The easiest way to enlarge your house is to tear down a wall or two and build an extension. When it comes to apartments, you can always buy the apartment next door and join the two. However, if you lack the funds for these major renovations, there are a couple of tricks you apply to make your home look bigger and more spacious than it really is.
Miraculous Mirrors
Although talking mirrors, vampires without reflection, and looking-glasses as portals are fictional, the mirror does have some miraculous attributes. Namely, by reflecting light, it makes the room brighter and effectively, bigger.
You should try to place at least one large mirror in every room except the bedroom. The last thing you want is the morning rays of sun reflected onto your face by the mirror. On the other hand, a well-lit and a large vanity mirror is a lifesaver in terms of décor in a windowless bathroom.
Opt For Light Colors
You’ve probably learned in art class at school that dark colors make a space appear smaller, while lighter shades open up space. This principle should be your guideline when furnishing and painting your home.
Dark, striking wall colors can make a room feel smaller because light can’t reflect and make the walls appear to recede. Instead, to open up a room, use whites or monochromatic schemes of greys, creams, and yellows because of their light-bouncing abilities.
Extend the Shelves To The Ceiling
Since you can never have enough storage space, you’ve probably furnished every room with shelving, including the bathroom. Well, in order to add extra storage, and make every room look bigger, just extend the shelves all the way to the ceiling.
If you are crafty with wood, then this can be a DIY improvement, saving the money you would have spent on hiring a carpenter. Also, don’t worry about dusting all those shelves, as you can always place doors on top shelves to prevent dust from collecting.
Scaled-Up Furniture
No matter how small your apartment is, this is never an excuse to adorn it with miniature pieces of furniture. Instead of introducing several small pieces, go for scaled-up, and even oversized statement pieces. In the living room, for example, this can be a widescreen TV set that dominates the décor of the room.
Free Up The Windows
If there is one section of the house where you’re doing everything completely wrong, it’s the windows. You have probably searched long and far to find curtains or draperies that are ideal for the interior of your home, but now they’ll have to come down.
Yes, we are suggesting you free up the window area and leave the windows bare. Of course, this doesn’t apply to all windows automatically, as you still need to retain some privacy.
However, large double glazed windows should be left unobstructed. This will create an impression of the house “opening” onto the front or back yard, and make your home look bigger says UPVC Windows World.
Be Careful Where You Place Furniture
A crucial element is the placement of furniture. It should never be crammed inside a room, nor should it obstruct windows. Furthermore, identify which areas of your home get the most traffic and remove any furniture items that obstruct the flow. If you feel like you’re gliding through the house, you will be left with the impression of grandeur.
Adjust Lighting Levels
As you have learned from the example of mirrors, light (both natural and artificial) is an essential tool for fooling the observer’s eye into thinking a room more spacious than it really is. Recessed lighting is perfect for this purpose, as it casts light in the areas you need it the most, such as corners. For homes with high ceilings, pendant lights are ideal for adding extra depth to the room (or at least its perception as such). This can help you make your home look bigger for relatively low cost.
Multifunctional Pieces
In a small house or apartment, you really want to get the most out of every amenity. Multifunctional and multipurpose furniture pieces are highly valued because they save space for other fixtures. For example, the bed frame could contain drawers underneath the mattress, a common bed design in nurseries and students’ dorms. Once you buy enough multifunctional pieces for your home, you’ll develop an eye for detail, allowing you to make alterations to stock pieces yourself.
Display Art
Just like you need a furniture centerpiece for each room, you should also have a focal point of artwork, preferably hung on the wall. Apart from saving space, a picture or a framed photograph serves the purpose of elongating the room vertically. For example, instead of nailing the picture just above the couch or the bed’s headboard, raise it a bit to give the illusion of height.
Laying the Floors Diagonally
Along with the walls, the floors can also be used to add another dimension to your home to make your home look bigger. Regardless of the type of flooring you decide on (stone, laminate, hardwood, bamboo, etc.), it should be laid diagonally, extending from one corner of the room to the other.
You can maximize the effect of diagonal flooring by extending the pattern to all the rooms inside the house, or at least the adjoining ones. Also, if the walls are painted bright, the flooring should be somber, to create a contrast.
Nearly every house or apartment can feel bigger than it really is if you play with the design of the flooring, walls, the ceiling, furniture, etc. Our 10 tips will help you grasp the basics of this “residential illusion” in no time.
We hope you found this blog post on Best Ways to Make Your Home Feel Spacious and Bigger useful. Be sure to check out our post on Awesome Tricks That Make Even a Small Room Look Bigger! for more great tips!
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