How to make rooms look larger
We all crave the feeling of space.
However, if large living rooms and generous bedrooms are a little out of reach in your current house, look to the clever use of colour to create a sense of space.
Here are a few ways to make a small space feel larger with the use of paint and wallpaper.
A united front: Make walls seem longer with subtle tonal variations
Painting walls and woodwork in the same colour, or slight tonal variations of the same hue, creates a monochromatic scheme that seamlessly stretches the look of the walls from the floor and ceiling.
Continue the same colour across doors, door frames and crown molding to further create an uninterrupted feel to a room.
Look at the Colour Scales collection for 48 sophisticated neutrals, organised into 12 families. Each family has four shades with colours stepped in strength to achieve a harmonious colour combination when used together.
Work with the light: Choose light reflecting paint colours
Step back and examine your room.
Which walls have direct, natural light on them from the windows?
How does the light move across the room during the day?
Each Little Greene colour has a Light Reflective Value (LRV) and this describes how much light will be reflected by the paint colour.
Space-expanding whites like Loft White (LRV 92), pale blues like Gauze (LRV 77) and cool greys like Flint (LRV 66), do the job of reflecting light back into the room exceptionally well and create a sense of increased space.
Also consider painting kitchen cupboards, baseboards, window frames and bannisters in a gloss finish.
Use Intelligent Gloss to reflect light in otherwise matte schemes and darker corners.
Pearl Colour Kitchen
Main wall: Pearl Colour – Dark
Window seat and back door and kitchen unit: Pearl Colour
Table and bench: Pearl Colour – Pale
Browse Pearl Colour
Don't be afraid of the dark: Use dark paint colours to make walls seem further away
Dark colours might instinctively be colours to avoid if you are looking to create a feeling of space, as people fear making their room look smaller.
But, conversely, very rich blues like Hicks' Blue, dark greys like Dark Lead Colour and fathomless greens like Puck have an almost bottomless depth that our eyes find hard to focus on – and thus create a sense of a wall being further away than it actually is.
This works especially well on walls at the far end of rectangular living spaces, or behind headboards in smaller bedrooms.
Emphasise the vertical: Introduce vertical stripes to create the illusion of height
If your ceilings feel too low, elongate the feeling of the height of your walls using vertical stripes, forcing your eye to look upwards along the stripe.
Combine striped wallpapers with fresh white ceilings for an uplifting look to make small spaces feel bigger. Or paint vertical stripes in an array of colourful shades on a strong background like Juniper Ash. This fun and lively scheme works perfectly in a nursery or playroom.
For a more sophisticated scheme suitable for a living space, use paint in neutral tones to create wide vertical stripes on uninterrupted walls.
Wall: Middle Buff
Detail Stripe: Hammock
Window Frame: French Grey
Ceiling: French Grey – Pale
Browse Middle Buff
Focus on flooring: Paint floorboards to elongate a room
Painted floorboards instantly create longer looking rooms because of their ‘in-built stripe’, which draws the eye along the room’s longest length.
All the paint colours on the Little Greene chart are available in our hard-wearing Intelligent Floor Paint - a water-based floor paint with a drying time of just two hours.
Look for light reflective colours to enhance this vital feature of the room and make a small room look bigger.
Explore our guide on how to incorporate floor paint in your scheme.
Light up the room: Use lighter colours closer to the ceiling
In small spaces, stick to the dark-to-light rule:
Keep the darkest colours towards the floor, disappearing to white by the time the colours reach the ceiling.
This gives an open and airy, cloud-like feel to the room where colours disappear to almost nothing.
The dark-to-light rule gives an instant sense of space in an otherwise tiny room.
This living room uses shades from the Portland Stone family on the walls and ceiling, alongside dark accents of Baluster and Pompeian Ash closer to the floor on the drawers and fire surround.
For bespoke interior design advice on how to make a small room feel bigger, contact our expert Colour Consultants or visit your nearest showroom.