What’s inside this article: A look at 23 tips for making a small room look bigger. These tips cover practical and easy ways to make your living space more inviting and spacious using home decor and tricks that play with your visual perception.
If you’re in a smaller living space, there are various reasons why you may want to make a small room look bigger. An open, spacious room can feel more inviting when hosting family or friends. Plus, when choosing the home decor, a bigger, brighter space often appears more cohesive.
If you’re trying to sell your home, larger-looking rooms can increase the impression of value of your home, as people are looking for ample space. So, figuring out how to make a small room look bigger can increase the potential sale price of your house.
Or, you may want to make a small room look bigger simply because it’s your personal preference. Many people find larger rooms more aesthetically pleasing and more enjoyable to spend time in. Enjoying time at home is important because that is where we spend most of our downtime.
23 Ways to Make a Small Room Look Bigger
1. Paint the Walls a light Color
Light-colored walls and ceilings reflect more natural and artificial light, making a room appear more open and airy. Adding a high-gloss finish can also create an illusion of depth and space.
2. Install Large Mirrors
Mirrors reflect light and create the illusion of depth, which makes a room look bigger. They can be placed strategically where light bounces and reflects the most.
3. Choose Furniture That’s Proportional to the Room Size
Choosing furniture pieces that are appropriately sized for the room creates a better flow and allows for more movement. Oversized furniture can make a room feel cramped and cluttered.
4. Hang Curtains High Above the Window Frame
Hanging curtains high and wide helps create the impression that windows are larger than they are. Long curtains that touch the floor add height to walls, making a room look more spacious.
5. Use a glass coffee table and end tables
Clear or translucent furniture takes up less visual space and makes a room look less cluttered. Glass or lucite furniture can reflect light and create a sense of openness.
6. Use open shelving instead of bulky cabinets
Open shelving or bookcases create an illusion of more space because the wall behind them is still visible. Closed cabinetry makes walls appear busier and smaller.
7. Keep the floors uncluttered
Keeping the floor visible creates a sense of openness, so furniture with exposed legs will create this illusion. It also creates a better flow and fewer obstacles that can make a room look smaller.
8. Hang artwork at eye level instead of higher up
Strategically placing artwork creates the illusion of higher ceilings, making a room feel bigger. Artwork with strong vertical lines can elongate a room.
9. Keep clutter to a minimum
Reducing clutter helps a small room feel more open and light. Removing unnecessary items and keeping only the essentials helps create space and make a room look bigger. Having the right home organizing tools makes it easier to prevent clutter from building up.
10. Install sleek and simple lighting fixtures
Recessed lighting creates a brighter and more expansive look in a small room. Lights that are flush with the ceiling take up no visual space and provide more light.
11. Use multi-functional furniture
Using multi-functional furniture saves space by combining two or more pieces into one. Examples include a convertible sofa bed or an ottoman with hidden storage.
12. Carefully consider furniture placement
Properly positioning furniture can help a room look and feel larger. A well-placed sofa or accent chair can define areas in a room without obstructing the flow of space.
13. Choose a light-colored floor or carpet.
Incorporating a large rug with a light color or a subtle pattern can make a room look bigger by visually expanding the floor, and it also helps create a cohesive design.
14. Use minimalistic decor and accessories
Using a minimalist design approach eliminates the appearance of clutter and allows essential elements to be highlighted. The result is a clean, organized space that creates a sense of spaciousness.
15. Use Sheer Curtains
Sheer curtains allow more natural light to enter the room. It’s also less visually heavy than opaque curtains, making a room feel more open and airy.
16. Use hanging plants or greenery instead of floor plants
Hanging plants take up less floor space, making the room look bigger. The vertical positioning of plants also draws the eye upwards, similar to positioning artwork, creating the illusion of higher ceilings and more open space.
17. Choose light-colored flooring
Light-colored flooring reflects more natural light, making a room brighter and more spacious. It can also create contrast with darker furniture items, adding depth to the room.
18. Use furniture with rounded edges instead of sharp corners
Furniture with rounded edges appears softer and less boxy, adding openness to your small space. Sharp corners create visual barriers and break up the flow of a room, while rounded edges help maintain a sense of continuity.
19. Incorporate a monochromatic color scheme
Using similar shades of light color on all surfaces like walls, furniture and flooring, will blur the boundaries between wall and floor, shift the viewer’s focus to the layout, and make the room seem visually larger.
20. Paint all of the trim and moldings white
Painting the trims and moldings white or the same color as walls and ceilings reduces visual obstructions, making the room more spacious.
21. Use horizontal stripes on walls or in decor
Using vertical lines, textured wallpaper, or fabric patterns like stripes or geometric shapes can create a visual depth to walls, making the room appear taller or longer and hence more prominent.
22. Choose furniture with legs over solid pieces
Furniture with legs lets light move more freely around the room. Additionally, furniture raised off the ground creates a sense of openness, while furniture with a heavy base adds more visual weight to the room.
23. Allow as much natural light as possible into the room
Natural light brightens the room, makes colors appear more vibrant, and enhances the feeling of openness in any space. Allowing as much natural light as possible into a room makes a small room feel bigger than it really is.
