Knowing how to manipulate living spaces can be quite a useful skill to have, especially for homeowners with limited options regarding where they can live. The size of your home matters a lot, and it can impact how you function within it. Your home’s size directly affects your décor options, your movements as well as the use of your utilities; however, there are ways to change how big your home looks by incorporating certain tricks into your décor.

A lot of homeowners tend to focus on their home’s aesthetic value more than anything else, while others like to focus on practicality. Using tools such as Google assistant voice commands can help with the latter, but the former may be a bit trickier. The following are ways through which a homeowner can make their smaller living space look bigger.

Natural Light

Letting in some light from the outside can make a huge impact on how your home looks. This is also a great way to save up on bills from artificial lighting, but its visual impact is what is most prominent. By letting in natural light, you can have shadows and highlights that are difficult to produce with artificial lighting. The way it illuminated your home can make the space look more open and breathable, which in turn makes it look somewhat larger. A dark living space is bound to look smaller and more cramped up. 

As far as lighting goes, letting it in through windows and skylights is your best option, however, for rooms with not much access to natural lighting, you can always go for a similar look with a soft artificial glow. Smart lights may be able to help you achieve a look similar to sunlight falling on different parts of your home.

Minimalistic Décor

One thing which can make a home look smaller is being overcrowded in terms of décor. Even something as simple as adding too many frames to a wall can make a room look much smaller. The best thing to do when looking to create a larger-looking home is to have minimal décor. Try to keep the furniture basic, add only what you need, even if it is stylish and modern. A minimalistic style does not necessarily have to be boring. You can get creative even with the limited resources you have, and despite having a fully furnished home, you will still be able to have the impact you want with respect to its size.

Color Palette

Colors can arguably manipulate a living space even more than lighting can. Colors and lighting go together in a way that one can drastically impact the other. You can use different colors to impact your home’s lighting in different ways, and vice versa. There are some colors that enhance light by reflecting it, and others that dull it by absorbing it. This also depends on how you pair colors together and create different contrasts. You can incorporate it into the floors, walls and décor of the room.

To make a living space look larger, you want to use a color palette which will reflect colors to give a brighter impact in the room. A dark, bold color palette will create a dungeon-like impact, so unless that is the aesthetic you are aiming for, neutral tones are most likely the right choice for you. 

Mirrors

Another very effective thing to pair with good lighting in your home are mirrors. If your home lacks a lot of windows or openings through which you can let in light, the best way to go is to add mirrors strategically to create the illusion of a larger space. Adding mirrors to a room can liven it up and add a lot of dimension to it. To further enhance the effect, you can place these mirrors opposite to any light source, in a way that it won’t create a glare, but will still have the desired visual impact. 

Another good way to use mirrors is by placing them opposite to each other. You can angle them strategically and place them so that every mirror is facing another at a particular angle. This can also make a room look much larger than it is. 

Declutter and Clean

A messy home will definitely look much smaller than one which is clean and tidy. You may not realize this, but oftentimes, homeowners tend to hoard things they may not need. Some of these objects can even be in plain sight, rather than hidden away in storage. This can seriously impact your home’s look, making it look small, congested and disorganized. Your home’s full potential may be uncovered after a proper cleaning, so make sure to declutter every once in a while to reveal space under all the junk that can be better utilized.

Conclusion

Getting yourself a new place and decorating it according to your preference can be quite an interesting task. You can let your creativity flow and create a home you feel most comfortable in, but with smaller living spaces such as an apartment or dorm room, this can become somewhat difficult. People without experience with home décor, knowledge of color palettes and a limited skill set may not know what to do to transform a living space with limited resources. These tips can help you turn nearly any home into one which you prefer living in.