Tips for fooling the eye and making a room look bigger

Tweet

Small rooms can feel confining and uncomfortable. Luckily we can use certain design concepts that fool the eye and make interiors seem much bigger and spacious than they are in reality. Colour techniques, furniture arranging and smart lighting ideas are just some of the topics that are covered in this post. These ideas will hopefully bring inspiration and help with your future projects, such as decorating or even property selling.

 1. Use Light Colours and Clever Contrasts

Cream colours and icy blues are just a few of the best color combinations that can convert a tiny interior into a seemingly bigger living area. It is all about optical illusion. It is a generally known fact that light colours make a room look bigger and brighter. Light and brightly coloured walls are more reflective making a space feel open and airy, which helps maximize the effect created by natural light. Dark colours on the other hand absorb light, making a room look smaller. For an optimum effect, select soft tones of blues and greens, and always remember that brighter rooms look bigger and more inviting. A good way to go is painting your wall trim and moldings in a lighter colour than your walls. When you paint your moldings light, the wall appears further back, making your living room appear bigger.

2. Lighting is a key element in opening up a space.

By allowing natural light to flow freely inside the room, you will be surprised at how this will open up the interior and make it look larger. If you do not have a lot of natural light, you can add some creative lighting effects. You will be amazed at how this small addition can make a big difference. If you do have access to natural light, make full use of it and bring it into your home with the help of large windows. This will instantly connect the room with the outdoors, no longer limiting your space. Make sure window coverings are sheer, or are pulled back, to bring more light in. If the view is bad, use hanging plants and potted flowers near the windows. Lamps will bring in special colour and focus attention.

3. Cut the clutter

Keep your room tidy and organized. There’s nothing that makes a small space feel cramped more than having too much stuff. With things neatly arranged and out of sight, the space that is in view will feel orderly and open. A cluttered room equals a smaller room. Don’t cover your walls with a lot of pictures. One large painting works better than a group of small paintings. If there’s too much going on, all clamoring for attention, it can make the room feel busy and crowded. When decorating a small room, create a focal point, one area or feature that will draw the eye. In the dining room, the focal point will probably be the table. In the bedroom, it will most likely be the bed. Make that focal point the star of the room. Arrange the furniture so that focus is drawn to that area, and keep the décor in the rest of the room to a minimum ( limit the number of accessories ). Keep the floor as clear as possible. This is one of the most important ways to maintain a sense of spaciousness. And one more tip : take out large rugs to create the illusion of more floor space.

4.  Well Placed Mirrors Can Do Wonders

Mirrors can make your room look larger. Use a focal point and angle your mirrors towards it, which will give the illusion of depth. The mirrors also reflect both natural and artificial light to make a room brighter during the day and night. They bounce light deep into the room, making it appear larger. Placing a mirror near a window to reflect the outdoors is especially effective.  Mirrors on the walls and glass tabletops will make it seem like there’s a more open flow. You can also use mirrored cabinet doors to make spaces feel large and uncluttered.

5. Inspired Furniture arrangements

Sometimes furniture can take a lot of space. To avoid that here are some useful tips :

• Use multi-function furniture like a chest that can be used as a coffee table, sofa beds, chest of drawers, and beds with drawers for storage. Use an expendable dining table, folding tables and nest of tables, which can be tucked away when you don’t need them.
• Place the large pieces of furniture against the walls so the open space in the middle is not broken up.
• Scale the furniture to fit the size of the room and don’t block walking pathways. With furniture and accessories blocking the view into a room and to open spaces, a room will look cramped. By moving furniture out and away from walkways, you’ll open up the space and make it feel larger. If you can see the floor, the room will look larger. Having oversized sofas or too much furniture will make the living room look smaller.
• Consider having at least some of the furniture pieces the same colour as the walls. Even the bigger items like armoires and chest will begin to blend in to the room and widen out the room.
• Setting your furniture at an angle works because the longest straight line in any given room is it’s diagonal. When you place your furniture at an angle, it leads the eye along the longer distance, rather than the shorter wall. As an added bonus, you often get some additional storage space behind the piece in the corner, too!
• If the furniture in your room is tall, that might be making it seem as though the ceiling is lower than it actually is. Make sure there is plenty of space between your furniture, too.
• Choose a sofa and chairs with open arms and exposed legs. A glass table, will keep keep the appearance of a open and free space. This allows light to filter under the furniture, making the room appear airier.