10 Ways to Make Your Small Room Look Bigger

Do you live in a small space and want it to feel larger? Here are 10 ways to make your small room look bigger! These are all easy to do, and will make a huge difference in the feel of your home.

I love the challenge of decorating small spaces, and I think that’s why I’ve enjoyed renovating our RVs and small lake cabins so much. It’s so fun to take a small, cramped space and turn it into something that feels more open and more welcoming. There are many ways you can make a smaller room look and feel bigger, and here are my top 10 tricks to doing so!

Watch my YouTube video to learn 10 ways to make your small room feel larger:

How to make a small room look bigger:

Use light & cool colours

Using white or lighter shades of colour in your room – especially on your walls – will make it seem bigger. I think white walls are a classic, but if you don’t like that look you can stick to a very subtle colour and it will instantly open up your room. We painted our Tiny Lake House walls a soft white (Behr Blank Canvas), and it made a drastic difference in how large the 465 square foot cabin looked.

Declutter your space

Removing any items in your room that you haven’t used or enjoyed in the past year will immediately help your space feel more open and expansive. Donate what you don’t use, and keep decor to a minimum. When we renovated our basement playroom, we donated several bags of toys and books and it felt absolutely amazing!

Incorporate mirrors & reflective surfaces

Mirrors bounce light around a room, and using them on your walls will help make your space feel a lot bigger. There’s a mirror for every decor style and price range. I have a large round mirror from IKEA in our breakfast nook and I love how it looks!

Hang your drapes high

Many people hang their curtains and drapes right at the top of the window, but try moving the rod further up the wall to make your walls feel taller. I like mine about 4-6 inches from the ceiling to make my room feel more expansive. It’s an easy trick that makes a huge difference!

Choose the right scale of furniture

When working with a smaller room, choose furniture that’s smaller in scale. Look for petite chairs, round tables, and “apartment sized” furniture. Conversely, you can use large furniture in your room, but then don’t have as many pieces in your space. In our renovated RV, I found smaller scale furniture at Structube here in Canada, but IKEA is another good source for apartment-sized pieces.

Use vertical lines

Using vertical lines in your decor will help draw the eye up, make your ceilings feel taller, and therefore make your whole space feel bigger. You can do this with DIY trim treatments, wallpaper, tall plants, and tall floor lamps. I love how my mom added vertical board & batten to her home to make the walls feel taller.

Incorporate multi-function pieces

Furniture that has multiple uses is a great way to have LESS furniture and therefore make your room feel more spacious. Look for things like an ottoman with hidden storage (like here in my mom’s living room), a side table with drawers and sofa beds.

Try these colour combinations

When choosing wall, furniture and accent colours for your room, try using a monochromatic or analogous colour scheme. Monochromatic means that you’re only using one colour, but you can use various shades of that colour from light to dark. Analogous means that you’re using colours next to each other on the colour wheel (click here for my free colour wheel printable guide). For example, I’ve used green and blue in the dining room decor above. They’re right next to each other on the colour wheel, which creates a more soothing and open look than colours opposite one another on the wheel.

Leave some white space

Fight the urge to fill every corner of your room with furniture and decor. Leaving empty floor space, wall space and tabletop space will help make your home feel more open, airy and expansive. (P.S. “White space” doesn’t necessarily mean the empty space is white in colour. Here in my office, the walls are deep green and I’ve made sure not to fill my wall shelves too full so there is some empty space around the items I’ve displayed.)

Incorporate lots of light

Whether it’s natural light or light fixtures, ensure you’re filling your home with lots of light. Have your drapes clear both sides of your windows, use sheer curtains for privacy while still allowing the sun to shine through, or use lots of lamps and overhead lighting. Your brightened space will automatically feel much bigger.

To summarize, here are the 10 ways you can instantly make your home feel larger:

1. Use light and cool colours
2. Declutter your space
3. Incorporate mirrors and reflective surfaces
4. Hang your drapes high
5. Choose the right scale of furniture
6. Use vertical lines
7. Incorporate multi-function pieces
8. Try monochromatic and analogous colour combinations
9. Leave some white space
10. Incorporate lots of light

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What do you think? Do you have any tips to add on how to make a small space look bigger?

Have fun decorating!