How to visually enlarge a small room: the right use of color and lighting. How to visually enlarge a room: learning to play with space and colors Make it higher visually using another

compact furniture and the visual tricks in this article will help you visually enlarge the interior of any room in the house. You will learn how to save space, visually expand the area, raise the ceilings and make small room as light and bright as possible. We bring to your attention 7 secrets on how to visually enlarge the room!

1. How to save space in a small room: smart furniture

When shopping for furniture for a small room, you can save a lot of space by opting for shallow cabinetry (especially for kitchens, bathrooms, and entryways), narrow armrests, and thin legs. The latter will help not only visually enlarge the room, but also simplify the cleaning process, while furniture without legs will look much more massive and accumulate dust under it.

  1. Sliding or folding table, which can be expanded when guests visit. Just stock up on extra folding chairs that can be hidden against a wall or in a closet. Choose a table model with wheels to make it easier to move.
  2. Bar counter, which can also act as a narrow dining table, kitchen island, window sill or even a partition between the kitchen and the living room.
  3. Sofa with lifting mechanism and storage space. It is convenient to hide bed sheets, bedspreads and various old things. Armrests can be equipped with additional shelves for decor and accessories.
  4. A folding wardrobe bed that solves the problem of decorating small single or two-room apartments along with .
  5. Banquettes and ottomans with a hinged lid and a cavity inside.


Finally, built-in corner furniture make the most of the available space. Corner hallways, a reading chair in the living room, a built-in wardrobe over the head of the bed and similar solutions will make the interior of the home more comfortable and interesting.


2. Optical illusion: transparent and mirror interior items

3. How to visually expand the room: horizontal lines

Choose wallpaper with horizontal lines or sheathe the walls wooden planks to visually expand narrow room. The striped path will play the same role in the hallway or corridor. In general, in small rooms it is better to refuse to use carpets, as they visually break up the space and make it narrower.




4. Enlarge space with lighting

Illumination of every dark corner and the rejection of massive hanging lamps- Another way to visually enlarge a small room. Use oversized ceiling lights, behind the sofa and armchairs, sconces above the tables, built-in spotlights and led lights that will not steal your free space.



5. What color expands the space of the room: choose wallpaper for the walls

What wall color is best for a small room? And how to visually enlarge a room with wallpaper? Here are some photo ideas!

For a free and fresh atmosphere, choose light, natural and pastel shades beige, gray, green and blue tones. Great Choice become trendy olive and mint tones. Pair them with white and different textures for a more expressive design. Please note that wallpaper for walls is best chosen with medium to large, but not small patterns, which can make a small room look crowded.


A good option is to design the walls and furniture in one color. The interior will look cohesive and spacious, and colorful accents can be introduced with vases, indoor plants, sofa cushions and other accessories.


High shelves, shelving and cabinets to the ceiling will help you make the most of the space and also make it look taller. Just as horizontal stripes expand a room, vertical accents help lift the ceiling. Therefore, instead of one wide wardrobe in the living room, it is better to put two narrow, but high ones. Two tall showcases for decoration, kitchen cabinets under the ceiling and shelving with open shelves also suitable for this role.





7. How to visually enlarge a room with curtains

Small room needs a good natural light. Therefore, the curtains here should emphasize the windows, leaving them open. Ordinary long curtains are well suited for this, which can make the room taller if they are decorated in bright color(how vertical stripes). On the other hand, for a small room, you can safely choose curtains for wallpaper, stripes and sheer tulle in a simple cut. From lush French curtains it would be better to refuse, as well as any decor on the windowsills.




Thank you for your attention!

Small space: how to visually enlarge the room? updated: December 5, 2016 by: Margarita Glushko

Armed with these techniques, you can easily create a spacious and voluminous interior in your room.

1. The very first thing is color. When choosing materials, choose light pastel shades without bright and dark elements.

2. If you need to lengthen the room, then the opposite wall must be decorated with a colder and lighter shade. If you have some kind of print on the wallpaper, then you need to remember that large drawing brings closer, and small lengthens.

