One of the most common questions any homeowner has is how to make a room feel bigger, since smaller areas are often dysfunctional and can cause issues within your home. As we head into the cooler seasons, you and your family will likely be spending more time inside, which can make small spaces feel especially claustrophobic.
If certain areas in your home are overwhelmed with clutter and feel cramped, there are many routes to consider to fix this, from a few small changes all the way up to a larger renovation. While there are nearly endless options for renovating and what you choose to do will depend largely on your specific needs, here are our top three renovation tips for making rooms feel bigger.
Lighting is Key
Having good lighting in any room makes it feel more open and bright. Natural light is ideal for this, so ample windows throughout the room will make a huge difference. You’ll also want good, bright, well-toned artificial lighting to help supplement the natural light throughout the day if you spend a lot of time in the room in question during the dark evening or early morning hours.
Another great lighting trick for making a room feel bigger is to add mirrors, which will automatically amplify the lighting. Mirrors will reflect the already-present light within the room, helping to brighten up any small space. Since mirrors also show another image of the room, they can additionally trick the eye into thinking that there is extra space in a smaller room.
Not covering windows with drapes or, if you do, using light, flowy fabrics that light can still filter through will also help to retain light in the room. Whether to paint a room light or dark colors in order to make it feel larger is a debated topic, but either extreme you go to can assist in making a room feel larger when done right. Lighter walls, like mirrors, are more reflective of light and make a room feel more open and brighter.
Darker walls paired with lighter furniture for a high-contrast approach make the corners of the room almost disappear, putting the focus on the furnishings and not the space itself. On the other hand, furnishing a room with similarly colored furniture to darker walls may help to make a room feel larger due to its simplicity. On top of that, painting only the longest walls a darker color can help you to highlight the larger sides of the room. All of this to say, no matter your style preferences, there is a way to incorporate any wall color you desire while still making a smaller room feel bigger.
Emphasize the Space You Do Have
There are a number of ways to approach this tip, which ultimately depend on the actual dimensions and shape of your room. Is your room taller than it is wide? Emphasize the vertical space. Is it long and narrow? Draw the eye to the room’s length.
Again, there are several ideas on how best to emphasize verticality in a room, and what you choose will depend on your specific preferences. Some keep furniture and wall decorations incredibly low to the ground, leaving a lot of blank, light space above them, as this will make the room feel even taller. Other designers argue for adding design elements that particularly draw the eye to the height of the room, like having a low hanging light fixture with a long, visible connection to the ceiling, or adding detailing toward the top of the walls or on the ceiling itself. Vertical elements like paneling can also help here.
For a longer room, horizontal elements or paneling can help ensure that your eyes are processing the larger dimension of the room versus the smaller one. As mentioned previously in our discussion of wall colors, making the longer walls and even the ceiling a darker color, while making the smaller walls a lighter, brighter, or patterned feature, can give the room the illusion of being even longer than it is, creating a tunnel-like effect. Lastly, keeping furniture simple and scaling down furnished areas to create larger empty spaces and walkways really helps to transform the appearance of a long but narrow room in order to make it feel bigger.
Make Functional Storage Solutions a Priority
Organization is essential when it comes to making small spaces liveable. There are many ways to ensure that the smaller areas of your home avoid clutter, from quick organization tips and basic materials to installing new storage solutions. Here are our favorite tips for organizing small spaces lastingly and effectively. Just think, if tiny home owners can do it, then you can, too!
Store seasonal items effectively with simple solutions that work for you. One good way to accomplish this is to toss bedding, towels, and other larger seasonal items into a blanket or PEVA bag for smaller storage under the bed, in closets, or in your larger storage spaces like garages, attics, or basements. Having a schedule in mind for switching seasonal items and decor out in a timely manner, and a plan for where these things will go while they’re not being used is key to making sure that they don’t create extra clutter for you and your family.
Another important tip here is to use wall space and multifunctional furniture for storage. Putting up bookshelves or built-in shelving moves your extraneous items from the floor to the wall, freeing up more walking space. Additionally, using furniture pieces like ottomans, chairs in which bottom cushions shield a hidden storage space, a headboard with a mini bookshelf, desks with large drawers, or any other furniture piece that can double secretly as storage is a creative way to ensure organization in any small space.
Malek Construction Can Help You Determine How to Make a Room Feel Bigger
No matter the room in question, no one likes a space that feels cramped and small. With expert design-build services and an in-house interior designer, Malek Construction is well-equipped to help you come up with custom solutions to make a room feel bigger. Well-known in Northeast Ohio for our professionalism and customer-focused design solutions that respect clients’ budgets and individualized needs, we’re the construction partner you need for any home build or renovation.
