Colour schemes, furnishings, furniture and its arrangement all contribute to a feeling of spaciousness or clutter. A light interior gives an impression of space and reflective surfaces, especially mirrors, can increase the apparent size of a room. All these factors can be used to trick the eye.
Colour choice
Light colours appear to recede, dark ones to advance, so a room painted in pale tones will seem much more spacious than the same room decorated in deep colour or small, muted designs create the opposite effect.
Texture too can play its part in expanding an area. Shiny surfaces such as mirrors reflect and give an impression of space. Therefore a small choice, like painting a room in silk finish rather than matt emulison, can contribute to how large a room appears. Use a light colour to make a ceiling recede, a deeper colour if you want to lower the apparent height of walls and ceiling.
Light-coloured flooring will, again, make a room appear larger and if you use the same pale colour throughtout a small house or flat, rather than breaking up the space with a patchwork of tints, the difference will be considerable. If you enclose the space with a deep colour skirting, you will shrink it again.
Horizontal lines increase width, vertical lines increase depth in a room just as they do in the clothes we wear, so the look of a long, narrow room can be improved by vinyl tiles or a carpet with lines running across it, or rows of shelves at one end. Full lenght curtains on the end wall or those with vertical stripes make the room appear narrower.
Light colours for walls and flooring and low, light furniture help to create a feeling of space.
Diagonal lines can also contribute to a feeling of spaciousness.
Furniture choice
Low furniture, which the eye travels over, helps to make a room appear larger and, of course, the use of light colours both for wood and furnishings helps too. Match furniture colour to flooring and furniture will appear less obvious. A number of small items of furniture dotted around a room will give a cluttered look that is lost when all the necessary bits and pieces are placed along one wall.
Unit furniture that can be arranged to form an L or U shape against walls also provides a less cluttered look than the standard sofa and two chairs. Glass-topped tables, because of the shiny, reflective texture, are another good choice.
Use of mirrors
Track lighting above a mirror can increase the light in the room.
Clever use of mirrors is one of the best ways of creating a sense of space. A wall of mirrors can double a room's apparent size and mirrored doors on a fitted wardrobe will have the same effect. When buying large pieces of mirror, remember to check that you can manoeuvre them into position when you get them home.
Apart from fixing through predrilled holes with screws, large pieces of mirror will need to rest on a platform such as a skirting edge or worktop which will take the weight. J-section aluminium strip is a good alternative.
A mirror can only reflect what is opposite or adjacent to it, and if this is a plain wall little is gained. So it is a goog idea, before you put up a mirror, to check the reflection with a smaller hand-held mirror first, then adjust the position if necessary. A mirror will draw light into the room if it is placed to reflect a windows, or small mirror tiles can be used on the window's inner reveals to increase light. Mirror tiles are a simple way to create a wall of mirror, but they must be fitted to a level surface.
Adding light
Light is another space-creating factor. In dark areas such as halls it is therefore worth considering replacing panels or whole doors with glazed sections. When replacing wood panels with glass use thoughened or laminated safety glass and hold the glass in place with beading.
A narrow hall can appear twice as wide by fixing mirror along one wall.
SAFETY POINT
If you use mirrors to create an illusion of extra space, it is important to place plants or furniture in such a way that people will not try to walk through them.
QUICK TIP
Use mirror tiles to provide the impression of an exra window of doorway by surrounding a rectangle of tiles with architrave. You can even add 'glazing bars' for realistic effect. Mirror tiles need to be fixed to a totally flat surface or result will be a misshapen image, so if the wall is not flat use a piece of blockboard fixed to battens on the wall as a base.
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