Make Your Room Look Bigger

You can make a few quick adjustments to maximize the space of any small room by playing with color, light, and furniture arrangement. If you have a small room, make it look bigger by minimizing clutter, getting multipurpose furniture with storage, and taking advantage of your wall space.

Steps

Playing with Furniture

1. Rearrange your furniture. When you have a small space, everything in it counts. By arranging your furniture to open up your floor space, you can make your room look bigger. If you don’t have a lot of room, place your larger pieces of furniture near the edges of your room, not in the middle.
   • Sometimes, if you have a few smaller pieces of furniture, you can place these pieces away from the walls. Placing a piece at a diagonal angle toward the middle of your room can give the illusion of space.
   • Place your bed in a corner of your bedroom to open up the floorspace.
   • Push your couch up against a wall in your living room to provide an open floor and pathway.
   • One element of a larger looking room is the ability to move freely about it. Don’t place any furniture in areas that would block a view or ability to easily move about the space.
2. Keep a small room sparse. The more furniture you have in any room, the more cramped and smaller it will look. Keep a small room tidy and organized. Start with what you need in a room, these are usually the bigger pieces of furniture like a bed or couch.
   • If you have a smaller room, consider only having a couple pieces of furniture in it. Use this piece of furniture to create a focal point. This is one area that draws the eye to it. In your living room, this could be your couch and table. Don’t add unnecessary chairs and knick-knacks, these will only clutter your space.
   • Don’t hang too many paintings or pictures on your wall. Having a lot of items on your walls creates a cluttered look that makes the space feel more cramped.
3. Make use of hidden storage and multi-purpose furniture. Place your bureau next to the bed and use it as a nightstand. Look for furniture that serves more than one purpose. Get a bed frame that has pull out drawers or is elevated enough to place storage boxes under.
   • Use a chest as a living room table. It provides a surface to place things on, but also opens up allowing you to store blankets and pillows inside.
   • Grab a storage ottoman. If you need an ottoman, get one with a lid to keep things out of sight when you don’t need them.
   • Use an extra kitchen chair as a small bedside table.
4. Keep your furniture open. Get furniture that has open legs, or tables that are glass. Furniture that is elevated with legs makes a room look bigger because it creates more air.
   • Furniture with legs or glass tables allow light to travel around, through, and under the piece, opening up the space.
   • Attach a folding shelf beneath a window to use as a desk or ironing board. You can fold the desk up when you don’t need it
   • Ditch the drapes and rugs when you can. Keep a space uncluttered and allow more light in by removing your drapes and rugs. Keeping your windows open allows for more light and depth to your room. A rug with the right pattern can make your room look bigger, but it can also separate parts of the room, making it seem more cramped.

Utilizing Storage and Wall Spaces

1. Add storage creatively to your room. Clear the clutter. Keep only what you use. If you haven’t used something in a year, get rid if it. Add wall shelves to free up floor space, use tables or ottomans that have storage compartments.
   • Add shelves or hooks in the closet. Place small items in baskets or boxes on the shelves. A bureau may not be needed.
   • Add a hook to the back of your door for your coats and accessories.
   • Get a storage bed. A bed that has alcoves for storage, or an elevated one that you can place storage boxes under is a great space saver. If you want, you can even add a bedskirt to hide the boxes further.
2. Play with storage height. Either keep your wall shelves and pictures closer to the floor, or put shelves closer to the ceiling. Don’t put things in the middle as this will split the height of the room.
   • If you place any art on the walls lower to the ground, it will give your ceiling the illusion of being taller.
   • Alternatively, placing wall shelves closer to the ceiling will have a similar heightening effect.
3. Utilize your ceiling. Your ceiling is one of the largest spaces in any room, and is the most underutilized. While it’s not always possible, you can hang things or paint your ceiling to create more open space.
   • If you have bikes, you can hang the bikes from your ceiling with a pulley system, freeing up plenty of floor space.
4. Painting your ceiling a contrasting color that’s a bit darker to the rest of your palette can draw the eyes upward.
   • Wallpapering your ceiling creates an illusion. An illusion that attracts your eyes upwards and makes your room look taller.
   • Minimize hanging lights. One hanging light can draw focus, but too many will make your ceiling look lower. Opt for more floor lighting.

Playing with Color and Light

1. Go monochromatic or use light hues. Dark colors make a room look smaller whereas lighter, pale colors will open up the room. Use different hues of creamy colors to bring more light in and open up the space.
   • Get furniture and other pieces that are similar in color and hue to the rest of your room. Having like colors helps to make the space appear more cohesive and larger.
   • Use an accent color on your focal point. Whether it’s your bed, couch, or dining room table. Place an object like a pillow, bowl, or blanket that has some color to make it stand out and draw the eye.
2. Add light and spaciousness. Keep your room light by allowing the windows to work for you. Remove your drapes or use ones that let light through. Place floor or table lamps around your room instead of using large overhead lights. Color code parts of your room and use vertical lines to elongate
   • Glass items such as vases, photo frames and jewellery boxes are perfect for trying to increase the size of your room. Being transparent, glass does not take up much visual space allowing light to travel through it. You could also opt for lucite as an alternative option.
   • If you have books or knick-knacks, sort these items by color. Keeping like colors together gives your space an organized look which helps to make it look bigger.
   • Vertical strips on a rug, walls, or furniture will draw the eye further up or out, making your room look both longer and taller.
   • Don’t clutter a small room with too many pictures, paintings, or decorations. A few are nice and can open your room. Too many close the space off.
3. Use mirrors. Mirrors are a fantastic way to make even the smallest room look bigger. Mirrors will reflect both natural and artificial light, brightening your room.
   • Angle your mirror toward the focal point in your room.
   • Lay an oversized full-length mirror against a key wall to make your room look longer and taller.
   • A mirror can also create a statement wall.
   • You can group smaller mirrors mirrors together to create a cool design and act like a larger one.
   • Place a mirror across from a window to create more depth and light.
4. Maintain your room. Make your bed and keep your room clean. Keep your rooms tidy to keep the space open. Make sure you keep walkways open by removing clutter from the floor.
   • Don’t keep anything in sight that you don’t need. Use a decorative chest or cabinet to hide papers and documents, then place something on top that helps the room like a mirror or lamp.
   • Fold up extra blankets and put pillows away.
   • If you find you have furniture or items you don’t use or need, consider selling or donating these pieces.

Tips

• Add things slowly. By adding things to your room slowly, you'll only get the absolute essentials and avoid overcrowding your room.
• Natural light also helps to make your room look spacious. Don’t block any sources of natural light.
• Get rid of clutter. Store items in chests and closets.
• Try getting white lights in your room instead of yellow lights.
• Pick a color scheme that reflects more light.
• Use mirrors. Mirrors can easily create the illusion of depth, especially if they're placed behind something. Place a mirror somewhere where it reflects a focal point of the room to create the illusion of depth.
• Put items such as lamps, shelves and hooks on the wall to return free spaces that were being consumed unnecessarily.
• Don't put too many tables in your room.
• Keep your walls uncluttered.
• Expose furniture legs. Buying furniture with exposed legs is the best idea for a smaller room. As well as revealing areas of your floor that would otherwise be covered up, it's also very stylish.
• Paint your walls white as long as you have permission from the owner/landlord. Painting your walls white makes the room feel much bigger.
• Make your bed every day. It makes such a difference as your bed is the biggest piece of furniture in your room.

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Sources and Citations

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