How to Make a Small Room Look Bigger

Learn how to make a small room look bigger with these simple tips that are easy to do and do not cost a fortune.

Whether you have a rental apartment or home, have purchased your first home, or have downsized to a smaller home after retirement, not every home is perfect and you may end up with living in a place with a small living room or bedroom.

I live in a small apartment, so I know how it feels to live in a place that is space challenged.

While you may not be able to change the actual size of these rooms there are ways to make these rooms look larger.

So, here are a few tips that may help. We are going to discuss how to make a small living room look bigger as well as how to make a small bedroom bigger.

How to Make a Small Living Room Look Bigger

If you have a small living room, there are many things you can do to make the room look bigger without having to pay the high price for major renovations.

Here are just a few things you can do.

#1. Keep the Clutter at Bay

No matter how large your room may be, clutter will always make a room look smaller. So get rid of all the clutter in your living room.

Leave your stands free of magazines, remotes, and other items, and keep knick-knacks to a minimum.

This will help give your living room a nice clean look, and make it look more spacious than it really is.

Related: How to Declutter Your Home

#2. You Can Make a Small Room Look Bigger with Paint – Lighter Rooms Look Larger

Paint the walls of your living room with lighter colors because lighter colored walls will help a room look larger. (Here are the best living room neutral paint colors.)

You don’t want to paint the walls white as white color can be boring and you want your room to be anything, but boring.

Go for a pastel color wall in a great color to add interest to your room and to keep it looking larger.

Paint the trim of the room only slightly lighter than the color of the room.

(You may also want to read this article on the pros and cons of painting walls and ceiling the same color.)

#3. Make the Ceiling Look Higher

Paint your ceiling white along 1/4 or 1/5 of an inch of the wall right below the ceiling. This will make your ceiling look higher and give your room a much larger look.

Higher looking ceilings draw the eye and will give your room the look of spaciousness.

#4. Let in More Natural Light

Darker rooms always look and feel smaller. So, the more natural sunlight you let into the room, the larger your room will look since it helps to brighten the entire room and remove those darkened corners.

You may want to use sheer curtains rather than drapes in order to let in more sunshine and still allow you some privacy.

HLC.ME White 54 White 52 VISIONTEX Sheer White Curtains Embroidered with Gray Wavy Leaves

#5. Place a Large Mirror Across from the Windows

In order to add even more light to your room, you may want to consider placing a large mirror across from your windows to reflect more of that natural light back into your room.

Reflecting the light back into the room will make the entire room look lighter, brighter, and larger. The larger the mirror you place on the wall the larger the room will look.

(Here is a detailed post on how to decorate with mirrors.)

ONXO Full Length Mirror Large Floor Mirror Standing or Wall-Mounted Self Full Length Floor Mirror 65″×22″ Metal Aluminum Alloy Frame

#6. Consider Furniture with Sleek Arms or No Arms at All

Upholstered furniture often has arms that are four to six inches wide. That means that the arms for your couch or chair take up an additional 8 inches to 1 foot of space for each piece of furniture.

This can take up a great deal of space in a small room. Armless furniture will make your entire room look much larger.

#7. Furniture with Thin Long Legs

The closer your large furniture sits to the floor the smaller it makes your room look, so choose furniture that sits on clean straight legs.

Leaving some space between the bottom of your furniture and the floor gives the room a more spacious look.

#8. Don’t Fill Every Inch of Your Shelf Space

When trying to make a small living room look bigger, most people tend to keep everything up and onto their book shelves and other shelving.

However, completely filled shelves actually have the opposite effect. Leaving some empty space on your shelving actually makes your room look and feel larger than it actually is.

How to Make a Small Bedroom Look larger

In smaller homes and apartments, another room that tends to be smaller is the bedroom. While it may not be possible to actually enlarge the size of a bedroom, there are things you can do to help make that bedroom look larger.

#9. Go For A Lighter Colored Room

The lighter color the walls in your bedroom are the larger your room will look. So choose to paint your bedroom walls in a light color such as a pastel or a dove gray.

You will then want to paint the trim in the bedroom the same color, but a lighter shade.

When painting the ceiling either go with stark white, or choose a bold and contrasting color with a unique pattern so that the eye will be drawn upward, which will make the room seem far larger.

#10. Consider Space Saving Furniture

Instead of crowding your bedroom with several large pieces of furniture, consider choosing space saving furniture to give your room a more spacious look.

You can choose a bed with under bed drawers, or a large chest of drawers instead of short longer dressers.

Queen Select 4-Post Platform Bed with 4 Drawers, Drifted Gray REALROOMS Alden Platform Bed with Storage Drawers, Full Size Frame

#11. Use Less Furniture

If you want your bedroom to look larger, then use less furniture. For example, why not use just one bedside stand instead of two?

Choose a small desk that can also double as vanity table so you can avoid having two separate pieces of furniture.

Having less furniture means that there are more floor and wall space which will make the room seem larger than it would if it were crowded with furniture.

#12. Avoid High Headboards

High headboards on beds tend to cut your wall in half horizontally. Try to choose a low cut headboard or no headboard at all.

In addition, choosing a bed that is low to the ground will give the wall an even cleaner look that will make the room look larger by showing more expanse of the wall.

#13. Drapery

If you choose to use drapes for your bedroom windows, you want those drapes to match the color of your walls to prevent giving your room a cut up look, which will make the room feel smaller.

In addition, you want to choose drapery or curtains that don’t reach the floor.

#14. Consider Transparent Furniture

You can choose transparent furniture to help your bedroom appear larger. A transparent desk and chair won’t make the room look so filled up and cluttered, so it will help the room feel more spacious and roomy.

If you follow some of these tips, you can make that small living room or bedroom look larger and more spacious than it actually is.

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