3. If the room is long and narrow, then it can be expanded using wallpaper with a horizontal stripe, as well as visually bringing the opposite wall closer with wallpaper or paint in a dark warm shade.

4. Wallpaper with a small floral print will visually enlarge the room, and if you combine and stick the same wallpaper on the opposite narrower wall, only with large flower, then it will also turn out to expand the room.

5. Low ceilings can be leveled using light, and preferably white, glossy ceiling or more extreme, “mirrors”. If height allows, then you can “play” with multi-level plasterboard ceiling. The ceiling and floor should be light, like the rest of the walls in the room. A light floor with longitudinal lines will also help increase the space. A light glossy tile will also help with this.

6. It is necessary to work very carefully with borders in a small room, there is a risk of reducing it even more.

7. good tool, with which you can always increase or expand the space - mirrors. But the main thing here is not to overdo it.

8. Light and light textiles on the windows will also visually enlarge the space and make the room more airy and bright.

9. Choose simple furniture, preferably with straight lines and functional. In color, it is desirable that it does not differ from the general color scheme of the room. Avoid large furniture. It is better to put an average sofa and one small chair than a full-fledged soft corner.


10. By placing some bright decor item in the farthest corner of the room, you will create the effect of a great perspective, and the person who enters will perceive the room as spacious.

11. Brighten up the room with extra lighting. Apart from sunlight and central lighting use interior lighting and additional sources Sveta. Sometimes, with just the right lighting, you can create stunning visual effects. If you are not confident in your abilities, contact professional designers.

12. In a small room, a lot of small decor items (trinkets, candlesticks, figurines, etc.) will look ridiculous and visually clutter up the space even more. Therefore, try to remove all unnecessary.

13. Do not take up space in the center of the room, place furniture along the walls and in the corners.

14. Choose “transparent” furniture with glass surfaces.

15. Use mirrors. With their help, you will create depth in the room. Mirrors also make a room lighter and brighter by reflecting natural and artificial light.

16. If you need to divide a room by highlighting some area, use “shelf” and glass partitions.


17. Instead of ordinary doors, you can also put a glass partition into the room.

18. On selection household appliances give preference narrow options. Thankfully today is very wide selection flat wall TVs and narrow monitors.

19. By making a niche with circular illumination in the wall, you will visually push the wall further, which will increase the volume of the room.

20. And finally, if you have the opportunity to combine rooms by removing partitions, use this method as well, but here you will have to work hard and run around all sorts of authorities to agree on the redevelopment of the apartment.

For many residents former USSR at least a question visual magnification living space is very acute, because as a legacy after the era of communism, we got a lot of houses with standard small apartments. Visually increase the space and create the illusion of spaciousness will help simple, accessible to all tricks.

Enlarge space with mirrors

A mirror placed close to the floor will help add volume to the room, an interesting effect can be achieved if you use mirrors instead of a curb. Perfectly able to cope with the increase in space and a mirrored ceiling. And today it is not necessary to use a mirror for this. The desired effect can be created stretch ceiling. In order to expand the space, they can occupy both almost the entire area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe ceiling, and only a small part of it.

Wallpaper - is it possible to visually enlarge the room

The most commonly used finishing material for residential premises is wallpaper. In interior design, they play an important role. This or that pattern of wallpaper can significantly change the look of the room, including visually reduce or expand the space of the room.

To make the room seem larger, it is recommended to choose wallpaper in light colors. If there is a drawing on them, it should be borne in mind that large images significantly narrow the space. For small rooms, a small or small ornament is more suitable, it visually removes the surface, as a result, the room seems larger. A good effect can be achieved by combining wallpaper.

To begin with, let's figure out how a drawing can change the optics of space.

Large drawing(image 1) brings surfaces closer, and, consequently, visually reduces the room, if it is located only on the back wall - the room is shortened.

fine drawing(image 2), especially in light colors, it seems to push the space apart, thanks to which it enlarges the room.

transverse stripes(image 3) pushing the walls apart, as a result the room seems to be lower. If they are located only on the back wall, the room is shortened.

vertical stripes(picture 4) lengthen the wall, thanks to this the room seems higher, and the wider the stripes are, the more noticeable the effect will be.

