You can make a room appear to be larger and more spacious than it really is with a few painting tips and tricks. The appropriate use of color can bring an illusion to the room that makes it appear bigger, brighter, and more ample.

Choose Light Colors

Light colors can make a room look much bigger than it is. Light colors are more reflective, which makes the room appear to be brighter, and thus, larger. Bright rooms not only look bigger, but they are much more inviting than darker colored rooms.

Create Illusions with Trim Colors

The trim colors that you choose in a room can be used to create the illusion of vastness. Painting your trim and moldings within the room a color that is lighter than the room’s wall will make the walls appear to recede into the background, making the room appear to be larger. You can also visually affect the size of the room with your choice of a warm or cool color scheme. For example, if you select cool colors like greens and blues, these will make the walls appear to be situated farther back in the room, adding to the room’s illusion of spaciousness. Colors from the warm color palette, like red, orange, and yellow will have the opposite effect of making the walls appear closer, and thus, making the space feel smaller.

Choose Pastels and Neutrals

Neutral, light shades, including pastel shades of stronger colors, are not visually assertive. Because of this, these colors can create the illusion of spaciousness within your room, which makes the room appear to be bigger.

Colors for the Ceiling

The most traditional color selection for ceilings, white, reflects light wonderfully, and usually makes the room appear to be higher or taller. However, you must keep in mind that all colors within the room will appear to be darker when they are displayed in the contrast of bright white ceilings. Ceilings painted in a bright white color may lend the illusion that even the light shade you have chosen for your walls is darker than it really is. For this reason, go for a light cream or somewhat off-white shade on the ceiling. This will reduce the visual contrast between the wall and ceiling, adding to the spacious look of the room.

Tip from Professional Decorator

Professional decorators have another trick for painting your ceiling to make the room look bigger. By extending your wall color onto the ceiling in a band that is around a foot or so wide, you will add height to the room. To do this, paint your ceiling in your selected shade, and allow drying before measuring and lightly marking off a one-foot border on the ceiling, going all the way around the room. Paint this border with your wall color, and then apply the color to your walls.

The furniture, furnishings, and accessories of the room in the room should be taken into consideration when selecting wall colors in order to add to the illusion of more spaciousness. For example, light-colored furniture looks best in a room where the walls are painted in a similar light shade. This works to blend the furniture in with your walls, giving the room the appearance of spaciousness.