Making a Small Room Feel Larger with Paint
08/05/2009 12:21 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
The big fear of painting the walls and ceilings of a small room other than white is that color will make it feel cramped, claustrophobic, dark, or just plain insignificant. I believe that those of us with small rooms feel a twinge of envy once in a while (some feel it more often than others) when we see large rooms in the homes of neighbors, friends, family or magazine pictures we feel can afford to have lots of color because of tall ceilings, built-ins, lots of windows, great lighting, and lots of places to hang art work—constant reminders of how small our rooms are…
But we can look at our “small short comings” and give this handicap a shot of intimacy-infused strength, character, and warmth through color. It won’t make a small room large or add square footage but it can give your brain (and other’s) a sense of spacious illusions, well being, security, and bliss.
Here are a few tricks on how to make a small room mindfully spacious along with some great examples.
1- Make Color Count!!!! Create BIG harmony and SMALL contrast or the other way around. There is no middle ground. Either it’s a light color in different shades with COLOR as a POP or light colors that POP against different shades of a dark color. You can’t afford to be either boring or at chaotic so that’s why our Devine Color Collections come to your rescue—creating harmony without monotony and contrast without conflict easily! Really, seriously, try our Trend-Proof Palette and Process to see the possibilities.
2- Create pattern. This brings depth, and softness to a room. Try painting stripes, adding shelves, screens, a whole wall of frames, different fabric patterns, similar fabric textures…
3- Feature Lights. Make them a focal. Hang a beautiful chandelier in a corner, do small contemporary reading lights mounted on walls. How about track lights (yes, there are really cool ones now) that create a row of highlights on an accent wall? Lamps bases with striking color…
4- Outline the Ceiling. Make the ceiling a feature in the room with a beautiful contrast paint color or wrap it as part of the wall color. Call it a canopy-umbrella effect, color above can truly make the room special.
Enjoy the pictures….
Dark colors like Devine Truffle, Gator, or Rhino with light wood, yellow and cream accents makes the room rich and warm. The bookshelves add interest.
Hard to see but wide stripes are behind great pattern and texture to detract from the room size.
What a great way to treat a low ceiling and small hallway. Soft, light colors in our line such as Devine Custard, Shell, Macadamia, Siamese, Crunch make wonderful stripes. Notice the great POP of color in the lamps and art. See the the wall of pictures below, and the texture in the furniture pieces that would make a small room polished and interesting.
Choose bold contrast where there is little wall space. I can also see the chair slip covers in Lime Green, Deep Cocoa, or Marigold.
High contrast between the dark walls and the light fabrics that have low contrast patterns. Lighting fixture becomes a glam POP
Having wall to wall fabrics and texture that compliment each other with similar texture and color makes a small bedroom dreamy…
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How to decide on the right color
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I loved all your color choices for the street of dreams this year. We are going to be painting one of our rooms Buffalo this week.
I need help deciding between peanut, pecan or filbert for an 8 year old boys room. I have a sepia toned world map and globe mobile in his room. Im going for an 1800’s world traveler feel, warmth, but with a vintage feel. Which do you think would work best?
— melissa 08/23/2009 05:14 PM #
Melissa:
Filbert is more red, Pecan more green. They are both yummy and should be great for his room. Both will work, so make it a matter of seeing which color looks best with the rest of you home as well. Both Pecan and Filbert will nicely feature the blues and greens as spot accents…earthy reds would be fun too like Devine Spice, Orangutan…Classic Young Indiana Jones :)
— Gretchen Schauffler 08/28/2009 09:54 AM #
I’ve been searching high and low … I need help!
I’m moving to a very small one-bedroom with low ceilings and a northern exposure; large windows. Parquet wood floors. For the living-room (18 X 19)I’ve got a beige sofa (Ikea Extorp) and medium light wood furniture; it needs to also serve as a mini office. Sofa cushions are beige and red, but they can easily be recovered. Original art in pastels. I’ll need a couple of bookcases and some wall shelves—natural wood or colored? The whole apartment is freshly painted—white, of course. I’d like a touch of color on the walls that would work with everything. I have red accents for the tiny all-white kitchen (opens to living-room) and blue accents for the bedroom; bedding is ecru with light blue and pink embroidery; furniture is medium-brown wood. I like red and am thinking of a barely pink shade for all the walls. Would that work? Any suggestions? This is my retirement apartment; I’ll be there for a long time and don’t have the budget to make a mistake. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
— Marie 01/31/2010 09:29 AM #
Correction: living-room dimensions are 18 X 10, not 18 X 19, which would be luxurious …
— Marie 01/31/2010 10:31 AM #
Marie:
Take a look at all your stuff like outfits in your closet. You are choosing a jacket color you can wear with your original art pastels, sofa cushions that are beige and red, medium-brown wood furniture, bedding that is ecru with light blue and pink embroidery…do you really want to pull out that tiny little embroidery color, pink, and blow it up as a super-size “jacket”? Will that color (light pink) make the outfits look fantastic, fashionable, and a classic expression of your personal style?
I can certainly give you a ton of suggestions that may, or may not, strike your fancy. As you can see, we have lots of pictures and blog articles about what to do. We also have a PICTURE GALLERY that shows you even more possibilities. I want you to make this home, your home. Get our Trend-Proof Color Collection. When you go through our PROCESS, with our Trend-Proof Color Collection at home, you work with all the colors “at home”, and can follow them like a roadmap. Seeing the entire Trend-proof Color Collection among your own things, in your space, and interacting with each other will allow you to see colors that are perfect with your natural surfaces, such as wood stains, granite, fabrics, and art. The Process guides you there. You will understand how many color combinations are possible and pick the direction you love the most. I can then help you narrow down the many great choices you have at your finger tips. If you need further assistance, (SO WORTH IT!) we have Virtual Colorization’s. We take over and give you visual color advice (See examples). Either way, we are here to HELP! But first, empower yourself with Devine Color’s smart Trend-proof Color Collection, and go through our wise Process.
— Gretchen Schauffler 02/02/2010 09:34 AM #
I have a very light bedroom set but the triple dresser has a dark marble top to it, I have high ceilings but just dont know what color to paint the room. The bedroom is on the small side
— jackie 02/13/2010 03:28 PM #
Jackie:
Your options are so many, I can certainly give you a ton of suggestions that may, or may not, strike your fancy. As you can see, we have lots of pictures and blog articles about what to do. We also have a PICTURE GALLERY that shows you even more possibilities. I want you to make your bedroom cover you like a cozy blanket. Get our Trend-Proof Color Collection. When you go through our PROCESS, with our Trend-Proof Color Collection at home, you work with all the colors “in your room”, and can follow them like a roadmap. Seeing the entire Trend-proof Color Collection among your own things, in your space, and interacting with each other will allow you to see colors that are perfect with your natural surfaces, such as your light wood stains and dark stone tops. The Process guides you there. You will understand how many color are possible and pick the direction you love the most. I can then help you narrow down the many great choices you have at your finger tips. If you need further assistance, (SO WORTH IT!) we have Virtual Colorization’s. We take over and give you visual color advice (See examples). Either way, we are here to HELP! But first, empower yourself with Devine Color’s smart Trend-proof Color Collection, and go through our wise Process.
Don’t forget our sheens make the color harmonize with your fabrics and surface sheens.
— Gretchen Schauffler 02/17/2010 10:05 AM #