8 Ways a Designer Can Make Any Small Room Look Larger
Everyone loves a little trickery, especially when it comes
to fooling the eye around your home!
One of the things we learned in design school is how to visually
enlarge and visually decrease spaces.
These simple elements and principals of design, light, line,
scale, color, texture and many others have become helpful tools I use again and
again in many of my projects.
Let’s have a little fun with small spaces!
What elements and principals of design visually enlarge a
room? It depends on how and where they’re used. Take color for instance.
Color
Red is a warm color. It advances, meaning it comes ‘at’ you.
That means when put on a sofa, it will visually enlarge that sofa. However, when
placed on walls, again it advances (just like on the sofa) but when it advances
on wall the walls visually come toward you thus making the room appear smaller!
The key to visually enlarging your space with color is to use
cool, receding colors like pale blues; cool greens like sage; pale lavender and
soft grays.
No Skirts on the Furniture
This trick isn’t really a design element or principal but it’s
one of my favorite visual tricks. Omitting skirts on sofas and chairs exposes
more floor and allows light to pass beneath them, in return making the space around
them feel larger.
Vertical Lines
You can enlarge a space with vertical lines such as floor
length draperies mounted high on the wall, and possibly even right at the
ceiling height. Be sure to allow enough room to mount them by allowing space
for the finials, rings, drapery ‘header’ and brackets where applicable.
Minimal Color Contrasts
Color contrasts (contrasts ranging from dark to light) break
up a space visually while few or no color contrasts expand a space visually and
give it a more flowing appearance which allows the eye to move freer around the
room. It does this because large color contrasts (i.e. navy blue versus baby
blue) tend to stop the eye from moving around a space.
Minimal color contrasts give spaces a larger, open, airier
feeling.
Plentiful Window Space
Small spaces veritably cry out for windows, don’t they?
Windows allow the eye to travel beyond the walls into the outdoor spaces beyond
thus expanding the interior spaces significantly.
Expanding a Space Visually with Scale
This one is more advanced but you can really enlarge your
spaces visually by using fewer and larger pieces of furniture. A large-scale
piece in a pale wood such as a hutch, particularly if it’s backed with mirror
with allow a space to feel ‘anchored’. Adding a large-scale sofa or small L-shaped
sofa in a corner of the room is another great way to add space visually. They
can offset one another nicely.
Clear Cocktail Tables
Instead of doing an ottoman or wood cocktail table, opt for
a two leveled one of glass. Because cocktail tables are usually centered in the
room, the transparency is a better option.
Shiny Surfaces
Lacquered cabinets/doors; highly polished floors such as
polished stone; and glass or mirrored surfaces add space visually by reflecting
light and/or imagery back into the space.
And there you have it!
That’s it for today and if you would like to learn how to create inviting retreats in your home; create spaces for exercise so you have more options (and stop missing those workouts!); and get all my basic how to's on kitchens, work zones and techy kitchen stuff then download this free workbook The Wellness Home, 5 Ways to a Soothing, Supportive Home for Women with Arthritis and Chronic Pain today!
Bye for now, Shiree
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