How do I make my small bedroom appear large or larger?

Debbie Reed
by Debbie Reed
My room is a complete square. The bedroom door and a doorway (no door or anything) for the closet side by side and directly across from the is a wall with an average size window.
  10 answers
  • MN Mom MN Mom on May 29, 2016
    Paint the room a light color (if you're allowed to paint ). Keep the room looking larger by using this trick for your window. Hang a curtain rod so that it is wider than the window itself. Buy four drapery panels and hang two on each side. The fullness of the curtains plus the fact that you're hanging it so it's wider than the actual opening will give the appearance of a huge window. Great lighting is a must so find a couple beautiful lamps. Depending on your flooring, get a great area or throw rug with a light color and pattern. Don't crowd the room with too much furniture. If you have a low dresser or chest of drawers, see if it fits in your closet or use under bed storage. Hanging a nice mirror will also help reflect lamp and natural light. Good luck decorating!
  • William William on May 29, 2016
    Everything MN Mom says! Also paint the room a light color. Light colors make rooms look larger. That is an old home builders and realtors trick!
  • Janet Pizaro Janet Pizaro on May 29, 2016
    To add to Williams comment,keeping the walls light in color you can still change thing up with an accent wall. Choose your wall color and than choose the darkest version for an accent and paint the largest wall that color. I have and do this in all of my rooms and looks amazing.
  • Victoria Victoria on May 30, 2016
    White and Mirrors
  • Susan Susan on May 30, 2016
    For your closet doorway...hang a light colored window panel with grommets from a rod. Put one or two of the stick up wall lights in the closet. You press down on the top of it to turn it on. It runs on batteries. For a little extra light in the room and to help hide the closet, just turn the lights on sometimes. The glow is beautiful.
  • Mary Insana Mary Insana on May 30, 2016
    Are you able to put doors on the closet? This is what I did to my daughters very small room. If you can either put sliding mirrored doors or if they are standard size regular doors buy long mirrors and attach them to the doors. That way you will have mirrors to check your look and the reflection will make the room look bigger. I wouldn't put an exaggerated amount of curtains on a window to make it look bigger. That will swallow the room and make it look smaller. And a dark accent wall in a small room calls attention to that wall and doesn't give it depth. A monochromatic room works best in a small room. Keep the walls and the trim either the same color or just two shade different. The window treatments should be in the same shade family as the walls. When everything is within a few shades of each other it balances the room and nothing stands out to call attention to the size.
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    • Mary Insana Mary Insana on May 30, 2016
      I'm sure you'll end up doing a great job. My 19year old daughter wanted her very small room more minimalistic looking. I took the bifold doors off her closet and put up sliding mirror doors. The walls and trim are painted a light non metallic grey called Sterling . Her bedding is grey white and navy and her one small window has navy curtains. Everything looks so pulled together. It is miminalistic until all her clothes end up on the floor lol
  • Dawn Gagnon Dawn Gagnon on May 30, 2016
    I always use lighter paint in smaller spaces. Usually in a small space the more light it has the more airy it feels so I'd suggest painting with semi gloss paint to help distribute reflective light, try to place at least one framed mirror on a wall that will reflect and cast light from the window and use smaller scaled furniture. Also make sure to utilize the space under your bed for additional storage, and look for vertical opportunities--on your walls for storage solutions so there isn't a lot of your floor space being consumed.
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    • Dawn Gagnon Dawn Gagnon on May 30, 2016
      @Debbie Reed Aww thank you so much how sweet of you. I am happy to help in any way and I bet you're capable of many great things and I look forward to seeing and hearing about them all :D
  • Carmen Carmen on May 30, 2016
    Be minimalist with your furniture and light paint.
  • Sonia Burrows Sonia Burrows on May 31, 2016
    For you drapery use a fabric that has a horizontal strip as that will visually elongate the wall.
  • Jean DeSavage Jean DeSavage on Jun 11, 2016
    You can use two different tricks with paint. Paint the room a lovely color, in flat paint, let dry . Then tape off decent sized vertical stripes all the way around the room and on the open sections use a clear semi-gloss or gloss medium. Once the clear stripes are dry, remove the taped stripes and enjoy the subtle stripes. The vertical stripes make the room feel taller. You can use the same technique, but go horizontal around the room to make it look bigger.