How to Make a Small Room Bigger

If you have a home with small rooms, don’t worry-the new trend seems to be towards smaller homes. Look at television where there is an increased focus on the tiny houses that people are building as part of a minimalist mindset. Even if you are not interested in moving to a tiny house, you can benefit from the trend by learning how to make your small spaces appear larger.
Picking the Right Paint Colors
One of the easiest ways to make your rooms appear larger is to use the proper paint colors and type. You can make use of lighter shades when you are choosing paint colors as lighter shades will brighten up a room and actually make it appear larger. The illusion of color has the amazing power to make the smallest space seem large and inviting. If you want to make a room look bigger with paint, you will need to use a combination of hues of color that accentuate one another with colors that contrast perfectly on adjacent walls to create a room that seems much more spacious.
Through the use of one main color, you can make your room into a peaceful retreat. But you need to be careful not to introduce too much of a secondary color to minimize the peace of the room. The use of a second color should only be used on small areas for the purpose of accenting. Lighter contrasting color palettes should be used when you want to paint to make rooms look bigger.
A very easy method when considering how to make a small room bigger with paint is to paint everything white. You can paint the walls, ceiling, and trim white. White works so well because it is very versatile meaning that it will always go with every piece of furniture, carpeting, window treatments, and rugs that you have in the room.
Or if you prefer not to have every wall, ceiling, and trim painted in white, you could also use some accent colors to contrast with the white walls. Think about the possibilities of painting black and white stripes on one wall or even painting that wall with bright colors such as a soft coral or turquoise. If you leave the remaining walls white, your room will still look very open.
Yellow is a great color to use if you want to brighten up a room without painting it all in white. Don’t use a very dark or very bright yellow-try using a lemony shade of yellow or a very creamy buttery shade of yellow. You might want to contrast this type of yellow with darker colors. You could even give the room a citrus type of theme with light yellows and contrasting greens.

Pastels are perfect colors for someone who wants to give a room a more feminine touch. Though pastel colors such as pinks, peaches, or lavenders might be too overwhelming on their own, you can tone them down a little bit by adding creamy beige colors for the trim. Or you could paint the window and door frames with more neutral colors to accentuate the pastels. Another method to accentuate the pastels is to offset the lighter pastel colors with darker shades which of the same hue. This won’t stop the enlarging effect of the lighter pastel colors and will actually make the room seem larger by contrasting with the light pastel colors of the walls. Adding in the extra touch of contrasting pillows or blankets in similar hues will bring the room together.
You might also want to try using a variety of shades in the family of sea glass colors to cover your walls. This means that in addition to using different paint colors which have the hues of sea glass, you could also add window treatments and maybe even throw pillows of the same hues to brighten up and open up a small space making it look bigger. Using this technique is one of the best methods to employ when choosing the colors to make room bigger.
Designers often use the trick of painting walls and trim to match one another especially in tight spaces and in those areas where rooms don’t have very much natural light. This method of paint and using colors is based upon the concept that if there are a number of transitions within a room, you will stop looking at each and every transition. For example, if you paint your walls and crown molding near the ceiling the same color, this will make your ceilings appear larger especially since now the trim and walls seem to blend together. This technique works well in rooms where are numerous amounts of trim and crown moldings. You eliminate the choppiness that is evident if you paint the moldings and trim different colors. Painting walls and trim the same color will give the room an entirely different look.
You may even want to try the technique of painting the walls and trims the same color if using a dark color. But you will want to be sure that you only use a semi gloss or satin paint because if you are using a higher gloss paint, you will need to use extra caution so that there are no visible brushstrokes.
Another trick to use when painting if you want to brighten up a room to make it look larger is to think beyond the traditional convention of just painting the ceiling white. It is important to remember that the colors of both the ceiling and trim of a room can have just as much of an impact on the room as the walls can. If you really want to make the room seem bigger without having the ceiling and trim stand out thereby detracting from the look you are trying to achieve, make sure that your ceiling and trim are tied in together with the walls and other décor in the room. You might want to paint the ceiling a slightly lighter color than the walls and make the trim a little bit darker.
Some paint manufacturers even recommend that the more calming the color, the more likely that it will make a room appear larger. This theory is based upon the fact that calming colors will make spaces look not only brighter and lighter but larger as well.
Simplicity is the Key
Many people who have smaller rooms in their house are aware that too much furniture and other items can crowd the room and make it look cluttered. Less clutter and seemingly more light in a house can be easily achieved by choosing appropriate pieces of furniture and decorations. You will want to choose pieces that have clean and simple lines and may even want to stick with several large pieces of furniture rather than more pieces of smaller furniture. The more that your furniture blends into the walls, the better as it will give the illusion that you have a greater amount of space. Try to be a little more adventurous when organizing your furniture and don’t always place it against the walls. If you put a piece of furniture at an angle, you may be able to make your room look larger.

