As professional painters, we’ve seen numerous colours that really worked—and some that didn’t. Interior painting is all about making the right decisions to compliment a room, and small rooms can be made to look bigger by following a few colour and decorating hacks.
Since we’d like to think we’ve seen it all, here are our hottest painting tips on how to make small rooms feel larger.
Note the Colour of Your Floor
Start off by looking at your floor. Unless you are planning on re-flooring or changing the carpet, your floor colour is probably not going to change, so it would be wise to choose a tone for the rest of the room that compliments it. If you have a dark floor, you want to choose colours that are a similar shade, but lighter. If your floor is already a light colour, you’ve already won half the battle in making the room look and feel larger.
Before painting, make sure you properly protect your carpet with a drop cloth to avoid paint spills. If you don’t want to do it yourself, we recommend getting a professional carpet cleaning company in to do the messy work for you – they can protect your carpet prior to the paint job to reduce the need to clean up after, or do a thorough carpet clean after painting if necessary.
Choose the Right Shade for Your Walls
Selecting light colours will automatically make a room feel more spacious, and immediately lighten the mood of anyone stepping inside. Walls can be any colour you fancy, but it is worth considering whether you can pick a lighter shade of your chosen colour. Sometimes once the whole room is painted, the effect can be darker than originally anticipated when viewing small samples. Light greys are a great choice for interior painting, and so are off-white colours or beige.
Consider a Monochromatic Colour for Your Ceiling
Whatever you’ve chosen for your walls, go an even lighter shade of the same colour for your ceiling. When it comes to painting tips, the best advice we can give you is to contrast your ceiling with the same colour as the rest of the room, because this gives the room a larger feel. So if your walls are a soft sage colour, opt for an even lighter shade of sage (almost white) for the ceiling – this is a subtle way to contrast while staying in keeping with the overall theme and palette.
Add Mirrors to Your Room
A tried and true interior decorating hack, furnishing rooms with mirrors always gives the area a more spacious atmosphere. The optical illusion of mirrors reflecting the rest of the room makes it seem larger, and not in a disappointing way. You don’t have to use large mirrors either – even a cleverly-placed set of smaller mirrors from Kmart or Ikea can create an interesting effect. Choose mirrors that can be fixed to your walls as opposed to standing mirrors for maximum impact, and consider using two different shaped mirrors for a small room.
Avoid Accent Walls
Accent, or theme walls can be a great way to decorate your home, but if you’re wanting to create the feeling of space then they’re not ideal for small rooms. One of the best painting tips we give people is to avoid theme walls, because the contrast in colours makes the room feel cluttered and cramped. If your heart is set on a theme wall, make sure it’s monochromatic (the same colour) to match the rest of the room, and consider lightening it up with wall hangings and pictures.
Furnish Your Room with White Items
Chairs, tables, mats, and lampstands can take up space, which is why the lighter they are, the less they affect the feel of a room. If you’re able to decorate your room with white items, do so regardless of the wall colour. White goes with everything, so you’re safer decorating with this colour. Remember that you can still match your furniture items with the colour of your wall, but only in small measures.
Think Vertical for Patterns
If you’ve considered painting patterns on one or all of your walls, then vertical is the way to go. Vertical lines will go a long way to make a small room feel larger and create that high ceiling effect, and can add a touch of style to your house. Whether you’re using wallpaper or the paint itself to create your room patterns, vertical is best.
Add Compact Storage
Whether it’s bookcases, chests, or cabinets, be sure to add compact storage furniture to your small room. This will literally make the room more spacious because it removes clutter from the area. The great thing about this type of furniture is that it can be painted as part of your interior painting project, so you can choose the colour that suits the room best!
Choose Light Door & Frame Colours (But Make Sure They Contrast Well)
The colour of your doors and wall trimmings is important too. A nice touch to your small room would be to paint the door a light colour (either the same colour as the ceiling, or a lighter monochromatic colour to match the walls). Then go a slight shade darker for the door frame and trimmings. The slight contrast of one colour in two different shades does wonders for your small space when the doors are closed.
Get a Professional Colour Consultation
Our final piece of advice? Consult the experts. While there are an array of tips and palettes out there on Pinterest which can be a great place to start, nothing beats a one-on-one consultation with a professional colour consultant who can work with you to provide personalised recommendations based on your preferences, as well as the space you are working with.
Our team at Prime Building Painters are more than happy to assist you with your next interior painting project, so get in touch today.