Cross stripes on the floor(image 5) visually the room is made shorter and wider.

Longitudinal stripes on the floor(image 6) lengthen the room, and the more pronounced their color and the wider they are, the stronger the effect.

Ways to expand space with wallpaper:

  • To level a long and narrow room, you can use wallpaper that has a horizontal pattern, or bring the far wall closer with wallpaper in a warm dark shade.
  • Wallpaper with vertical stripes visually increase the height, but reduce the volume of the room. To avoid this effect, the walls can be decorated with contrasting narrow stripes.
  • Wide and overly bright stripes will make the room look "squat", so try to use discreet colors. Bright drawings are recommended to be included only in places, for example, to highlight zones.
  • To enlarge the room with wallpaper, you can decorate smaller walls with a large pattern, and large ones with a small one. Large patterns are also well suited for zoning a room, highlighting any part of it.
  • Wallpaper without a pattern (monochrome) or with a barely noticeable image creates a depth of perception, thanks to which it well emphasizes interior items. Such wallpapers (but only in light colors) will not only increase the space, but also create an ideal basis for further decorating the walls with photographs, paintings, etc.
  • To enlarge small rooms with low ceilings and poor lighting, you can decorate their lower part with darker tones, the upper with light ones, and make a horizontal strip at the junction.
  • To make the ceiling seem higher, glue the wallpaper only close to it. Wide borders on the walls, having the color of the ceiling, make the room lower, so it is better to refuse them. Only very thin borders are allowed.
  • You can visually distance the ceiling by adding length to the walls. In this case, they should "go" a little to the ceiling. Just paste the wallpaper starting from the ceiling, or paint the ceiling near the walls the same color as the walls. As a result, a strip with the same color, texture and pattern as the walls should form along the perimeter of the ceiling. The size of such a strip should not exceed thirty centimeters, for small spaces five centimeters will be enough.
  • You can raise the ceiling with the help of photo wallpaper. If you decorate one of the walls with such wallpaper, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe room will visually increase. But remember, murals that increase space should only be with a perspective pattern, that is, they should not depict, for example, Brick wall, and the water surface, the field, the road going into the distance, Mountain peaks etc.

Expanding space with color

Scientists have long proven that color can affect a person in the most amazing way. Some shades soothe and give peace of mind, others, on the contrary, irritate or even make a person aggressive, others increase appetite, etc. Color can also affect the visual perception of space.

Consider how paints can optically change space:

dark floor(image 1) in combination with light walls and ceiling, pushes the room up and to the sides. Especially large room it will seem if the walls and ceiling are the same.

Darkened floor and ceiling(image 2) will make the room wider and lower, its area will be perceived as larger than in reality.

Darkened back wall and floor(image 3), in this case, the floor will be emphasized even more, this will push the room apart.

Darkened back wall and ceiling(image 4) will make the room visually shorter, but at the same time expand to the sides.

Darkened walls and floor(image 5). In this version, the floor connects the walls and seems to pull them together, because of this, the room becomes smaller and lengthens.

Darkened back wall(image 6) deepens the room and is also a good backdrop for furniture and interior items that need to be highlighted.

Darkened side walls(image 7) make the room narrower, it moves apart towards the back wall, floor and ceiling.

Darkened rear and side walls(image 8) expand the room up and down, but at the same time make it closed.

Darkened side walls and ceiling(image 9) the room expands towards the back wall, it seems narrower and longer. At the same time, the light floor does not give a feeling of reliable support.

Colored back and side walls(image 10) make the room closed, but at the same time it seems higher.

Neutral floor and colored other surfaces(image 11) make the room cramped and look like a cave.

Colored all surfaces(image 12) greatly narrow the room, make it gloomy.

