How do you make your room look smaller?
Question:yeah...this is a strange question. but my room is wayyy too big. i always hated having a big room. i would always take the small room and give to big one to my brother. so...any ideas?
Answers:
It's not a strange question. Large rooms arent' really cozy and I have had a number of clients ask me the same question. Here's what I tell them:
An excellent way to take up some space in a large room is to have more than one furniture group in the room. For your bedroom, think one area for sleeping, one area for reading, one are for writing, one are for hanging out or watching television (if you have one in your room). Each group should be in its own space. This will make your room cozier and fuller. An oversized chair would be great in the reading section! Just don't put oversized furniture in the entire room because you'll find it's just toooooo much.
If your color scheme is light, opt towards darker colors. Dark colors absorb light and make the room appear smaller. You can do dark colors on the walls. A deep exspresso coffee brown would look good on the walls. And using dark colors in one area (the paint) doesn't mean you can't use light colors elsewhere. Brown walls look amazing with soft powder blue! Add silver metallic accents to warm it up. If your ceiling is high, bring it down by painting it dark also. It doesn't need to be brown in this example, but I'd do exspresso lightened with cream... Stay away from white ceilings.
Warm up the room and make it feel more comfortable by adding plants. Spider plants are the best in a bedroom, as they give off lots of oxygen and filter your air so they are definitely a plus.
Choose curtains, a comforter, duvet cover or bedspread with a large bold pattern. Although you should vary the size of fabric prints, make certain that the main fabric in the room is big and bold. Think huge dots, bold geometrical patterns, great big peace & love flowers!
Some designers will tell you that placing furniture away from the walls eats up space. And they'd be right. It eats up floor space. But personally, I think even though it eats up floor space, unless the room is already small (and yours isn't), when you see furniture not up against the walls, though you are physically taking up floor space, psychologically, you still get the impression that the room is big. What I suggest to make a room appear cozier, is to mix the two. Keep a big piece up against the wall. Not your bed! Having a bed away from the wall makes life so much easier when making the bed! Opt for keeping the other furniture away from the walls... group chairs away from the walls, maybe stick your desk crossway in a corner, things like that. It's hard to say when I don't know what furniture you have to work with...
Place area rugs in strategic places. A nice warm color next to your bed, a rug underneath the chair, table & lamp in the reading area, etc. This will take the focus off the space (the walls) and redefine the room perimiters.
In a small room, baskets, vintage suitcases, funky & decorative storage cases feel sometimes like clutter. In a large room, they work. You can use these in your room to take up visual space.
Don't hang small items on the walls unless you are hanging lots of little items together in a large scheme (such as framed photos, for example). Stick to bigger pieces of art.
Don't forget to think about lighting... Keep away from just having a ceiling light. Opt for a standing lamp, perhaps next to the reading area. And a nice table lamp on the desk or table in the writing area (if you don't have a desk in your room, a table that fits your decor can do this duty.
I hope this has given you some ideas. If you need any other help, feel free to email me.
Painting a room a dark color will make it look smaller. Most folks try to make their rooms look bigger by painting with a light color. I just did this. If you paint the ceiling a dark color it will make it look lower.
Try buying more furniture or just just try moving some stuff around. This will give the room a smaller appearence.
Dark walls is one way. Another would be to put your furniture kitty corner. For example, instead of putting your bed against a wall, put the head of the bed up against a corner so it comes right out into the middle of your room. Large, dark floor rugs will also help :)
Use dark colours. Dark colours always make a room appear smaller. Light colours bounce light off them & make the room appear larger.
If you don't want to be enveloped in a totally dark coloured room then you could use a dark colour on one wall (as a feature wall) & then use maybe 3-4 shades lighter on the other 3 walls. The paint store can mix. This would still make it appear smaller.
Then use decorations such as curtains, bed coverings & cushions all in the same dark colour as the feature wall but throw in a few in a contrasting colour.
You can make a room look smaller by using very big pieces of furniture, you can raise the bed and use lots of big pillows for example. Also if you use a dark color on the ceiling it would look like it is closer.
Darker colors will help. Contrasting colors and stripes will have a more dramatic effect.
If you cant paint it or dont want to (it's expensive and you might not like it a few years down the track) you can always divide the room into 2 parts - like an area with a chair/couch/bean bag and a tv and then another section fro your bed and maybe another part with your dresser. Try using rugs they make it seem a bit smaller and don't use big mirrors,
More Related Questions & Answers...