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Do you remember when you first moved into your current home, how spacious and full of potential it felt? Then, as time went on, you noticed a subtle but perceptible shift. When you walk into a room, you no longer feel like you have space to spread out, dance around or – sometimes – even think!
As a result of the current wave of lockdowns, everyone’s been spending more time indoors. If your place feels cramped and overwhelming, it may make the experience needlessly confining. But don’t worry: It’s possible to change all that.
In this article, let’s look at four tips for how you can make your home feel more spacious, whether it’s a three-story house or a one-bedroom condo.
Declutter and Organize
Let’s begin with the most essential tip. The reason your house felt so roomy when you first moved in is because it had none of the clutter. The more you pack a space with clutter, the more claustrophobic it will feel. This has to do with the nature of sightlines – the more restricted your sightline is by things in the immediate vicinity, the less open a space feels.
To start reclaiming your space, hire a professional home organizer to help edit your belongings. They will work with you to sort through your belongings, keeping items of value and disposing of, donating or selling items you don’t need. With the visual bulk of all that clutter gone, your home will feel much more spacious.
Choose Light Colours
You will often find newer, more modern homes painted in lighter shades. It’s not uncommon to find an all-white home – furniture included. You don’t have to go that far to reap the benefits of soft colours, but a light touch can go a long way.
Because softer colours bounce light rather than absorb it, they make a space feel brighter, which in turn makes it feel more spacious.
Use Mirrors (Sparingly)
As you well know, mirrors give the impression of added depth. There’s a reason retail stores use walls of mirrors in their design – it doubles your perception of the amount of space.
A wall of mirrors won’t work in a home. With too many mirrors, your home may run the risk of looking “Funhouse-like.” But a few well-placed floor mirrors on the walls will add depth and spaciousness.
Have a Sense of Scale
In the movie Lord of the Rings, director Peter Jackson made the Hobbit houses roughly half the size of a regular abode, with scaled-down furniture, appliances and cookware. That way, when the character Gandalf entered – played by regular-sized human, Ian McKellen – he would look massive by comparison.
This sense of scale is important in filmmaking tricks, but it’s also essential for homeowners to understand. If you fill a medium-sized room with large furniture pieces, it will look like a small room. However, if you scale down your furniture (choosing even smaller pieces than usual), you can give the impression of greater space.
With the help of a professional decluttering service, a light coat of paint, a few tastefully placed mirrors and an eye for scale, you can make even the smallest rooms in your home feel lofty and open.
