Do you have a tough time finding enough space in your house? Do you ever feel as if the walls are closing in on you? According to research, humans dislike being confined and prefer to be in massive, more open spaces.
Living in a cramped and overcrowded house can be suffocating at times, but many argue this is to be our mental projection. However, there are numerous ways to "expand" your living spaces by deceiving the eye and making others and yourself believe that your home is much larger than it is.
So read on to get some interior design tips to go from closed quarters to debonair.
7 Interior Design Tips to Make Your Room Feel Spacious
Making a few modifications to the layout, decor, and overall appearance of your house can give the illusion of space — and if done correctly, this can be nearly as successful as vast construction works. These are the elements that designers and architects take into account when creating spaces.
Here are seven interior design tips for creating the illusion of space to keep your home from feeling cramped and oppressive.
1. Add Mirrors to Your Room
Mirrors reflect light, making a room feel more open and spacious. Furthermore, by reflecting through a mirror the current area of a room, you add space and depth. For better reflection of light and inflating the appearance of a small room, use individual mirrors or mirrors that run from floor to ceiling.
Also, mirrors do not have to be limited to the bedroom and bathroom. Experiment with reflective surfaces in the kitchen, living and dining rooms, and even narrow hallways. Position a mirror opposite a window whenever possible to take advantage of natural light. Before hanging anything, consider which parts of the room you want it to reflect.
2. Choose the Right Curtains
Closing your windows with heavy, dark curtains will make your room appear crowded. Natural light always makes a room appear larger, so keep windows as open to daylight as possible and move the furniture away from the window. If you use curtains or drapes, ensure they are well above the top of the window and as close to the ceiling as possible.
Also, ensure that the curtains reach the ground. Extending the curtain shaft beyond the actual window, both in height and width, gives the impression that the window is massive and the ceilings are higher than they are. It will enhance the perceived magnitude of the room, which is excellent for interior design.
3. Select the Appropriate Furniture
Selecting the right furniture is the key to utilising and making the most of your space. Avoid putting large, bulky furniture in the smallest rooms. Also, use legs-up couches and sofas, as skirting around the bottom blocks light. Smaller pieces of furniture that are multipurpose and versatile are ideal, such as a sideboard that also serves as an entertainment centre.
The fewer pieces of furniture you possess, the larger the room will appear. Simple open-framed tables and chairs, furniture with light frames, timber or steel, and open backs are the best furniture types to use in small spaces. Think light, mobile, and minimalistic, and you'll be able to make the best space-saving choices with this interior design tip.
4. Change Your Flooring to Enhance Room Space
Nothing shatters up a living space like varying flooring types. If your home has open-plan areas, try to keep one-floor type consistent throughout. Rooms appear far more spacious, with solid and continuous flooring. Larger tiles can enable a small space to appear larger. The main reason is that fewer grout lines are breaking up the floor, tricking your brain into believing the space is vaster than it is.
Flooring installed on the diagonal, particularly in small spaces, can heighten the illusion of space and make it appear larger. Also, if a wall doesn't separate the rooms, you shouldn't use carpet in the living room and hardwood in the dining room.
5. Use the Right Colour Scheme
While you may enjoy bathing your rooms in colour, this may make them appear much smaller and more crowded. Monochrome colour schemes allow the eyes to move more freely around the room because different visual stimuli don't constantly disrupt them.
Moreover, darker colours, decorative wallpapers, and patterned fabrics absorb light and shrink space, making your room feel smaller. Deeply ornate textures and fabrics, as well as exaggeratedly patterned carpets and rugs, also reduce volume. Lighter shades of colours, for example, are great reflectors of light and create the illusion of space.
6. Lower the Light Fixtures in the Room
Light fixtures on ceilings tend to shrink a space, and ceiling lights cast long shadows, giving the impression of a much smaller space. To help limit shadows in your interior design, ensure adequate lighting at the floor, table, and eye level.
You can also help boost your wall space by adding vertical wall sconces. Lights should be placed on walls about 300mm below ceiling height and aimed to shine up and down the walls. It scatters light across the surfaces instead of concentrating it in one direction, creating the illusion of size. The vertical elements of the lights not only help to create the appearance and feel of an elevated wall, but the light cast down and up from sconces also helps to increase height by tricking your eyes.
7. Hang Art Pieces
Hang large artworks and oil paintings to make a room feel larger. It is recommended to choose art that is large and bold. An overly large piece of dramatic art in a small room can give the illusion of more space. Consider incorporating a large painting or another large piece of art. It opens up the space and creates a gorgeous focal point.
Use These Interior Design Tips and Enhance Your Space
Begin with these simple interior design tips to create the illusion of more space. Anyone can spruce up a drab room with a fresh coat of paint or hang eye-catching artwork on the walls, but it requires a trained eye to make space where there isn't any.
If you want a more spectacular home renovation, contact the design experts at Hipcouch; we'd be delighted to talk about your home makeover!
You can schedule your Hipcouch interior design consultation right away and get the surreal design you desire.