How to Make Your Home Feel Bigger Than It Is!
How To Make Your Home Feel Bigger Than It Is!
Whether you're looking to sell your home or just want to feel like there's more space, here are a few tips!
Create a focal point.
Adding a focal point, like a large piece of art or a beautiful fireplace, can help to make your home feel bigger. It gives the eye something to rest on and makes the space feel more deliberate, essentially making the room feel grander.
How to choose the right focal point for your home:
Creating a focal point isn't as difficult as it might seem. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing one:
What type of home do you have?
A traditional home might benefit from a beautiful fireplace, while a modern home might be better suited with a large piece of art.
Think of the feel of your home and how you want people to describe it to their friends later. Remember, just because you're trying to make the room feel larger doesn't mean that it has to be less visually appealing.
What is your budget?
A focal point doesn't have to be expensive, but it should be something you love and that adds value to your home. That's good news for your wallet.
After all, trading in all your worldly possessions for just one item won't make your house look bigger, it will just feel empty.
What is your style?
A focal point can help to define the style of your home. If you're not sure what your style is, take a look at some of your favourite rooms and try to emulate some of the elements.
If you've been living in the house for some time, a new perspective can make all the difference. You can ask a friend what they think.
How big is your focal point?
If you're having difficulty deciding, use painter's tape to see how far it extends. It's a great trick to map out how much bigger your room can feel.
The painter's tape will help you figure out how far its effect extends and what pathways it crosses, making it easier to figure out where to place another focal point in an adjacent room.
A perfect piece as a focal point is a painting, try to place it a little higher up to draw the eye upward. It's a common trick, looking up makes people feel smaller and in turn, makes the space they're in feel bigger. Do it just right and you can have people looking up toward the ceilings instantly.
Keep doors, and walls in mind when you plan out your focal point.
Opt for minimal furniture.
When you're trying to make a room feel bigger, it's best to avoid furniture that takes up a lot of space or makes a space feel cluttered.
This might mean getting rid of your large entertainment unit or getting smaller bedside tables. Even a small bedroom isn't doomed to feel cramped when you elect to have fewer pieces of furniture.
Try not to have furniture that covers up too much of your floor. When someone steps from your doors, they should feel like they can almost dance between the alleys. Even houses with big square footage can suffer from too much furniture, constricting space and movement.
But don't toss the TV away just yet, there's something you can do to keep it and still have the room feel bigger.
Rethink your rooms.
Think of how different pieces of furniture work in different rooms. A bulky sofa in one of the smaller rooms may be perfect in the more spacious living room.
Larger pieces of furniture are not necessarily your enemy, it's all about understanding the needs of the rooms in your house.
Some pieces of furniture can even partially block doors or windows and that's the last thing you want. Keep smaller pieces for small spaces and big pieces for something like the living room.
Sometimes stuff is just stuffing.
Stuffing is great for thanksgiving but your home is no turkey. A yard sale can be a fun family activity and help you free yourself of all the things that make your home feel cluttered.
You can even use the money to get a new overhead light to spruce up the bathroom.
Add plants and trees for natural light.
Plants and trees can add a softening effect to your home. They make the space feel more open and inviting while offering a number of benefits including better air quality.
It is especially helpful when you have smaller windows in a room. If you want to know how to make your home look bigger, this is key!
Add a mirror.
Mirrors reflect light and make a room feel bigger. They're also an affordable way to add personality to a space. When you're choosing a mirror, be sure to think about the style of your home and the other pieces of furniture you have in the room. You don't want it to clash or feel out of place.
It's not a window though, so make sure there's plenty of light in the room to give the illusion its full effect.
Going on the same principle of the focal point we looked at earlier, don't just plaster your wall with reflective surfaces. A well-placed mirror can make a house feel much more spacious. Remember, clutter is the enemy.
Maximize natural light.
If you're looking for tips on how to make your home look bigger, this is a big one. Natural light makes any space feel more open and inviting. If you can't add any windows, think about adding skylights or even just bringing in some extra lamps.
Think of how you can let the sun shine its light over as much space as you can. Even a tiny space can feel bigger with the right lighting.
Paint the walls a bright, happy colour.
Dark walls can make a small room feel smaller still. If you're looking for ways to make your home look bigger, light colours are the way to go.
They'll reflect the natural light and make the space feel airier. Think about the properties of the different colours you can use and keep in mind the simplicity of white's reflective qualities.
Don't forget the fifth wall.
It's not the floor, we talked about the floor already. Look up and, unless you're reading this outside, you have a ceiling over your head.
Chances are that the ceiling you glanced at was white, and there's a reason for that. Think about it, your ceiling is just an empty space that you never think to do anything with. Why not paint it the same colour as your walls?
Paint it a lighter shade of whatever colour you painted for the walls and watch how much light gets reflected throughout the room. Your lightbulbs won't work quite as hard either, so you can save on energy costs as well.
Add a bigger rug.
A dingy, small rug can make a room look smaller and more cramped. A larger area rug might be just what your space needs to bring everything together and make it look as fantastic as you'd hoped it would!
Area rugs help delineate space and allow you to create the illusion of making your home feel larger. You can even make a small room look bigger with the right rug.
Get a smaller bed frame.
It's easy for a bedroom to become cluttered - and we're not just talking about undone beds and strewn clothes. The floor space is critical, no one wants to shimmy along a dresser to get to their side of the bed.
A bed frame doesn't have to be big. A more discrete one can help free up the floor and the sides of your room. It will not only make the room look bigger, but it will also free up space for your mornings.
Keep drapes open.
This one is especially helpful in the summertime when the natural light is at its best. Keeping your drapes and blinds open will let that light pour right in and make the room feel bigger as a result.
Opt for curtains instead.
Did the previous point make you look at your drapes and realize that they feel bulky? Maybe it's time for something different.
Thinner curtains can help enliven a window instead of weighing it down. Drapes, while beautiful, can make a small room feel pushed in whereas light and airy curtains can float off the walls. Get them in the same shade as the wall to create a cloud-like effect on bright sunny days.
Think about built-ins.
A built-in is a piece of furniture that's part of the wall of the house. They can act as bookshelves or as a place to house the focal point of the room.
Though unusual in a small home, you can add them to increase the value of the entire house. Think of a wall that you don't use much or one taken up by a big bulky shelf or a big piece of furniture.
What a built-in would allow is that it would give you a space to put big things like a television, for example, and surround it with other smaller items. You would also free up space from the floor and ceiling since the built-in is part of the wall itself.
Remove unnecessary walls.
This one is a little bit more challenging and the thought of having the house torn apart might be enough to send you screaming in another direction. But, if your home is a bit older and it's easy to take down a wall or two (or three) then this might be great for an immediate impact.
An open floor plan can make your home feel airy. The square footage is the same but the visual space that and you guests can take in is more much interesting.
Add an accent wall.
An accent wall can be a beautiful way to add some personality to your home and make it feel bigger at the same time. If you choose the right colour and the right materials, an accent wall can become the focal point of the room. It can be a great way to add some extra dimension, too.
Did we miss anything?
These are just some of the ways to make your small spaces feel bigger. No matter what room it is; the kitchen, the bedroom, the dining room, they all feel better with the right lighting and the right furniture. Although you could tear down a wall or two, add a window here and there, there are quite a few things you can do to prevent making a room feel smaller than it is.
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