Big floral patterns make a room appear larger. Install wallpaper with horizontal stripes to make a room seem wider, or commit to vertical stripes to stretch the room visually and raise the ceiling. A busy pattern featuring chevrons, simple geometric designs, or a texture that mimics marble can make a room seem bigger.
Patterns often feel more special than solid colors in a small space. SC: That it usually makes the space look bigger, especially a large repeat wallpaper.
Choose plain, solid-color upholstery instead of pieces with busy patterns for how to make a small living room look bigger. This will help a small space feel more open and less chaotic. Plain upholstery also preserves the clean lines of furniture pieces, making a room feel neat and orderly.
Cool Gray. A great alternative to a white paint color is a light cool gray, which can feel fresh and bright without the starkness of pure white. Cool colors feel fresher and brighter than warm ones, so it helps visually create the appearance of more space.
Mirrors are multitaskers. Not only do they make sure that you look good, they can also make your rooms look bigger, brighter, and better.
If you have a tiny room filled with rich, saturated colors, the room will look smaller. Add a coat of white paint, and instantly, you have a room that appears bigger. There is a bit of science behind this trick: white is light-reflective, while the darker a color gets, the more light it absorbs.
Making Your Room Look Larger or Smaller with Curtains
High-hanging curtains with long vertical stripes create the illusion of height, which is excellent for low ceilings. However, short curtains and horizontal stripes shorten your wall height and make the room appear smaller.
Painting the wall on the far side of the room in a dark contrasting colour while keeping the side walls a light shade will help the room look more spacious. Another solution is to paint a single element such as wall shelving to catch the eye and make the rest of the space appear lighter in comparison.
Because they add extra details, accent walls break up the space, making it feel bigger the same way an area rug does to a floor. Even darker colors that would otherwise make a room feel smaller will make a room feel bigger when you use them for an accent wall.
Just as the white does, yellow also reflects light and can provide a small room with a space-enhancing effect. Therefore, if you do not want to use white as your wall color, you can use natural yellow to get the best effect. Yellow can be a better alternative to white and can make a small room look bigger.
It's true that using one color on your walls makes rooms feel bigger. But that rule is made to be broken by an accent wall. Accent walls create an optical illusion, drawing the eye to a single focal point. There's a variation on this theme, which you can use in rectangular rooms.
Wider planks can work to make your room look bigger. They can also be more affordable because you need fewer of them. Larger tiles provide depth: A newly popular type of flooring is luxury vinyl tile (LVT). Whether you are sold on LVT or another type of tiled hard flooring or carpet, always pick bigger tiles.
Murals are a great way to make a wall appear larger and make it appear as if there is more 'going on' in a space than there really is. The best types of murals to use in this instance are 3D wall murals as they are great for creating depth.
Stripes can work wonders!
Thin stripes give the appearance of stretching, vertical stripes will make a room appear taller and horizontal stripes will make a room look wider. Consider applying striped wallpaper to not only create an illusion of more space but to create a simplistic feature wall.
Soto follows what she calls the cantaloupe rule: "Decorative accents that are smaller than a cantaloupe cramp a room." Opt for a single, statement-making piece instead. Photo by iStockphoto. Media Platforms Design Team.
Curtains usually make a room look bigger than blinds do. Though blinds fit inside the window frame, the slats can often make a room feel shuttered and confined. Blinds also cast shadows across the room throughout the day, which means you don't get as much light as you could.
Hang the Curtains as High as Possible
In order to make your window and the whole wall seem higher, put the curtain rod as high above the window as possible. Attaching the rail close to the ceiling tricks the eye into believing the wall is bigger. Thus, it visually expands the whole room.
As I mentioned above, a half-painted wall is a great idea if you have low ceilings. Painting up to the top of the wall will draw attention to the size of the room – you are outlining the ceiling – and, by default, the floor size – when you do that and highlighting the edges makes the room look smaller.
When it comes to small-space decorating, the common advice is to go all-white on the walls to reflect the most light and make the space feel bigger.
Wear light colors – black is slimming, and light colors make you look a bit larger and are bulking. Wear light blues and light browns.
Bright colors like orange, yellow, or even a grassy green can draw more light into a darker room. These bold tones shine in artificial light and are best for rooms with very little natural light. They are the perfect accent to mix up your space and build décor around.