5 Easy Tricks That Make Your Room Look Larger
I do believe we have the smallest living room EVER! It is awkwardly shaped with a million openings to get into the room, there is no overhead lighting, and no furniture fits in the room the way I want it too. Do you have a room like this? Are you as frustrated as I was? We solved our problem by building on a family room addition, but I realize not everyone can do that and I still needed to make the living room function and look good even if we aren’t in it very often. You can see how the room turned out in this POST and today I am going to share with you tricks to make your room look larger.
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Trick #1
Raise your curtain rod above your window. Seriously, if you have 8 foot ceilings put your curtain rod almost to the top of the wall. This causes a person to look up and gives the illusion of taller ceilings which will make your room feel larger. You can also extend your curtains out past the window, no one will know that the window isn’t actually that wide and that will allow more light to come in the room.

PHOTO: liagriffith.com
Trick #2
Don’t use window treatments on your windows at all or only use blinds. With no window treatments at all there is nothing stopping that wonderful sunshine from coming right in your windows. Better yet, you have an unobstructed view of the outside world. Of course, if your view is of the city dump or a dirty back alley, then by all means put up those blinds.
Trick #3
Mirror, mirror on the wall….add mirrors of any shape or size to your room. Mirrors reflect light and really will make your room look larger
Trick #4
Paint your ceiling the same color or a shade lighter than your walls. Traditional white ceilings are a thing of the past. When your ceiling is white it stops your eye abruptly as your gaze travels upward. Like hitting a brick wall. When the color is similar or the same as your wall color it will make your room look larger, the eye will be drawn upwards to a smooth transition from wall to ceiling.
Trick #5
Declutter to make your space look bigger. This is real talk. Take a look around you. Has your bird collection taken over every surface in the room? Do you have stacks of magazines from 2 years ago? Do you have every single school picture of each of your children hanging on the wall? Is every available inch of the room filled with something? If you answered yes to any of these then it is time to edit what you have.
I am not saying get rid of the pictures of your children, but keep up this year’s picture and put the rest in an album. Whatever you liked in the June 2016 issue of BHG magazine, cut it out and put it in a folder and throw the magazine away. And…do you really need all of those birds? Keep out 5 of your favorite ones and put the rest away, you can always rotate them in and out to keep it interesting.
When faced with decorating a small space, declutter first, consider window treatments (if any) you will use, add mirrors to increase light, and paint your ceiling the same color as your walls.
I know these tips will help you to make those small spaces look and feel larger. Do you have tips to making a small space feel larger? Please share in the comments below, I would love to hear them!
Happy Decorating!
Susanne
P.S. Hey friend! Do you have a room you want to makeover, but you just don’t have the budget? I have made over rooms in our home for $100 and I love the amazing results. I want to show you how to makeover a room in your home for just $100 too! Get my free ebook today
Great suggestions! I’m keen to try moving the curtain rod up closer to the ceiling and seeing how it changes the appearance of a room of mine. I would have never thought of that.
Awesome Hayley! Let me know how you like it! 🙂
I like the idea of using thrift store finds to decorate but I’m not good at it! I learned a few things through your post! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by!
The curtains make such a huge difference!
They really do, it is amazing how easy it is to trick the eye 😉
We have a 1,000 SF bungalow and all these tips are dead on. I’ve used every single one at some point and they all work wonders!
It is amazing what we can trick the eye into seeing, isn’t it?