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Top 12 Ideas to Make a Small Room Look Bigger

Ideas to make a small room look bigger.

If you’re looking for solutions on how to get the most out of a small space, our top 12 ideas to make a small room look bigger present a selection of quick, simple and easy changes you can make to transform your room and create an area that is both functional and a pleasure to be in.

Small spaces can pose a number of challenges. With the wrong lighting, colour choices and furniture placement, you can make a small room feel cramped and uncomfortable. But fear not, our insightful ideas to make a small room look bigger will equip you with all the know-how to turn a small room challenge into a charm.

Our Top 12 Ideas to Make a Small Room Look Bigger

1.  Introduce a Soft Colour Scheme for Your Furnishings

Neutral furnishings in a small room.

Using complementary soft colours for your furniture, textiles and décor will create a cohesive style and provide a cleaner and simpler colour palette. Soft, blush colours or neutral, earthy tones reduce the appearance of clutter and provide a neutral canvas for you to add injections of bolder colours. This helps to create a small yet impactful statement. Cream or beige rugs create the perfect balance of simplicity, comfort and functionality in a small room, and can be easily paired with any style of furnishings.

Contrary to popular belief, dark colours don’t always have to be excluded from use within a small room. Contrasting crisp whites with deep greens and blues can help create contrast and add more depth to a space. If you’re not sure where to start, our guide to using complementary colours in interior design offers advice for choosing the best colours to create the most effective colour ensemble.

2.  Neutral or Contrasting Colours for Your Walls

Colour has a great deal of influence on the perception of space within a small room. It can either make a small room look bigger or enclose a space by absorbing light. Softer, more neutral-toned pastels, creams and whites help reflect any light entering a room and create the illusion of more open space.

Consider extending your chosen wall colour to the ceiling. This will introduce continuity and will help lengthen the height of your walls. House Beautiful details a range of colours that are great to use in small rooms, from soft pinks to more sultry greens.

What’s more, the finish of a coloured wall can help enhance the reflection of light against the colour. Satin or gloss finishes will reflect any light in the room, aiding the appearance of space. However, it’s important to note that using reflective finishes can show any imperfections on the wall. Ensure your walls are smooth to get the best results from reflective finishes.

3.  Create More Space with Your Choice of Flooring

Striped rug extending the length of a small bedroom.

Wooden, tiled, or lino flooring can offer an airier feel than a room covered in carpet. This allows for the introduction of rugs, helping to optimise the illusion of space while offering a multitude of other benefits.

You could also consider the use of underfloor heating. There are many advantages to underfloor heating; for one, it can offer a huge space-saving opportunity by eradicating the need for radiators which can be bulky and often dictate how you can position furniture in your room. What’s more, Rug Traders has a selection of rugs that can be placed on heated flooring, which we detail in our guide to rugs and underfloor heating. This allows you to optimise comfort and style while creating a spacious feeling.

Runners can be utilised to create clear pathways through your room, and can help to make a small room look bigger, as long as the longest length of the runner sits parallel with the longest length of the room.

A plain rug offers a clean and clutter-free appearance, keeping the small room as simple as possible without completely making the space devoid of interest and comfort.

It may seem counterintuitive, but patterned rugs can offer intrigue and help contribute to opening a small space up. Make sure to choose rugs with large-scale patterns that don’t attract too much attention. A broader pattern will work similarly to a striped rug by helping to extend the width or length of your small space.

Striped carpets running parallel to the longest length of your small space will create the illusion of a longer room, while horizontal lines will enhance the width of a room.

4.  Furniture is Key

Simple furniture with exposed legs in a small room.

When making a small room look bigger, you have to choose furniture wisely. Select pieces that will provide style and functionality while minimising the volume of space they take up.

Contemporary pieces are often streamlined, taking up less space than chunkier pieces or furniture with ornate structuring. Armless sofas and chairs can also help to minimise obstruction and maximise space.

Furniture with visible legs have a number of benefits when making a small room look bigger. Furniture with legs helps open up the floor space and create more movement, enabling light to flow around and under it. It can also provide extra space for storage!

