Are you planning to downsize and move to a smaller home? Does your house feel tight and cramped? Over the years, you might have accumulated lots of items and added new furniture here and there to make your home feel stuffed. A crowded house can make you feel like the walls are closing in on you, and can affect your mood and productivity.
Adding an extension to your home may sound like a good idea, but it is expensive, impractical, and time-consuming. A simple cleanup to installing an internal sliding glass door can make your home look more spacious and feel more open.
Get rid of the clutter.
It’s time to assess every part of your home. Will you still reread those stacks of paperbacks and magazines in the future? Do you need all those twenty mugs in the cupboard? Check your pantry and bathroom for expired products. Check your closet for clothes that no longer fit and purses that you haven’t used in a year. You can give them to the nearest charity institution or set up an online garage sale. You will be amazed by how much space these non-essential items eat up.
Take a few minutes every day to go through your stuff. Imagine letting go of one item per day. You’ll end up eliminating three hundred sixty items that you no longer need in one year. When you have fewer things, you’ll have fewer things to organize, clean, and you will have more space.
Repaint your walls.
The color of your walls can make your room look bigger or smaller. It can also make a difference in how you feel when you are in the room. Colors can change how you see a room’s size and shape.
Dark colors tend to make large rooms feel smaller. Lighter colors tend to recede, making a smaller room look bigger than it is. Paint your walls with or change your wallpapers to lighter and cooler shades. To add to the spaciousness of a room, paint your ceiling a lighter shade to make it appear higher than it is.
Utilize floor-to-ceiling shelves.
Make use of your vertical wall spaces through floor-to-ceiling shelves. You can put them in your living room, bedroom, and kitchen. These shelves create an illusion of height, making the ceiling look higher. It provides you more storage for your books, kid’s toys, and you can also use one as your pantry.
Open those windows.
Sources of natural light, such as windows, can make your room look brighter and more open. Sunlight coming through can create more depth, giving the illusion of a bigger space. If privacy is not an issue, you can ditch the blinds to invite more light into the room. Bigger windows let more light in, making your room look larger.
Install additional lighting fixtures.
For rooms without windows, consider installing recessed lighting fixtures. They help open up the space making a small room look more spacious. Recessed light is the perfect choice for rooms with lower ceilings. If you have a higher ceiling, you can use hanging lights for a more inviting appeal.
Replace your doors with pocket and sliding doors.
Internal sliding glass doors are a great way to save space and make your home look bigger and more expensive. A sliding glass door requires a smaller area than a regular swinging door. They can be completely recessed into the door’s framework. It maximizes opening space, allowing for free-flowing foot traffic.
You can also use sliding doors for your wardrobe, as a transparent division between rooms where needed, and as an entryway to your patio. Glass sliding doors allow for visibility, making the space look continuous and free. When used as an entryway, they let more natural light into your home.
Install mirrors.
Multiply the light coming through your room by using mirrors. Mirrors opposite a window can reflect off the light and expand your room. You can also use a mirror to reflect off artificial light to give your room more depth.
Aside from wall mirrors, glass tabletops and mirrored cabinet doors can also help make spaces look more prominent. The key is to place mirrors in the correct place. You would not want a mirror to reflect off a crowded or dark corner of your room.
Use custom and built-in furniture.
Custom and built-in furniture are ideal in small spaces. You can have your furniture built to fit your space and custom some storage space with them. For example, you can use the area beneath your built-in desk or sofa for a low storage shelf.
You do not need a larger house for a spacious living space. Sometimes, all it takes is to do some organizing and apply some tricks to fool the eye.