Decor Tips to Make a Small Space Feel Bigger

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Decorating and furnishing a small space can be a challenge. Because form and function sometimes compete in a small space, careful consideration needs to be paid to WHAT goes in the room and WHERE.

"The eye travels quickly around a small room, so you want everything to have meaning and impact or at least be tailored and make sense in the space." - Trading Spaces designer Laurie Smith - Source iVillage.com

With this in mind, we've collected a few of the BEST decor tips to help make a small space appear bigger.

SIZE MATTERS - If the room is small, be careful not to buy the largest pieces of overstuffed furniture you can find. Furniture should be appropriate - scale wise - to the rest of the room. Slim and streamlined pieces, such as armless Parson chairs, are beautiful space savers. Also, a sofa with exposed legs will appear smaller and less bulky than one with hidden legs.

LET THERE BE LIGHT - Use a soft even light and eliminate shadows which tend to slice a room up into smaller spaces.

LET THERE BE HEIGHT - Use at least one tall element in a room to draw the eye upward, towards the ceiling.

DO THE UNEXPECTED - Don't center your artwork as expected. Pictures hung off-center forces the eye focus on something other than the size of the space.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE... - Maintain consistency under-foot. In a small space, the one thing that should create an uninterrupted flow is the flooring. Multiple flooring changes will "chop-up" a room, making a small space feel like several even smaller spaces.

Read more Small Space Tips....