Most homeowners would like to change something about their residence, and for many it is the size of some of the rooms. If remodelling or adding on to the home is not an option, what can be done about rooms that are just too small? And if the budget dictates that home decor projects be accomplished inexpensively, the challenge becomes even greater.



You can give the overall appearance of more space in a room by taking some simple steps. You don't need a large budget, and some steps don't require that you spend any money at all.

First, make sure that the walls are a light color. They don't have to be stark white, although if you love that look, it's fine. There are hundreds of shades of off-whites that can add interest and warmth to a room while maintaining an overall neutral palette. When you put dark colors on the walls of a room or area, it can make the walls recede visually, and that is what you want to avoid if your goal is to make an area appear larger. The ceiling should be kept 'Ceiling White' for maximum overall lightness in the room.

Your next step is to evaluate the flooring in the room. Ideally, the floor should have an overall light appearance. For example, if your room is carpeted or tiled, ideally it should be a light, neutral color. It's okay to have a small pattern or variation as long as the overall look is neutral. Light toned wood flooring works best. You want the ceiling and walls to flow into each other as much as possible, and avoid a stark breaking point of light to dark color.

Your third step in this strategy is to remove any unnecessary furniture from the room. If it is not critical to the function and use of the area, remove it. Let's say you are working with the living area. It currently has a sofa, wood rocker, two chairs, a floor lamp, two end tables and a cocktail table. Try this: remove the wood rocker, cocktail table and floor lamp. You have kept the most important seating in the room as well as a place for lighting and other incidentals. The extra pieces were taking up space and making the room look smaller and more crowded.

The next step in the process is to make sure you are not over-accessorizing the room. I always advise taking all accessories off of the walls, tables, etc and literally removing them from the room. You might put some of them back in the area, but start out with blank walls and furnishings. Your goal in this step is to accessorize the room to add warmth and interest, but not clutter. If you had three pictures, a mirror and a wall sculpture on the walls of this room before, try two pictures and a mirror. Keep it very simple. If there is so much going on in the room that your eyes don't have a resting point, it will seem cluttered, and that is what you want to avoid.

Finally, if at all possible, keep everything in the room to an overall neutral look, and use color sparingly and only as an accent. For example, your walls may be painted Navajo White, the ceiling is white, your floor is carpeted with an off-white Berber and your upholstered furniture is beige/light brown. You love the color red, so this is your accent color, but sparingly. You have a picture on the wall that has a shot of bright red in it. On the sofa are patterned accent pillows that include bright red.

As you look around this room as described, you see soft, calming, neutral colors, with no stark stopping or break points between walls, ceiling, floors and furnishings. However, the room is interesting and has some drama with the addition of red as an accent color. Best of all, you now have a room that has an open, spacious look and feel, yet still functions well for your lifestyle.