Image Credit: Interior Junkie
Before you start knocking down walls to increase your space and living with a layer of dust as a consequence, there are plenty of things you can do to make your interior feel larger than it is that don’t involve a sledge hammer.
Embrace the light palette
Neutral shades of white act to reflect light rather than absorb it like darker colours. This helps create that bright and airy feeling opening up your interior. To make the ceiling height feel greater, paint it in the same shade as the walls. This will blur the boundaries between the vertical and horizontal causing your eye to travel up. If you’re worried it will look a little stark add some texture with beautiful timbers in your furniture and colours in your soft furnishings.
Reflect the light
Mirrors have been long used in interiors to make a space feel bigger and to play with visual perception. To avoid putting mirrors in every room, there are other things you can do to reflect more light and make your room feel more spacious. Try adding reflecting surfaces like glass, stainless steel and glossy finishes.
Opt for the floating look
Faye Sofa with Elle Round Block Side Tables and Mable Buffet
To create the illusion of more space, opt for the floating look in your furniture selection. Shelving units, consoles, beside tables and sofas, like our Faye, that are raised off the floor create a sense of openness. Light will be able to filter underneath and they tend not to appear so heavy and weighted down. Not to mention they are much easier to clean under!
Avoid blocking walkways
Positioning furniture which blocks a walkway will only highlight how tight the room is. If you need to push your dining table up against a wall or if you can only walk past your bed sideways, it’s a sign your furniture is too big or not placed correctly in the space. In some instances, it’s better to group the furniture all together on one side of the room to provide an uninterrupted pathway than spread it out.
Don’t shy away from larger pieces
Image Credit: Brit.co
When you think small space, you instantly think smaller furniture. That isn’t always the case as one generous sized sofa will generally make the room feel larger than a collection of smaller pieces. A large sofa and a statement armchair like Thomas will present much better than two sofas with little breathing room.
Draw your eyes up
Image Credit: A Beautiful Mess
Make full use of your verticals. This could be by using wallpaper with a vertically orientated pattern or adding floor to ceiling curtains. Mounting items on the wall like shelving, lights or hooks will also take up less valuable floor space and heighten your verticals. Simple touches like this can increase the feeling of openness and flow.
Think low and streamlined
Hawkesbury Entertainment Unit with the Cape II sofa
Streamlining your interior will create a sense of spaciousness and won’t overwhelm the room. Clean lines and furniture that is lowered to the ground will be less obtrusive on the eye. Low line TV units like our Portland or Malmo are a much better choice in smaller spaces than large cabinets where the TV sits inside. Save your ornate, larger pieces for those grander rooms that can handle them.
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