How To Make A Small Apartment Appear Larger

With a vast open area called Space above us, we seem to need more and more space, don’t we? As everyone’s incomes and standards of living keep increasing we keep adding luxury item after luxury item to our teeny-tiny, matchbox-type apartments and end up making the whole apartment cluttered and looking as if too many things have been stuffed into too little space. On top of that, to make it look cosy and intimate, we paint it in warm and dark tones, which only serve to make the apartment look even more cramped and cluttered. Or else, thinking about the lack of space, we fill the whole house with numerous tiny furniture items to make it look all the more cluttered. Then we wonder as to why does our home look smaller than it is? It is so because we have not managed the space well. We are hiding all the available floor space when we should be showing it, to create the impression of there being more space than there actually is. A de-cluttered and open house looks larger by the sheer use of certain easy steps and gives the illusion of more space than there actually is. Here are some steps to make a small apartment look larger.

 

How To Make An Apartment Look Bigger 

Here’s how you can create an illusion of space to make your apartment look much larger:

 

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall 

Mirrors, because of the fact that they reflect what is put in front of them, create the impression of a home having more space than it already has. One can use mirrors to reflect light into the darker areas of the apartment to create the illusion that there is more space than there actually is. In fact, this trick is extremely popular with people who run small businesses, boutiques, and restaurants to make them look bigger, and can be used equally effectively in apartments as well. One easy trick that one can follow is to place a mirror exactly across from an actual window, as if creating the impression of another window; this will not only create the impression of space but will also give a better outdoor view on more than one apartment wall.

 

Paint It Light 

It is true that dark, warm colors are the best choice when one wants to make one’s home feel cozy and rather intimate, but these colors are not the best choices if you wish to make your house look bigger and in fact have the opposite effect. Since you wish to make your apartment feel larger, you must make use of light, cool colors for an open, airy effect. Soft, cool hues of blues and greens like aquamarine and cyan are the most effective, though any light, cool color will add space to your apartment. If you wish to get the optimum effect of this simple trick, you could use a monochromatic color scale, and narrow down all your decorations and put them into the bracket of one specific color family. If it is possible for you to paint your apartment, make sure the walls are also painted in similarly light colors or at least those that are harmonious and complementary rather than contrasting—light walls will have the better effect on making the room appear larger.

Out Of My Way 

A home where the furniture keeps coming in the way of those who live as well as those who visit will always seem cluttered even when there isn’t too much of clutter. Thus, it is best to move furniture out of the normal walking path, and remove unnecessary furniture. A few large or medium sized and useful pieces of furniture will help create the impression of a larger and more airy home. Another thing to do is to move tall or larger pieces of furniture against the wall. Most people make the mistake of filling a room with multiple small pieces of furniture, as a result of which the space begins to feel cramped and uninviting. Remember that the end goal is to show as much floor as possible. If buying new furniture will not burn a hole in our pocket, invest in pieces that offer open space underneath, to make the room feel even larger.