10 ways to make a small bedroom seem larger.

“For a house to be successful, the objects in it must communicate with one another, respond and balance one another.” – Andre Putman Hello, this is my first post on my blog, I will be posting various ways in which you can improve your home decor and imbibe your home in a more positive atmosphere. As it is commonly said, we first shape our homes and then our homes shape us. SPACE! Don’t we all complain about this regularly? But when it is impossible to break the walls of your room and make 2 bedrooms one, is when we starting seeking alternate methods to “Increase” the space of the room. These simple inexpensive ways can do magic to the height and breadth of one’s room. In the first part of my blog I will be informing you about simple 10ways in which you can make your bedroom seem larger!

 1. COLOR - Use a light color scheme for your room, you can try pastels, whites or neutral colors as these instantly “push the walls back” and give a sense of openness. When you paint your walls in light colors, they appear to “move back” making your rooms appear bigger. It’s all about optical illusion. You can also use small printed or floral wallpapers to enhance your small bedroom .

Light pastels or whits instantly make a room seem larger

2. MONOCHROMATIC SCHEME- Balance is the key aspect here. Majority of us like a sense of harmony and rhythm in our bedroom, as this is where we rewind at the end of a tiresome day. Hence, coming back to room with contrasting wallpapers or colors will only strain our mind more. Thus, to make a room look more spacious a single color or different shades of one color must be followed. Make sure there is a focal point in your room; it might either be colorful wallpaper or contrasting pillow cases or the side lamp. This helps in laying emphasis on these items and hence once again causes an optical illusion.

Focal points in a room enhance its appearance

 

 3. SUNLIGHT- The more you let in sunlight into your bedroom, the more cheerful and welcoming it will look. This can be possible by having a large window or a minimum of 2 windows in your room. Remember, the amount of sunlight increases as you increase the height of the window. You can even use skylights. Make sure the window is not made in the load bearing wall or the wall which supports the structure of the building. Let in as much sunlight as possible as this makes a small room pleasing.

Sunlight makes a room happy and pleasent

4. FLOOR AND CEILING- The floor and ceiling are the

 fifth and sixth walls of a room. This can be an excellent space increasing method. Use planks of hardwood flooring, which must be placed diagonally, this technique fools the eye into seeing the flooring pattern from a different perspective, creating more visual interest. Make sure the tiling or flooring material is consistent throughout the whole house as this helps you “borrow space from adjacent rooms. The ceiling when painted a light color or sheen will aid in reflecting light and make the room seem light, larger and airy!

Use of diagonal wooden flooring can provide intrest and make a room feel more spacious

 5. FURNITURE- Don’t cramp up your room with unnecessary furniture. A basic room requires a bed, a side table with a night lamp, a chair or small sofa and a study table. But, often people tend to crowd their bedrooms with an ironing stand, unnecessary shoe racks, table lamps, televisions etc. If these stated items are necessary in a room then they must be BUILT IN. Built in furniture is the in thing as it serves the purpose and does not make a bedroom ugly. You don’t want your room to be populated with so much unnecessary furniture, like this room. Do you?

Well clearly this bed is massive for this room.

6. CLEANLINESS- Something we all need for our peace of mind. A clean small room is aesthetically more feasible than a cluttered large room. Make sure to store away all the items that are not required such as your headphones, chargers, alarm clocks, or even your make up. Have minimum accessories in your room. Instead of having a bunch of paintings on the wall, have one large painting or mural as this gives a uniform look to your bedroom. A small clean room is more appealing than a large untidy room.

Cleanliness is a key factor in fooling the naked eye to make a room seem larger

7. LIGHTING The amount of light in your bedroom also determines weather the room will be open and light or massive and heavy. The custom is to have general lighting throughout the room, but to make those cute spots highlighted in your room, you can have accent or task lighting. This will put focus on your particular task and avoid strain to your eye and neck muscles. Use of table lamps or accent lighting will give more focus and save space.

Popular task lights are available in a variety of colours and designs.

8. MIRRORS- Using mirrors in interiors to increase the size of a room is a trick, Mirrors help to give a sense of greater space by reflecting light, thus brightening a room and the reflection of the room also fools the eye into feeling there is a greater amount of space than in reality. This can be achieved by 3 simple steps- A) Place the mirror across a window, this will reflect the light coming in and brighten the room, making it seem larger. B) Have a mirrored wall. This simple means that if your bedroom is small and cramped up, just place a full length mirror, well cut to precision onto the wall next to your bed. This will instantly make your room larger, in fact double. C) Line the ceiling of your bedroom with mirrors, this will reflect the artificial light and act as a skylight, therefore, illuminating your room more.

Full length mirror placed on the sliding shutter/door of a cupboard to make a room look double its size

 9. REARRANGE YOUR FURNITURE- Make sure that all your furniture in your bedroom is pushed against the wall. For example, move your bed against the wall, this will give you more space to move around and the room will not feel as cramped as it used to. Make sure the size of your furniture is proportioned to the size of your room. You wouldn’t want a king size bed in a small bedroom, this will add to the claustrophobia to the room. Clearly this bed is massively huge for this room.

 10.PROVIDE MORE FLOOR SPACE- This is another key trick on optical illusion. The more floor we get to see, the larger we feel the room is. Hence, try and mount your furniture on the walls. A small side table could be mounted upon the wall, or a book shelf. Instead of having your cupboard shutters open outwards, you could use sliding doors or shutters. This will not cramp up your room when your cupboard is open. .

A mounted on the wall side table, helps in providing more floor space.

Hopefully these easy, inexpensive tips have helped you can changed your perception towards your "small bedroom".