As someone who lives in a studio apartment I’m always looking for ways to make my hybrid bedroom-living room space feel a bit bigger.
Personally, I enjoy rearranging my furniture and home furnishings every few months, hoping that it will unlock a new, more spacious version of my home; however, in my small apartment, there aren’t many other arrangement options. That said, I’m always open to ideas and upgrades that may help my space feel larger!
So, to find out a few tricks to make a living room look bigger, I turned to two interior designers: Jessica Nelson, the founder of full service interior design firm Jessica Nelson Design in Seattle, and Kate Longley, the Principal Designer and Founder at Kate Longley Designs in Arizona.
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Both Nelson and Longley agree on one small change that can make a small living room look twice as big; plus, they have a few other tips that can also make a living room look larger.
And interestingly, a lot of these tips are actually visual tricks. “If you cannot make the space physically larger,” says Longley, “you’re trying to trick your eye.”
Keep reading for their insights!
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This One Swap Makes a Small Living Room Look Twice as Big, According to Interior Designers
Nelson and Longley concur that to make a small living room feel larger, you should swap out a small area rug for a large area rug.
“A rug that is too small chops up the room visually,” explains Longley.
“Rug size is one of the easiest and most impactful changes that will make your small living room look twice as big,” adds Nelson. “A larger rug tricks your eye to see a larger, more unified area, while a smaller rug creates more visual changes in the room. The most common mistake I see homeowners make is using too small of a rug, so don’t be afraid to go larger here as long as there’s still some breathing room along the walls.”
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How to arrange a large rug in a small living room
Ideally, all four legs of your sofa (or at least the front legs!) should be on the rug, and you should leave at least 1 to 1.5 feet of exposed flooring between the rug and the walls, according to Nelson.
“This helps ground the room and make the furniture feel collected, not floating in space,” she explains.
Longley has a very similar take when it comes to rug sizes in small living rooms.
“Ideally, all furniture should sit all the way on the rug, or at least the front legs,” she says. “The rug should extend past the sides of the furniture at least 12 inches to the right and left of the sofa, chair or table.”
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Other Tricks to Make a Small Living Room Look Twice as Big, According to Designers
1. Use furniture with exposed legs or glass tops
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Rather than furniture that goes all the way to the floor, opting for pieces with exposed legs can help a room feel more spacious.
“Allowing light, air and your eye to easily move around and under a piece tricks your brain into seeing more space and thinking the room is more open,” explains Nelson.
Similarly, “glass coffee tables and side tables also take up less visual space,” according to Longley. “That’s a good ‘trick’ that fools the eye and makes it seem larger.”
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2. Use larger scale furniture
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According to Longley, you can “use larger scale furniture like you would in a larger room, but less of it,” and this will help the room feel bigger.
“People make the mistake of using smaller pieces (tiny furniture) and trying to fit too much in,” she explains. “Maybe in a living room you just have a small sofa with an attached chaise, a chair and a coffee table—instead of a smaller sofa, two smaller chairs, a coffee table, and small side tables. The more pieces, the more cramped it feels.”
3. Use a monochromatic color scheme
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A room with a monochromatic color scheme is one where most of the main fixtures (such as the couch, curtains and rug) are all in the same color.
“Using a monochromatic color scheme reduces high contrast lines and allows your eyes to move smoothly across a space,” explains Nelson. “This change can cut down on visual clutter so the room feels more open.”
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4. Use an oversized mirror
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“Large mirrors can make the room look twice as big without adding square footage,” says Longley. That’s because a large mirror can create the illusion of more space, as well as make a room brighter by reflecting more light.
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5. Mount your curtain rods using this trick
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Nelson recommends buying curtains that are “taller and wider than your windows,” and mounting curtain rods to support them. Doing this “not only gives the impression of larger scale windows, but allows more light to flow into the room” when the curtains are open.
Longley also recommends this trick for hanging curtains in small spaces.
“When you hang drapes at or close to the ceiling, it makes the ceilings feel taller,” adds Longley. “I find clients have often hung their drapes right above the top of the window instead. Additionally, you should have the rod extend about a foot on either side of the window. This makes the windows and ceiling appear larger.”
6. Put furniture in the center of the room
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Nelson notes that a common mistake people make in small living rooms is putting furniture right up against the wall.
“While more space in the center of the room may seem like it’d make the room feel larger,” explains Nelson, “allowing a little bit of space (even an inch or two) to breathe between a furniture piece and the wall allows more light and air to move around the room.”
Up Next:
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Sources:
- Jessica Nelson, the founder of full service interior design firm Jessica Nelson Design
- Kate Longley, the Principal Designer and Founder at Kate Longley Designs