Consider a few designer tips on how to visually enlarge a room with color:

  • It is best to expand the space with light pastel colors.
  • Making the room bigger will help the design of the ceiling and walls in one color. Also, the top can be made the same as the walls, but only a couple of tones lighter.
  • If the style of the room allows, you can visually raise the ceiling, and therefore increase the space, using the beams located on it. At the same time, it is recommended to make them white, and the ceiling itself smoky, slightly darkened.
  • If you want to increase the space with color, and significantly - use blue tones, but keep in mind that such shades are not conducive to a long stay in the room. An alternative to blue can be any light cold colors.
  • On the farthest wall of the room, place some bright decor item, so you can create a perspective effect and the room will be perceived as spacious.
  • Try to paint low ceilings only in bright hues, best in white.
  • In order to lengthen the room, decorate the opposite wall with a lighter cold shade.
  • To increase the space, you can use the following technique - to make a floor and decorative elements in one color, and decorate the walls in a calmer tone.
  • Try to choose the overall furniture that you plan to put along the walls in a color close to the walls, so the room will visually smooth out.
  • You can move the walls apart if you paint the shelves to match them and choose the same color curtains. All these elements will merge and create more air space.

The problem of narrow and small spaces is familiar to many. And everyone tries to solve it differently. It is especially difficult to select finishing materials, because you never know how harmoniously they will be combined in the interior of a small room. If you want to make your home cozy, despite the small area, then the best way will choose wallpaper for a small room that visually enlarges the space.

What will make the room bigger?

Small-sized premises are inherent in many Khrushchev apartments. And the conditions do not allow for a satisfactory redevelopment - the amount of space remains the same and it will not work to create an "extension". How to visually enlarge a room? There are several simple ways visually add "air" to the space. First of all, this is the use of curtains and mirrors.

Most the right choice there will be light, light and warm tones translucent curtains. They should be longer than windows and take up space on the floor, thereby giving the illusion of high ceilings.

Mirrors are the most popular and simple technique that needs to be handled with care. An excessive number of mirrors may not enlarge a small room, but, on the contrary, turn it into a matchbox.

For premises rectangular shape It is customary to put a mirror on one of the long sides. Thus, the space of the room is “cut off”, and it takes the form of a square. Usually this problem narrow space found in hallways and corridors.

Save on bathrooms in apartments square meters. Mirrors, glass and glossy surfaces will correct this defect. In the bathroom, you should abandon the framework and use mirror panels This creates the effect of freedom. For the walls, tiles with a glossy finish are used, the shower is separated by a glass door, and the ceiling is made mirrored.

We use photo wallpaper

They also resort to photo wallpapers that visually enlarge the room. This is quite a beautiful and effective way. But you should take into account the features of each of the canvases. Not all drawings on the panel will give the desired result.

Space-enhancing wallpapers should contain images that tend to go deeper into the picture:

  • forest path;
  • street in a big city;
  • undersea world.

Another rule is that vertical images optically raise the ceiling.

Selection and gluing of photo wallpapers is complex process and there are several design secrets, which will help to correctly place the panel in a small room:

  • Wallpaper with a perspective should be glued on the wall of the room where there are no windows and doors.
  • You can not obscure or cut the picture with furniture. For a wall with photo wallpaper, a low sofa, table or bed is suitable.
  • How smaller size rooms, the lighter the pattern on the wallpaper should be.
  • For rooms with windows overlooking sunny side, cold tones should be selected, and warm colors are suitable for those in need of light.

Designers also often use backlighting for wallpaper. This method is in place. It is used both in the case of small and with large rooms. For a small one, you should use lamps of small sizes. They can be placed in the eaves, they can “raise” bedside tables or a bed.

Also, built-in lighting in niches is often used - this helps to achieve the effect of volume and visually add space to the room.

On video: wall murals that expand the space.

Wallpaper colors and patterns

Wallpaper for a small room should be selected taking into account the color and patterns that are located on them. Many are afraid to join light walls and furniture for fear that they will merge and the interior will be boring. There are many good examples design using white, gray, beige colors. For a small room, this solution will be the best.

It should be remembered that the furniture should differ in shade - be darker than the wallpaper and the surrounding interior.

