Whether you live in a tiny studio apartment or a spacious family home, creating a sense of space where you live is always going to be important. If you can do this, you’ll always feel comfortable and relaxed in your surroundings, no matter how much room you really have. Studies have shown that having a cramped and/or cluttered home can lead to stress and anxiety, and in some cases, it might make symptoms of depression worse. So it makes sense to do what you can to create as much of a sense of space in your home as you can.
This might seem like a difficult job to do when you only have limited space and plenty of possession and people to fit in, but it can be done. Read on to find out more.
Declutter And Organise
Before you can move forward with trying the various hints and tips we’ll offer to help you make the most of the space you have in your home, you’ll need to clear things away and get organised. This is the perfect opportunity to declutter your home, so make sure you put aside some time to do this.
Decluttering simply means removing anything from your home that you no longer want or need. Go room by room, and you’ll probably find there is a lot you can get rid of. You can throw it out, donate it to charity, or in some cases, you can sell it (depending on its condition). Once you’re finished, you’ll have a lot more space, and it might be with some cleaning up, you don’t really have to do anything else – it was all your ‘stuff’ making the space feel small. However, if you do want to do more, the following points will certainly help.
Choose Light Colours
Colours actually play a crucial role in creating more space in your home. Of course, they don’t do this in a literal or practical sense, but they can offer a clever optical illusion that will help you. If you choose dark colours, you’ll find that the room you’ve used them in feels smaller than it really is, but when you choose light colours, like white or cream or perhaps pastel shades, the room will instantly feel brighter and bigger, even though it’s technically not.
Interestingly, you don’t have to paint your entire house with light colours to create a sense of space; you can use them strategically to help make a beautiful look that you can enjoy, but that doesn’t make anyone feel confined. You might have a light-coloured feature wall, for example, or you might choose light furniture to go with darker tones in your décor. In this way, you don’t have to use light colours that you don’t like, but you can ensure you still open up the space as much as possible.
Divide Or Define Rooms
Another great way to create a sense of space in your home is to divide or define rooms. Although you might think this would make everything smaller because you’re splitting larger rooms up into smaller spaces, the opposite is actually true. When you have smaller spaces to work with, you will be much more careful about where you place your furniture and how you decorate. In this way, your home will feel more spacious because you’ve had to think harder about creating that feeling of space rather than just picking anything that seemed right because you already had all the space you needed. You could also think about making a point of extending out of the house entirely. A garden office pod is going to help you to get out of the house while utilising your outdoor space as much as possible. Creating a sense of space is far easier when you extend outwards!
You definitely don’t have to build walls in your home (unless you want to, of course) to define spaces; you can use something as simple as a rug. Take a look at Rugstore NE, and you’ll see there are lots of different styles, sizes, and colours to choose from when it comes to rugs, ensuring that this method of defining a room will work perfectly, no matter what design styles you like best.
Maximise Natural Light
As we’ve noted above, a home that is too dark will feel smaller than one that is nice and bright. Apart from the colour choices we have mentioned, which are important, another way to ensure that you have enough light in your home and that it therefore feels more spacious is to maximise the amount of natural light that can enter.
You might not be able to move windows or make them larger, but you can look at the window treatments you currently have. Could they be changed to let in more light? A blind, for example, will often be smaller than curtains, and therefore more light can come in. Also make sure that nothing is blocking the window either inside or outside, and that the window frame is a light colour – this will all help maximise the natural light in your home and make your home feel spacious.
We’re very proud to bring you this feature in association with Stitched, Rugstore NE and Modern Garden Rooms. For more inspiration for your home, please pay a visit to our interiors page.