Chairs and sofas that are raised up on legs will also give the illusion that your room is larger. Don’t forget furniture that can fold up when not in use as this can give you a much bigger room. And remember to consider the fabric used in the furniture or the rugs. The fabric should be in small prints or in very plain colors. Having prints that are either too loud or too large will make the room seem smaller, so it is best to avoid these. Though types of furniture and fabrics can make your rooms look larger, one of the best ways to may your room look larger is leaving empty space in the room.
If you don’t have the space for end tables, consider using console tables. These tables can be placed in front of a window to provide additional surface space where you can put some table lamps. And if you are able to find console tables which have mirrors on the surface, you will be able to achieve a brighter look thereby making your room appear larger. Additionally, these tables often have drawers which will give you some extra storage to place items that could add to clutter and make your room seem smaller.

When looking at making a living room look larger, think about a variation on the traditional theme of one large sofa and a smaller loveseat. You may even want to purchase a small sofa and a couple of chairs to minimalize the amount of furniture and therefore maximizing not only your space but your light as well. As you are choosing your furniture pieces wisely and minimizing the number of pieces which you have, think about dual purpose furniture. A foot stool that is upholstered can easily double as a coffee table.
And if you are particularly cramped for space, think about using a foot stool for three purposes. Some footstools can be upholstered and used as a seat, used as a coffee table, and used for storage if they contain a hidden storage compartment underneath. Small decorative boxes are perfect for storing small items to get rid of clutter. These small boxes are very simple decorations which can double as storage.
Simplicity also applies to the amount of artwork or other decorations on the walls. You don’t want to have many small pieces of artwork. Choose larger pieces that may make more of a statement and will therefore give the room a larger feel. Instead of artwork, you may want to try hanging mirrors from the walls. This technique has been used for many years to make spaces look brighter and larger. Try going one step further from just having a large mirror and purchase and architectural mirror which has the appearance of actual panes to add to the illusion of having an extra window.
Much as simple artwork is an essential for making small spaces look larger, having a flat screen television that is mounted on the wall is a necessity to make the space look larger. To make the flat screen television look more like a piece of art, you will want to purchase a television with Bluetooth so that other images can be shown on the screen when it is not being used as a television.
Use the mirror technique in an entryway as well in order to make a cramped area look much more open and inviting. Add the classic look of antique mirrors in your hallway to make use the of the natural light and create reflections and add depth to a narrow hallway space.
In addition to the mirror technique for making spaces seem larger, you can also add bookcases that are not just ordinary bookcases. Though this may seem like an unusual technique for making your room look larger, building bookcases that are from floor-to-ceiling or from wall-to-wall will expand your room making your ceilings look higher and your walls look longer. And they also serve the purpose of giving you extra storage.
Combining Space with Adjacent Areas

Do you have a hallway that opens directly into the living room? Trying tying the rooms together to create a larger space. This can be accomplished easily by using neutral colors throughout the hallway and living room areas. You could use a slate blue color theme throughout he hallway and living room and paint the walls, ceiling, and trim in contrasting colors based upon the theme of slate blue. Having furniture and rugs with similar colors will help tie the hallway and living room together.
As you are trying to tie rooms together, you might want to ensure that rugs are cut in a custom fashion. Though this may be difficult to do if you are covering small irregular spaces with already made area rugs, try making sure that the area rugs are custom cut especially in the more open areas of the room. Having a rug that is custom cut will pull the adjoining rooms together and make them seem larger. If you are choosing rugs, think about choosing one with a strip as the stripe on the rug will make your room seem larger with a stripe that has the illusion of going on and on.
In addition to custom cut rugs, you may also want to focus on the drapery or other window treatments. Having either sheer window treatments or those that are the same color as the walls will make the room look larger. Or better yet, leave out the window treatments altogether, making it seem like you have more depth in a smaller space.
Choosing to Paint
With so many great ideas to create new spaces especially by changes your paint colors, who should you be contacting to provide you with a professional painting job that will meet all of your needs?
Contact Specialty Coatings Painting Contractors, Inc. for both your residential and business painting needs.