It is appropriate to choose cold color options. They work for expansion. The following should be omitted:

  • Contrasts. They visually cut the room into parts. It is appropriate to use them for rooms that are larger in size. For example, for their zoning. For small areas, this method is not suitable.
  • Bright saturated colors. Such a background will visually narrow the room and turn it into boxes.
  • Large and contrast patterns. Their perception in such a room will be impaired, since the overall drawings emphasize a small area, and the brightness exacerbates the situation.

Acceptance of a contrasting wall is allowed. To do this, one side in the room is isolated using a drawing. It's better if they are geometric shapes. What is the feature? The color scheme of this surface should be calm and not very different from the general style. In this way, it will turn out to deceive the eyesight - any person will think that the space is larger than it really is.

There are several rules for decorating walls with wallpaper:

  • Opposite sides can be decorated in the same color scheme, but contrasting them with cold and light shades.
  • How to do long walls shorter? To do this, use wallpaper with a small print, a large pattern is best left for short walls.
  • Diagonal placement of images on wallpaper canvases will also visually stretch the space.
  • The method of different color saturation is also common. To achieve the desired effect, the bottom of the walls is pasted over with darker tones, and light ones are placed on top. This method is ideal for small rooms with low ceilings.
  • Alternation of wallpaper with and without a pattern is also allowed. However, to expand the volume of the room, plain canvases should be bigger size than wallpaper with an ornament.
  • It is recommended to use glossy finishes. They create an increase in the area of ​​\u200b\u200brooms, since they have the ability to reflect objects in front of them.

Expanding a narrow room

One of the most difficult is the decor of a narrow room. And if there is also little space in it, then you need to carefully select any design. And before starting any action, you should read the advice of professionals on how to visually expand a narrow room.

The main problem of such a room is the range of one of the sides. To approximate it, you can use the following methods:

  • Place a mirror on a long wall. This will visually trim the room and turn the rectangular structure into a square.

  • Use wallpaper in warm colors. By sticking such a coating on the far side, you can slightly reduce the distance.

  • horizontal stripes - they should be narrow and light. So at the same time it turns out to stretch the walls in height and level the room.

  • Contrasts. To create balance in a narrow room, place on short walls different pattern. One is small and the other is large.

  • For dark and narrow spaces recommended stick a lighter strip of wallpaper on the one of the walls that is illuminated the least. This will help align the overall design.

Furniture to expand the room

Furnishing small spaces also needs to be taken seriously. The correct choice depends on many factors: color, shape, size and style of an individual element.

Avoid oversized headsets. Huge wardrobes and sofas are out of fashion for a long time. They can be left only because of warm memories. But they can ruin any interior. It is better to turn to stylish and not taking up much space things. They can be easily moved, transported or even hidden in case of a design change. Also very practical are built-in structures or transforming furniture.

Stick. This rule will help get rid of unnecessary things that often clutter up too much space. How less furniture, the more light and freedom will be in the room.

It is important to choose decoration and furniture in a certain style. One of the best options is high-tech. It is designed for young and active people who need functionality and comfort from home. The materials used to create this style are glass and metal. They contribute to the atmosphere of airiness, so they are ideal for small spaces.

There are many ways to enlarge a room. It can be wallpaper, materials, furniture and decor elements. However, everyone should know how to use them correctly. Otherwise, a completely different result may turn out and the surrounding interior will become even smaller.

From time to time, each of us is seized by the desire for change. Someone changes their hairstyle, someone starts looking for a job, but there are quite a few people who start renovations in their apartments. Or maybe, regardless of mood, it's time to update the interior? We invite you to think about how to visually change the space of your room. It's no secret that many of us have small living spaces, so we recommend taking the chance to make them a little bigger through color, detail and imagination.

Overcoming space

Imagine that you are in a room where the walls, floor and ceiling are painted in. How are you feeling? Most likely, quite depressed, and it's not just about dark shades, but also in the fact that a space with dark walls (and the floor and ceiling are actually the fifth and sixth walls) looks smaller than it actually is. Once you understand how you feel about a black-and-black room, choose light colors for your living space.

