Carry on Beautiful!

Even if you live in a small home like I currently do, with a few simple tricks you can make the space look so much bigger. As you will know if you’re a regular reader, I’m moving into a house soon. And since houses are so much bigger than flats, I’ve been thinking of ways that I can make everywhere look bigger and brighter without feeling ’empty’. Rooms that are light, airy and spacious are so much more inviting. So if you’ve found that your home is feeling a little claustrophobic here are a few things you could try.

Repaint the walls

This is a quick way to give a room a facelift. I’m hoping to be able to get away without doing this myself, but if you have inherited bright or dark colours from previous tenants, it can be a good option. Light colours will instantly open up a space, as opposed to darker shades that draw everything in and make it look darker. Neutrals are good but you could also go with a colour providing you pick it in the lightest shade possible. Lots of DIY type shops will mix you up custom shades if you can’t find exactly what you’re after. My current flat has a brown wall (think cheap hot chocolate powder) in the living room that makes the entire space look tiny and cramped even though our living room is quite big.

Declutter

It goes without saying that the more stuff you have in a room, the more crowded and smaller it’s going to look. Declutter, and throw away anything you no longer need. For things you still want but don’t often use, find some good storage solutions. This saves you having to dig through things you don’t need all the time, and cluttering up your limited space. As the saying goes, have nothing in your home unless it’s functional or beautiful. Having a spacious and comfortable home is far more important than hanging on to useless clutter ‘just in case’! If it isn’t something you use or something that makes you happy, you don’t need it.

Let In Natural Light

This could be a matter of replacing the curtains you have up at your window. Anything that’s too thick or dark will shade the room too much and make it look dingy. Blinds are a good choice as you can control the light, and open them up fully when you want to flood the room with daylight. If you own your property, you could consider replacing the doors and windows. Solid doors could be replaced with glass models to let in a ton of light, and windows could be made bigger. If you have a single story extension, you could even look into having a skylight installed. You can find information about what this would involve, by looking at window and door companies such as Buckwin.

Accessorise Carefully

Adding accessories and personal touches are how you make a house into a home. But if you’re working with a smaller space, it’s important to find the balance. For example, rather than hanging lots of things on all of the walls which could look overcrowded, you could create one gallery wall. This keeps everything looking nice and coherent, but you still get a cool mismatch of styles. Rather than having lots of little things dotted around, you could group smaller things together on trays to make them look more organised. You’ll be seeing at least one post about this once I’ve moved because I can’t wait to create one myself. I’ve been collecting little frames for it since before I even knew we were going to move and I’m hoping that a few of my more artsy friends (I have two that are genuine artists and they are absolutely amazing) might be able to throw a print or two my way to go up on it. I think having art by friends will really make the space more special and homey to us, as well as showing some support to our friends and showing that we really actually do love their art, we’re not just saying that! One of my friends has an art page if you’d like to check it out!

Well, I think its time I stop rambling and get on with my day. I managed to wake up at 8AM today and intend to be at least somewhat productive with my time!

-Dana