How to Create the Feel of More Space at Home
Storage, sunlight and interconnected living areas can make a home seem much larger than it is. An architect has his say
Bigger does not always mean better. It’s possible to create a more spacious and comfortable home without adding a single square foot. Before you start spending money knocking down walls and digging out the basement, why not look more closely at what you already have, how you use the spaces and how hard they’re working for you? With a little know-how, it’s easy to make the most of what may already be there.
Let there be light. The next item to consider, and this is something architects can become obsessed with, is maximizing the amount of natural light entering a space. Well-lit spaces not only feel bigger, but they also feel happier — even when it’s raining outside.
This obviously depends on the layout and orientation of your home, but don’t stop at the windows — you can bring in light from above using skylights, or borrow light from adjacent rooms with translucent panels or fanlights over doors.
How to Add a Skylight or Light Tube
This obviously depends on the layout and orientation of your home, but don’t stop at the windows — you can bring in light from above using skylights, or borrow light from adjacent rooms with translucent panels or fanlights over doors.
How to Add a Skylight or Light Tube
Once you get that sunlight pouring in, use light-colored walls, polished floors (where practical) and strategically placed mirrors to help bounce light around and into every corner, making rooms feel much larger.
How to Use Mirrors for More Light and Style
How to Use Mirrors for More Light and Style
Reconsider having so many soft furnishings. The effect materials and textures have on a space is fascinating. I think many of us are aware of how soft and hard materials change the acoustics of a space — try singing in the shower — but what’s interesting is how these materials also absorb light as well as sound, making the room seem smaller.
To make this work for you, you have to think about how you want the space to feel. Removing window treatments and other soft furnishings can make a room feel more spacious. But in the wrong space, it can go too far the other way and make it feel cavernous and echoey. Consider how that would affect your enjoyment of the space and what the room is used for (for example, a bedroom and a dining room would have very different requirements).
It’s often good to balance the hard, flat, pale surfaces with elements of bright color and soft texture to give the room some personality and stop it from feeling like a cave.
To make this work for you, you have to think about how you want the space to feel. Removing window treatments and other soft furnishings can make a room feel more spacious. But in the wrong space, it can go too far the other way and make it feel cavernous and echoey. Consider how that would affect your enjoyment of the space and what the room is used for (for example, a bedroom and a dining room would have very different requirements).
It’s often good to balance the hard, flat, pale surfaces with elements of bright color and soft texture to give the room some personality and stop it from feeling like a cave.
Use lines to your advantage. Another trick to consider is the use of lines in a space. Vertical lines on the walls make the space feel taller, while strong horizontal bands make it feel wider. Diagonal lines on the floor make the space feel wider, and board lines running the length of the room make it feel longer.
It’s not exactly rocket science. I would urge caution, however, if choosing to employ this particular trickery. Stripes and blocks of color are powerful devices and can dramatically change the feel of a space. Use them sparingly — only if you feel you need to, and only if maximizing light and decluttering aren’t increasing the sense of space in your home enough.
Houzz TV: See How to Paint Perfect Wall Stripes
Houzz TV: See How to Paint Perfect Wall Stripes
Blur the boundaries. The next item I want you to consider is the concept of bringing the outside in. This can be done by using external features (such as a special tree or sculpture) to draw the eye out and by exploiting the visual connection between internal and external spaces.
As an architect, one of my pet peeves are those frilly net curtains you see everywhere (ugh!). What’s the point in having a nice big window if you can’t see out of it? Just try taking down those curtains — you’ll be amazed at the difference such a small thing makes.
11 Ways to Create Indoor-Outdoor Connections
As an architect, one of my pet peeves are those frilly net curtains you see everywhere (ugh!). What’s the point in having a nice big window if you can’t see out of it? Just try taking down those curtains — you’ll be amazed at the difference such a small thing makes.
11 Ways to Create Indoor-Outdoor Connections
If you want to go a step further —and this is particularly good at the back of the house where you may have a kitchen, dining or living space facing the garden —you can convert existing windows into double-paned French doors.
Provided you don’t change the width of the opening, it is a relatively simple task for a builder to take out the wall below the window to create a simple doorway. And it will make a massive difference to both the room and your appreciation of the backyard, however small it is.
How to Find the Right Glass Door for Your Patio
Provided you don’t change the width of the opening, it is a relatively simple task for a builder to take out the wall below the window to create a simple doorway. And it will make a massive difference to both the room and your appreciation of the backyard, however small it is.
How to Find the Right Glass Door for Your Patio
Break up your home. I will leave you with a final thought. When planning the layout of your home, consider the concept of “broken plan” rather than open plan. This involves creating a series of separate and distinct but interconnected and flowing spaces instead of one big open space.
Open Plan Not Your Thing? Try ‘Broken Plan’
Open Plan Not Your Thing? Try ‘Broken Plan’
This allows for views from one space into another, which not only makes the room itself seem bigger, but also draws the eye away and through the house. You can do this by removing some of the doors between living spaces (perhaps not bedrooms) or through modest changes in level, two or three steps up or down at most, to differentiate the spaces.
Tell us: How have you made your house feel and look bigger? Share your tips in the Comments.
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Smaller and Smarter: An Architect’s Resolutions for 2017
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Tell us: How have you made your house feel and look bigger? Share your tips in the Comments.
More
Smaller and Smarter: An Architect’s Resolutions for 2017
Find architects and other design pros near you
So how do we solve this? The simple answer is storage, lots and lots of good, discreet storage. Most houses don’t have enough. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but if you can, go for built-in storage solutions to make the most of all those nooks and crannies (think about the space around the chimney and under the stairs).