Light but not white. Rather, we suggest you paint in a clean White color only the ceiling - so it will seem yours. Glossy paint will also add a sense of flight. But it is better to make the walls a little darker: pearl gray. If the walls are slightly darker than the ceiling, then there will be a feeling that the room is higher than it really is.

There is another option: solve the lower half in more dark colors, upper - in lighter ones. On the border of flowers you can do decorative border, but horizontal stripes are not always beneficial in terms of visual expansion space. We will talk about this a little below.

Wallpaper is also desirable to choose plain or with a small pattern - any large accessories on the walls will visually "eat up" the space of the room. Follow the same principles when choosing a carpet.

Light furniture, tables with glass surfaces, cabinets with mirrored doors will well emphasize the "air" in the room. And if only one item in the interior is saturated black (floor lamp, desk lamp, a pair of pillows on a white sofa), then it will only emphasize the main light tone.

Want to bright colors? The walls, as we have already understood, are best left in a pastel or cold shade, but you can paint the window sill with bright paint. Or a battery, a cornice, one window frame. It is better if a bright object is be against the wall opposite the entrance. This is how the effect of a displaced perspective arises, a bright object, as it were, draws attention to itself, and due to this, we perceive the space as elongated in its direction, larger than it actually is.

Life in stripes

The stripes on the walls are a pattern that not everyone likes. However, in small room it is he who can be the most advantageous: vertical stripes make the room visually higher, horizontal stripes visually wider, diagonal ones wider, but without the feeling that the ceiling hangs over your head.

Stripes on the walls can be done independently - with paint, for this it is better to use masking tape. To simplify the work a little, the stripes do not have to be the same width at all - there is room for experimentation. If you chose paint, then the stripes can be made in any color: try both shades of the same color and contrasting combinations. If only you, your household members liked it and solved the main task - it made the room not less, but more.

Stripes can be added by curtains and window frames. Try to install ones that are not "cut" cross beams, then the frames will also play the role of organizing the interior of the vertical.

And some more tricks

Highly big role in questions of the organization of space, light plays. If your room is small, and even poorly lit, then there will be a feeling that the walls are literally shrinking around you. Just do not try to solve this problem by acquiring a more massive and voluminous one: it will just make the ceiling visually lower. A large ceiling lamp is acceptable if it hangs on a long suspension. Let's say right away that such a solution is not suitable for every room, but if a small room plays a role in your apartment, then a chandelier can be placed above the dining table.

If you are installing ceiling lights, you can place them around the perimeter of the ceiling or in such a way that the light from the center of the ceiling is distributed to the sides. This visually expands the space of the room. You can also distribute small halogen lamps around the room: they can illuminate the shelves in the closet, the corners of the room, etc. If the walls are light, then this will also be in your favor in terms of the visual solution of the space.

Important decision

It remains to choose which material is more suitable for your updated room - paint or wallpaper. Here, as they say, the choice is yours: what do you like to work with more, what are you more used to. We can also give you a recommendation for a ceiling covering - we suggest you choose glossy paint. For example, you can take ultra-white paint, as suggested by the Belinka brand. It gives the surfaces a shade of snowy whiteness, just the right one to make the ceiling appear higher. It can be applied even in one layer, and it will already look very tight and lie flat.

For wall decoration, you can choose paint or wallpaper, and paint has one serious advantage: you choose the shade yourself (or shades if you apply stripes or paint the walls in different colors) that you like or need. With paint, you can almost endlessly pick up a color, mix until you achieve the desired result. And if you already have furniture that will stand in the room, choosing the shade of paint for it is easier than the tone of the wallpaper.

Modern interior paints such as Belinka can also be applied to decorative plaster, and on textured wallpaper, and on cement slabs. Thus, you get a great opportunity"play" with the pattern of the walls. And in order for the paint to lie on the wall evenly and hold for a long time, we recommend that you pre-treat the walls with an acrylic primer.

So, starting repairs in the room, take the opportunity to change its space, visually enlarge it. Just a few small secrets, a couple of details, and you get an updated room. Try it and the result may exceed your expectations.

*Article prepared by experts trademark Belinka