Decorating a small home is challenging. After moving from a large spacious house to a tiny townhouse, I’ve learned a few tips and tricks to making a tiny room look larger than it actually is. Here are the 6 tips & tricks I’ve learned to making a small room look bigger.
1. Choose the right paint color.
Paint color is probably the most crucial element to making a room looker bigger than it actually is. One thing I have noticed, through all my room paint transformations, is that painting a small room in a dark color generally results in a smaller looking room, but using a lighter color is the key to making a room look larger. It makes the ceilings look taller and the walls seem longer. The room doesn’t appear as closed in as a room painted in a darker colors.
Here’s a look at a room in my house that was repainted with a lighter color and the impact it made on the size of the room. The powder room on the middle floor of my parent’s house looked small and claustrophobic with the old paint color which was a dark beige with a strong tint of yellow. After painting the room with Glidden Bluegrass White, the room looks much larger and spacious. Even without a full glimpse of the bathroom, you can tell that the room appears much larger with the new paint color.
Another good example is this living room from Four Generations One Roof. The lighter paint color makes the room look much more spacious and open.
For More Examples Check Out These Posts
2. Make sure the furniture placement is on point.
Bulky furniture can make a room look a lot smaller, especially if the piece of furniture is in a dark color. Keeping bulky furniture in a small room can be ok, if its strategically placed to ensure its not hindering the size of the room. Natural light is crucial toward making a room look larger. If bulky furniture is blocking the natural light it can create, what I like to call, the “cave effect,” where the walls appear to be caving in and the light isn’t able to flow. One example from my parent’s home is their living room area, where my mom had crammed so many pieces of furniture you could barely walk {well that might be an exaggeration, but it was really cluttered with bulky furniture}
Here’s a perfect example, from The Kim Fix Six Room Staging for MLS Listing Photos (Flashback Friday), of how furniture placement can change how big {or small a room looks}
This room from BluLabel Bungalow is another good example of how furniture placement making an impact on the size of the room.
3. Add the right accent colors.
If you’re like me, it might be hard to pick the right accent color because you like so many colors, but picking the right accent color is crucial in making a room look larger than it actually is. Too many different colors can make a room look cluttered and clutter usually results in a room looking smaller {less space because of all the clutter.} Keep it simple and clean by choosing accents colors that are neutral, even colors that are only a shade or two lighter than the wall color. Don’t get me wrong, adding a pop of color is still an awesome way to add a little flare to a room that is overall, pretty neutral, but just remember to keep the pops of color to the minimum and choose a pop of color on things that make an impact, but aren’t too focal.
Check out I Heart Organizing’s Dining Room, where the China Cabinet adds a little color to the room but the rest of the room remains neutral as to not create chaos and clutter in the room.
4. Use over-sized mirrors.
Adding mirrors reflects natural light around the room, opening it up, and making it look larger.
Wayfair.com is a great place to get large mirrors at a reasonable price. Or if you’re in a hurry check out Home Goods or Marshalls.
5. Keep the trim light and bright.
Dark trim darkens a room, which makes it look smaller. To keep a room looking light and bright and larger, make sure the trim is painted white. It’s crazy the impact white trim can make.
A perfect example of this is the Live Love DIY House
Here’s another example from Live Love DIY
6. Use storage furniture.
Eliminate clutter by adding as much “secret storage” as possible. Less clutter makes a room appear much bigger than it actually is.
This storage bed from The Sawdust Girl is a perfect example of bedroom storage.
I’ve struggled in multiple home to create a big house feel in a small space. It’s hard enough to simply decorate a home to make it feel like home, let alone make a small box of a home feel like something other than a box. But, follow these simple rules, and creating a bigger feel in a small space will be cake!
The room that started this whole project, the living room, is probably my favorite room transformation. After painting my room BEHR Billowy Down, I decided it would be the perfect color for the living room. The living room was repainted when we moved in to the house, so it wasn’t that god awful orange color that the rest of the house was painted in. However, the room was painted in a light yellow-greenish color that my mom thought was a good idea and didn’t realize how terrible that color was until after she saw how much better the room looked in Billowy Down.
The old color really just reflected light the wrong way. With the new paint the walls looked much cleaner and the room looked much bigger.
For the upstairs hallways I decided to paint the walls the same color as the living room BEHR Billowy Down — you should be able to tell by now that this is pretty much my new favorite color. Photos will be posted soon!
And in the master bathroom I chose BEHR Premium Offshore Mist PPU13-16. I am loving how the master bath turned out. I also plan to paint the cabinets in the bathroom, which are currently oak, white.
The plan is to paint the living room, the upstairs hallway, and the master bathroom 100% and then move on to painting the master bedroom.
Here is what the master bedroom looks like now…
The room is very small, but has awesome high ceilings. There are a good amount of things that need to change. First thing being the paint color. Right now the walls are an awful yellow beige.
Since the bathroom is directly connected to the room, I want to pick a color that will play off the color in the bathroom, BEHR Premium Offshore Mist. I originally really wanted to incorporate a light gray green into the house for my mom, whose favorite color is green, but then decided it might not work with the new bathroom color. Some of the colors I was thinking included BEHR MARQUEE Crystalline Falls,
So while I finishing painting the living room, upstairs hallway, and master bathroom, I will contemplate the color for the master bedroom. Going back to the living room, here is a little preview of some addition made to the living room. It doesn’t look quite like this anymore, but the new paint color is the same.
It looks even better with the new wall color! Stay tuned!!!
I found these mirrors at the Dollar Store and thought they would make some awesome wall decor! So I replaced the DIY Monogram “L” decor and put the $6 mirrors in its place!
I am loving how it turned out! More will be posted soon!
As part of my DIY jewelry storage and Vanity Center, I have spiced up a few mannequin bust forms I got from work to hang some of my necklaces on. They recently updated to new mannequins and all the old bust forms were going to be thrown out so they allowed us to take the old ones if we wanted them and I said why not!
I probably could have just left the mannequin as it was and it would have still looked pretty awesome, but I decided it would be fun to spice it up a bit and add some color. What did I do? I painted it of course!
The color I chose was Sherwin-Williams Dishy Coral.
Since my room currently consists of very mild and simple colors {grays, whites, blues and mints} I figured I would add a little color by painting it a coral color.
It only took 1 coat of paint because I still wanted to keep the fabric feel and I am super stoked about how it turned out!
Stay tuned, more on the DIY Jewelry Storage to come!
