Featuring short ceilings and a lack of open space, small rooms are notoriously difficult to decorate and even harder to effectively use. Thankfully, there are a few tips and tricks that can revolutionize your tiny rooms and make them seem much larger, open and fresh than before. These range from classic, time-proven strategies to some modern, out-of-the-box ideas that you can easily apply. By following these 5 simple steps, you’ll be on the right path to make the most out of any small room so without further ado, let’s take a look!
1 – Tone Down the Amount of Furniture
Furniture takes a lot of space and if they’re intricately detailed to boot, the effect is even more noticeable. By only choosing a couple of essential, gorgeous and preferably minimally detailed pieces, you can save a huge amount of space and have just as much usability as before. Remove anything that isn’t absolutely essential and stick with the key pieces that make the room – keep it simple! There’s also one nifty trick that goes hand in hand with this one, which is the next point:
2 – Use Hidden Storage
Incredibly effective and offering the best of both worlds, furniture with hidden storage can be an absolute lifesaver in tiny rooms. From sofas and benches that have a hidden storage compartment at the base to the classic table with shelves combo and even sofa-beds, they’ll look great and act as a decorative boost as well as allowing you to store any items you need discreetly without the need to have those bulky pieces of furniture that only serve for storage. If your walls allow it, pop-out tables and in-the-wall cabinets are also a fantastic way to save space.
3 – Get Lots of Light and Light Colors
By having a lot of light in the room – be it natural or artificial – there will be less shadows and less dark spaces which creates the illusion of more openness and a larger area. You can do this by using more potent light sources than the usual and by increasing the number of light sources as well – lower ones such as lamps are even better than ceiling fixtures to create the effect. Light colors on the walls, furniture and decor are also a must as they make any space look much bigger, clean and breathable than what it is. You can go for light pinks, light yellows and even very light blues but the best one is the classic white.
4 – Use Mirrors Everywhere!
One of the most popular ways to enlarge a room, mirrors are possibly the most effective strategy for anyone that wants to turn a tiny space into a seemingly large one. Their reflections of both light and the room surfaces are a stunningly potent combination that makes a compact space look super open and if used often it can double or triple the perceived amount of space! While classic wall mirrors are a good start, the most effective ones are the big and powerful full length floor ones. The best part is that you don’t have to break the bank to enjoy their effect as there are some truly excellent cheap floor mirrors for sale.
5 – Harness the Power of Stripes
It works just as well in rooms as it does in clothing – stripes can heavily alter our perception of surfaces to make them look much more elongated than what they truly are. You can be creative with this concept and go wild but keep in mind to get the right direction of stripes (horizontal or vertical) for the surface. From a simple striped rug to vertically striped wallpaper (which makes the ceiling look much taller), the options are endless and all of them unbelievably effective.
One Final Word
All of these nifty, easy-to-do tricks complement each other beautifully well and if applied to a tiny room, they will dramatically alter its appearance and make it look immensely larger. I’ve used these countless times myself and I’m always stunned by the results, their beautiful simplicity is part of their effectiveness. Now there’s no excuse not to enjoy your small rooms so get out there and start decorating – you’ll thank me later!
These do sound like good ideas. I’ve been looking for ways to improve my place without spending hardly anything, this is doable!
My daughter has a really small room. These tips are great.
These are great ideas. We have a small house so I will be using some of these ideas soon.
I would apply your tips to my mudroom bathroom. It’s the smallest one in the house.