You cannot make an apartment, home or other space larger without knocking down walls or tearing down ceilings and adding more rooms or floors.
There is a lot you can do, however, to make the existing space seem larger than it is, and all of it for far cheaper than adding an extension to your home. For example, just hanging a clear shower curtain in a small bathroom can make the room seem much larger, while mirrors can make any room, hall or other space seem grander.
Some of the ways to make a small living space seem larger involve removing or changing out items in a room. Other ways involve simply rearranging them. Some may involve spending a little bit of money, while others cost you nothing at all. The more methods you employ to make a space seem larger, the more their effects combine to produce an even larger sense of spaciousness.
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Better Lighting
The less you can see around you, the smaller the space you are in seems to be. When you can see more of the space you are in, by contrast, it can seem much larger. Dim corners, in particular, around floors, ceilings and furniture, can make a space feel closed in, while bright corners can make the space feel more open. In addition, the human body, as with all living bodies that sleep at night, is attuned to feel wakeful and alert during the day. As such, more light in a room can help trigger the body’s natural tendencies to feel awake and alert, one result of which can be to make a space feel more accommodating and less encroaching.
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Brighter Colors
Darker colors absorb light, making a space feel smaller and more cramped. Brighter colors reflect light making a space feel open and airy. For the greatest effect with bright colors, use them on the walls and floor, in particular. If you do decide to decorate the ceiling too, make sure it is at least as bright as the walls and floor, if not brighter, in order to make the space feel bigger vertically as well. (BUZZ)
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Stripes
If solid colors are simply too plain and boring for your tastes, choose a pattern that at least helps the floor space seem more expansive. Too much detail makes a floor feel crowded and cramped. Stripes, by contrast expand the perceived size of anything over which they are laid. The one limitation of stripes, however, is they only extend the perceived size of a room in a single direction, making it appear either longer or wider, but not both. One way to ameliorate this limitation is to lay a section of stripes over a larger floor space with lines, such as hardwood boards, running in opposite directions.
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Furniture Placement
Place your furniture against the walls of a room to make it feel more spacious. Furniture arrayed in the center of a room can make the room feel cluttered and, therefore, too small to hold all it contains. It can also give the impression of dividing a single, larger room up into multiple smaller sections, making the same space feel compartmentalized instead of open. Don’t be afraid to pick up a few new statement pieces. If you’re on a budget, garage and estate sales can be great places to find some treasures.
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Hidden Storage
The type of furniture you choose for a room can also play a role in how large it feels. Instead of filling the room with open shelves and filling every available surface with belongings, choose furniture with hidden storage capacities and stow most of your things in there. Creating a cleaner-looking space with open surfaces clear of clutter make the space seem larger and the furniture and remaining belongings visible not so imposing. (BUZZ)
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High Shelves
Drawing attention upward helps any room appear larger. One way to draw the eye ceilingward is to hang shelves up high in the room near the ceiling. Then, line it with interesting, compelling objects like decorative items or books.
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Choose Large Accessories
When placing decorative accessories around the room, opt for fewer larger objects rather than many smaller ones. Too many small accents in a room make it look cluttered and crowded, while a select few large pieces accentuate the size and space in a room.
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Refine Furniture Choices
Do not clutter a small room with every piece of furniture you own. Instead, pick select items that double as statement pieces. Rather than three couches in a horseshoe, choose the one couch that draws the eye and compels sitting down on it the most (and do not forget to place it against the wall.) If you want to extend the seating space, pick a small chair or ottoman to place beside or against it. The same logic applies for tables. Pick the one most visually compelling centerpiece table and find other rooms, or storage, for the other little side and end tables. Remember, a table not only takes up space in its own right, it also invites clutter with its bare surface.
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Organize
A room with all its belongings organized in an orderly fashion feels more spacious than a room with the same belongings arrayed haphazardly. To put it another way, clutter and disorder conveys a crowded and cramped feeling, while organization and structure allow everything to blend seamlessly into a larger, cohesive picture. Items seem to disappear into the background, eliminating their feeling of encroachment on the space. One way to create this sense of structure and organization in a room to place items of the same size and shape together. Another way is to color code items, so all items of the same or a similar color are arranged together. This makes many smaller items seem like a larger whole, streamlining the appearance of the room and all it contains.
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Uncovered Windows
You may not be able to add new windows into a room. You can, however, maximize the contribution of every window in a room to its feeling of openness and expansiveness. Simply leave your windows uncovered or, if privacy is a concern, cover it with sheer white curtains. Eschewing darker curtains, shades or shutters over the windows prevents the room from feeling so boxy and closed in. It also lets more light into a room and, when the windows are open, even lets in more air. Increased circulation in a room can have the same effect as brighter light, making it feel more open and airy. For that reason, a ceiling fan can also help a room with few or no windows feel more spacious.
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By Admin –