Furniture with lighter tones and neutral hues allows the furniture to blend seamlessly with softer-toned walls, creating less contrast and, therefore, the illusion of more space.

Opting for glass furniture can also create an illusion of more space. Simply being able to see through the piece of furniture creates the appearance of more space while still providing the same functionality.

5.  Arrange Your Furniture with Thought

Try placing larger pieces of furniture against the walls and small pieces accessorised around them in order to make a small room look bigger. Keep moving the furniture around until your space offers a clear pathway, and an easy flow of movement through the space.

Slightly angled furniture can help focus the gaze to the length of the walls, creating interest while also providing extra storage space behind.

6.  Lighting

Lighting is one of the fundamental elements when looking for ideas to make a small room look bigger. Natural lighting is the best for small rooms and can help to maximise the illusion of space. Try keeping windows and doorways free from clutter to avoid hindering the amount of natural light flowing into the room.

However, natural light is often at a premium in small spaces. Instead, creating a layered lighting effect with floor and tabletop lamps, as well as ceiling lights, can give the illusion of height and room depth.

What’s more, opting for visually pleasing light fixtures turns a simple light into a statement piece in its own right.

7.  Utilise Fabrics That are Lightweight and Airy

Light and airy floor to ceiling curtains creating a bright small space.

Lightweight fabrics such as cotton, chiffon or silk help to add an airy feel to a room and can help to reflect the light.

Curtains made of lightweight material not only provide privacy but can add soft movement without adding weight to your small space or blocking valuable daylight.

8.  Declutter with Efficient Storage

We all know that in order to make a small room look bigger, minimising clutter is a must. However, small rooms often mean less storage and, therefore, more stuff out on show.

Try introducing storage as part of the furniture to help keep clutter to a minimum. Utilise furniture with storage built into it, such as ottoman or divan beds, as well as nifty sofas that lift up to reveal handy storage areas below. Maximise the space underneath furniture with simple drawers or add baskets for newspapers, magazines and blankets.

Keeping clutter off the floor as much as possible can help to open up the floor space and provide a little extra movement. Vertical space as a storage solution is a great way to maximise storage while taking up very little floor space, if any at all!

There are also numerous creative storage solutions you could explore. For example, regularly used items, such as bikes, can be stored using wall attachments and even ceiling pulleys.

9.  Simple Décor

Apply a reductive philosophy when selecting how much décor to place in your small room. Less is often more, but remember to find a balance so all personality is not taken out of your space!

Try grouping your décor or accessories into small groups, such as framed pictures, tabletop plants, or ornaments. This provides a balance of personality and space, helping to make your small room look bigger.

10.  Mirrors

Large mirror reflecting light to enhance the space of a small room.

Mirrors give the illusion of more space by reflecting any light and making the space look brighter. A strategically-placed mirror can offer just the right amount of reflected light to brighten a dark corner or area of the small room and provide a sense of openness. Try not to place a mirror in direct sunlight as this can cause dazzling reflections; instead, place a mirror adjacent to a window or doorway.

11.  Extenuate the Full Height of Your Small Room

Floor-to-ceiling textiles, artwork, or focal pieces help to highlight the full height of a room, giving it an instant height boost. You can also utilise tall shelving, hanging light fixtures, drapes, and house plants as a great idea to make a small room look bigger.

12.  Create a Focal Point

A focal point can help lead you into the space without overcrowding your vision with too many stimuli. Adding in a single focal point offers a chance to show off a bit of personality, whether that is your piece of artwork, a cherished picture, an ornament, or a fireplace. A focal point will stand out among your more neutral-toned walls and furnishings, helping to guide your gaze.

With just a few adjustments or decorative changes, making your small room look bigger can be easier than you think. Our top 12 ideas don’t need to break the bank in order to maximise space. With a little creativity, you can utilise your current furnishings to transform a small room with ease. Our guide to modernising a house on a budget looks at more ways you can economically bring your home up to date.

Take a look at our collection of beautiful handpicked rugs for your small room, or for more interior tips and tricks, head to our blog.

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