another function in capturing lighting to bound it around a room, projecting it into those darker corners, and giving the illusion of depth. Also, mirrors highlight the accessories and ornaments from different corners by reflecting them into the viewers’ vision.

Some places where you can place a mirror in your home:

• Placing a mirror next to a window can optimize natural light by catching the angle of light and bounce it throughout the room.
• Hanging a textured mirror frame to the wall will add a three-dimensional level to it. In this way, it can act as statement furnishings in any room. Also, you can position a mirror to reflect a textured object already in the room so that you will add the texture to the room.
• Using mirrors can show off a garden. They can be placed in many corners in a garden that can make a huge effect. Instance, a mirror against the perimeter amongst blooming shrubbery creates the idea of a secret gateway.
• Mirrors on glass tabletops will bring a more open feel to your room
• Mirrors on cabinet doors can contribute to making spaces feel larger.

It is possible that you choose individual mirrors or mirrors going from floor to ceiling. Mirrors work to reflect light and then make a room look more spacious. The bigger the mirror, the larger it will make a room look like.

4. Stage By the Right Furniture

Excessive furniture can make a room much smaller. One piece of advice is to choose pieces on raised legs, made of clear materials and have less visual weight; and avoid heavy and solid furniture or skirted sofas. Also, there is now the availability of multi-functional furniture like a chest which can be transformed and used as a coffee table.  Here are some suggestions:

• If your home has wall space, tall and vertical bookcases are a good choice for not only storing but also drawing the eye up.
• In some unused corners, you can put a little nook by putting a corner desk or table.
• To the chairs, choose the chic armless ones with light colors to help widen a room.
• To maximize the open space, place larger pieces of furniture against the walls and scale the furniture to fit the size of the room in order not to block pathways, which makes the room look much larger.

5. Use Identical Style of Floor

Flooring is another important factor contributing to how spacious a room looks. The key tip here is to choose solid continuous flooring. Don’t chop up the visual space of your room by using different colors in individual rooms, like linoleum in the kitchen or hardwood in the living room. The same flooring across the entire space will unify the look and thus create a visual illusion of a much larger space. And the things that we have to avoid are the most patterned carpets and rugs.

• Wide planks: they refer to 5’’ or more boards which have fewer seams and more open patterns. In this simple and effective way, the floor doesn’t look busy and confining.
• Diagonal setting: No matter what type flooring, vinyl, porcelain or laminate, laying materials on a diagonal will help to create more space because this way tricks the eyes into seeing the flooring pattern from different viewpoints and make more visual interest.
• Large tiles: Choose flooring tiles that have bigger size than the standard of 12’’, and the 16’’ size is normally chosen. In this way, porcelain seems to be a good choice.

6. Extend the Curtains

By raising and widening the curtains beyond the actual window, you will make the window larger and the ceilings taller. Even if there are two or more windows are situated side by side, make sure that you hang one curtain on the whole wall instead of one by one, which will accidentally chop up space.

Place curtain rods beyond the frame can fudge the width of the window; overhang the rods 15 inches off the edge of the window can trick the mind into thinking part of the wall is glass. In addition, choose a long curtain that closes to the floor can create this illusion.

7. Lighting is the Key

The more natural light enters a room, the larger the room looks. You can easily have more outdoor lighting with large windows that help connect the room with the outdoors and not limit it within the indoor space.

Besides, you should use sheer window coverings that you can pull them back completely to allow as much natural lighting as possible. If your windows are not big enough, consider placing flowers and plants by the windows or putting lamps to brighten the room.

To conclude, making a room look larger is the first step to create a worthy-living space. You can be surprised by how bigger your room becomes by the changes that you make for it. If not sure what to do and where to start with, consider virtual home staging that will give you various choices with a budget. Now there are a lot of apps and companies that help you do this.

Hope this article is helpful to you and see you in other posts about home tips.