THE ILLUSION OF SPACE - TIPS ON MAKING SMALL ROOMS SEEM BIGGER!

Whether you are living in a city apartment, renting an older house or building a new family home, we all struggle with those tricky smaller spaces and how to make them look and feel more spacious.  With a little planning and forethought, even the most cramped spaces can become both functional and eye-catching. Here are our top tips for making a small room look and feel bigger.

Paint choice

First up we have colour.  The colour you choose on your walls will drastically change the feel of a room.  It's important to note that light colours will reflect light, in turn, make your room feel lighter and bigger. It's best to avoid any dark colours and feature walls in smaller rooms as it will make it feel more cramped.

Furniture Style & Colour

The first common mistake in a small space is using big, bulky furniture.  Oversized pieces will crowd the room and make it feel much smaller than it actually is.  It's best to invest in smaller ‘finer’ pieces, in particular, items with a defined leg.  This creates an illusion of lightness and the furniture appears to take up less space. When choosing the furniture pay attention to its scale, and consider how much room each piece takes up.  You want there to be a balance so the furniture doesn’t take up too much room, or looking like it's lost in the space. The colour of the furniture is also key.  The same principle applies to the wall colour.  Light materials will reflect light, only adding to the illusion of space.  Instead of filling your room with big bold coloured furniture, why not choose something more neutral and select a few darker pieces for a ‘pop’ of colour.

Mirrors

Mirrors are the ultimate optical illusion when it comes to space.  Not only do they trick our eye into believing the room is much bigger, but they also reflect light around the room.  Why not consider hanging a mirror directly across from the largest window in your room, or arrange an array of smaller mirrors to help brighten a dark corner of a room.

Minimise Clutter

One of the most important tips for making your space feel better is removing the clutter, less is more! The more pieces, possessions and patterns you have in a room, the more cluttered it will feel!  This doesn’t mean that you have to strip everything down to its bare essentials.  Just consider what is most important to you in your everyday life and display them with purpose.  Instead of having a coffee table with 20 items, for instance, select the three most important items to display.  Too much clutter in a room can be distracting to the eye and only makes a space feel smaller.

Storage

To help with the issue of clutter as mentioned earlier, storage is one of your biggest friends.  Rather than taking up space in your room on display, don’t get rid of them, just store them safely away for when you need them next.  When considering storage, there are many multi use pieces available that save a lot of space like a bed base with drawers for your extra winter jumpers, bench seats with storage under for those extra cushions and blankets in the warmer months or an expandable dining table for those extra guests.

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