How To Make A Small Room Appear Larger

What do you do if your room makes you feel claustrophobic? You feel cramped in those quarters, but there isn't much you can do about it, or is there?

Windows that face the outdoors would help tremendously but there is only so much you can do about the structure of the room. The landlady may kick you out if you knock a hole in the wall to create a window, but there are other ways of bringing in the light.

Okay, before we even talk about light, is the room cluttered up?

The first thing you should do in a cramped space is to declutter. Get rid of all the things you don't need. As for what you really need, plan out where you can keep them so that you have as many clear surfaces as possible in the room. The less clutter there is, the more spacious, or at least, the less cramped and stressful the room would feel.

Keep all the papers out of sight. Organize them in files, or boxes and hide these boxes in odd corners in the room, out of sight.

By the way, how well is your room organized? Many rooms might have unused spaces beneath the window or they may be oddly shaped. Make the most of those odd spaces by building in cabinets or storage spaces and keep your belongings there out of sight, to reduce clutter.

Get a magazine rack to keep your newspapers and latest magazines in. Then keep that magazine rack near the wall. Actually, keeping the furniture against the wall leaves you more space in the center of the room for you to move around.

Take a leaf out of the Shaker's book. You know the Shakers style of home decorating. Where simplicity counted, neatness and practicality was everything. They had pegs on racks to organize all their things and racks are great space savers, highly practical and get you organized. The Shakers would not leave things lying on the floor. Everything had its place, on racks. Walls were lined with pegs on which they would hang up their few, practical possessions.

Clear spaces reduce the clutter. Just keeping the floor clear of objects and every surface tidy with the bare minimum on each surface would make the room itself feel less cramped.

Talking about spaces, consider going for glass tables instead of wood. Glass furniture appears invisible and the visual space freed up by using glass or transparent, clear materials instead of opaque objects would make the room look more spacious.

Instead of claustrophobic, think cozy. Go for rich fabrics that lend the room texture and an air of luxury. Cover the floor in the center of the room with a large rug to give the room that luxe finish.

Fake a ceiling to floor, wall to wall window by draping curtains against an entire wall, to give the illusion that there is a window and therefore, more space behind that curtain.

Make the most of whatever light your room may have by lining one of the walls with mirror panels. Have you seen a room with a wall lined with mirrors? Those mirrors make the room look twice its size, the reflection of the room through the mirror makes it look as if there is an identical extension of the room on the other side of the wall. You could arrange mirror panels side by side to cover the entire length of the wall to visually double the size of the room.

There is no need to feel claustrophobic in your room. With a few carefully planned touches, your tiny room can look more spacious and feel cosier.