How to Make a Small Living Room Look Bigger

15 Clever Tips to Make Your Tiny Living Room Look Bigger

Decorating a small space can be challenging, but with the right tips and tricks, you can make your space look bigger and brighter. From your furniture to your wall color and décor, every aspect of your living room’s design should be considered carefully. We’re going to show you how to make a small living room look bigger with 15 simple tips.

How to Make a Living Room Look Bigger and Brighter: 15 Tips

1. Choose Light Wall and Ceiling Colors

Light neutral colors can work wonders to open up a space and make it feel bigger and more inviting. White is always a great option, but you can also opt for:

Light gray
Light beige
Cream
Taupe

Neutral colors can be warm or cool. Choose your shade based on the other colors in the room and the flooring in your living space. For example, if you have warm brown wood flooring, choose a warm beige or cream to complement the space.

2. Declutter Your Space

Clutter makes a space feel small and cramped. If your living room is already short on space, then cluttering it with unnecessary furniture, décor and other items will make it feel even smaller.

To open up the room and make it feel bigger, get rid of the clutter. Make sure that everything has a place, and keep those items in their places. If you have items just sitting around that you never use and don’t really seem to fit in, get rid of them.

Tip: Create a home inventory checklist to keep track of everything you keep!

3. Choose Glass and Lucite Furniture

Glass and lucite furniture and decor are great options for small living rooms. Why? Because they’re transparent or translucent. They allow more light to flow through them and into the room, helping it feel brighter and bigger.

Plus, glass and lucite are great materials for modern living rooms. Consider these materials for:

Coffee tables
Sitting chairs
Décor pieces that sit near windows

Don’t go overboard with glass or lucite though, as this can make the space feel uninviting. For example, if you have lucite sitting chairs in your living room, pair them with a modern fabric sofa to soften up the space.

4. Hang Mirrors

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror or Picture – YouTube Tutorial

Reflective surfaces can make a space look and feel bigger. Mirrors are a great way to take advantage of this effect, but you’ll need to be strategic about where you place them.

The best place to hang mirrors in small living rooms is on dark walls that don’t receive much natural light. Light from windows on nearby walls will bounce off of the mirror to instantly make the space feel brighter and bigger.

Opt for one large mirror instead of several smaller ones. And don’t clutter up the wall either. A nicely placed mirror is all you need to brighten up a wall and add volume to the room.

5. Choose Multi-Functional Furniture

Massimo Multifunction Sofa Bed with Storage

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/102386591519153468/

If you want to know how to make a small living room look bigger, here’s one simple tip that will change everything: ditch the clutter.

Clutter is the enemy of every small space, but you must keep your things somewhere, right? Save space and clutter by investing in multi-functional furniture for your living room. These are pieces of furniture that can serve multiple purposes.

In the living room above, the couch has two storage drawers, a fold-down headrest that doubles as a table, and shelving along the outside of the arm of the sofa to hold books or knick-knacks. An ottoman serves as extra seating and storage.

These two pieces of furniture save you from having to add a coffee table and shelving or bookcases to your space. The room feels open and bright because it’s not cluttered.

6. Scale Down Your Furniture

Even if you pare down your furniture to just the bare essentials, you may still be making your living room look smaller if your furniture is big and clunky.

A smaller space calls for smaller furniture, so scale things down a bit. Scale down your wall décor, too. For example, hang art lower down on the wall to create the illusion of taller ceilings and a bigger room.

The same rule applies to furniture, too. Furniture with a low profile can help make the space feel bigger, especially if you have lower ceilings.

7. Ditch the Solid Curtains

How To Hang Sheer Curtains – YouTube

Looking for a simple tip on how to make a small living room look bigger? Let in more natural light.

The more light you can let into your space, the better. Ditch the solid curtains and opt for a sheer set instead. If privacy isn’t a concern, get rid of the curtains entirely. Blinds are a great alternative because you can leave them open during the day without blocking light from the corners of the windows.

Sheer white curtains will help make the space feel brighter, bigger and comfortable. They allow in more natural light while still giving you some privacy.

8. Add Eye-Catching Vertical or Horizontal Elements

Adding eye-catching vertical or horizontal elements can help create the illusion of taller ceilings or wider walls.

Shiplap is a great way to achieve this effect. You only need to apply it to one wall in the living room. Choose a light color and avoid planks that look weathered and have patina-colored elements. Busy patterns like this will have the opposite effect and only make the room look smaller.

If you don’t like the idea of a shiplap wall, you can incorporate vertical elements by hanging pendant lights.

9. Arrange Your Furniture Properly

When you have a small living room, it’s tempting to place all of your furniture against walls to open up more space in the middle of the room. But this can make the space feel uninviting. For example, if you have chairs across the room from your sofa, holding conversations with guests can feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Instead, group your furniture together according to their uses. Chairs should be facing sofas or at a 90-degree angle from the side of the sofa.

Make sure there’s enough space to walk between each piece of furniture so that the space doesn’t feel cramped. If you can’t find a suitable arrangement, it may be time to scale down your furniture or get rid of some pieces.

10. Keep it Simple

29 Stunning Minimalist Living Rooms That Prove Less Can be Best

When you have a small space, simple is best. While you don’t have to go full minimalist, less is more and will help open up your space to make it look bigger and brighter.

Here are some tips:

Invest in just a few good pieces of furniture
Play with textures and colors to make the space feel welcoming
Avoid cluttering walls and tabletops with unnecessary items
Prioritize function above all else

Simple doesn’t have to be boring. One or two conversation art pieces can really tie a space together, and the right texture/color combo can make the room feel cozy.

11. Hang Curtains as High as Possible

How to Make Your Small Living Room Look BIGGER! | 13 Space Saving Design Hacks – YouTube

Earlier, we talked about hanging sheer curtains instead of solid ones to let in more natural light. Light will automatically make your space feel bigger. But there’s an extra step that you can take to make the living room look even bigger:

Hang your curtains as high as possible

Typically, there’s about a foot of space between the top of the window and the trim or ceiling. Hanging your curtains somewhere in this space will create the illusion of more vertical space (i.e. taller ceilings). It’s a simple tip, but it’s highly effective.

12. Paint Walls and Ceiling the Same Color

How you paint your living room matters. If you want to make your space look bigger, try painting your walls and ceiling the same color. This method works best for bright, light colors like white, cream, gray and light beige.

13. Make Use of Hidden Storage

One of the best tips on how to make a small living room look bigger is to make use of hidden storage. Remember that clutter will only make your space look smaller and unwelcoming, but you still need a place to store your necessary items.

Hidden storage creates a designated space for your things without taking up more room.

14. Hang Large-Scale Art

Large-scale art - How to Make a Small Living Room Look Bigger — Large-scale art – How to Make a Small Living Room Look Bigger

Large-scale art may be the last thing on your list if you have a small living room, but it can work wonders to make the space look bigger. A large piece of art will help create the illusion of more space. Avoid gallery walls, which can actually make your room look even smaller.

15. Balance the Lighting

Balance the Lighting living room — Balance Living Room Lighting

Here’s a simple tip on how to make a small living room look bigger: spread out the lighting in your space. Rather than relying on one overhead light, add table lamps around the room to open it up and make the space brighter.