To sell your home, you need to make it an appealing space for potential buyers. Any real estate videos or professional home photographs taken should represent it in the best light possible. Small spaces will make that tricky though. By creating an illusion and tricking the eye, you can make that room appear larger than it is, both in pictures and in person.
To do that we’ve listed techniques to use, based on the illusion you want to create. Here’s how you can make small spaces look bigger:
Avoid the Boxy feeling to a room
Boxy rooms can seem closed off or claustrophobic. The last thing you want is your buyer thinking the walls are closing in on them. Create more space with tricks like these:
Arrange furniture at an angle
Putting a sofa next to the wall is fine, but consider angling some of your smaller chairs to avoid boxy edges in your living room. Angling a bed in a small bedroom will trick the eye into thinking there’s more open space there.
Leave your windows uncovered
Covering windows with curtains cuts off a room and makes it look smaller. Leave them uncovered or consider using a sheer-type material that lets as much as the natural light in as possible to make the room look bigger.
Furnish the room with raised pieces
Furniture with the exposed legs adds more square footage through the trick of the eye. Avoid closing off spaces with items that sit directly on the floor as they box the room in and make it unappealing to buyers.
Make a Small Room Seem Taller
Add square footage by making it appear that there are higher ceilings. You can do this trick in a few different ways:
Longer drapes
While we don’t recommend using any window coverings, here they could come in handy. Consider using drapes that reach all the way to the floor. This tricks the eye into thinking the space is taller than it really is. When photographing the room, keep the drapes open.
Create Interest at the ceiling
Light fixtures can add more height to a room. A unique lighting fixture on the ceiling helps draw the eye upward, tricking it into thinking the room has high ceilings.
Go larger when possible
Most people think small rooms should only contain smaller items within it. Make your room feel bigger by using a couple of larger pieces to break up the space. Use one big prominent furniture item or a few large wall decor pieces to trick the buyer into thinking big instead of small.
Widen the Room
Why knock out walls to widen a room when you make a room appear more open with some affordable tricks? Here’s how you can do that:
Mirrors for the Win
Mirrors are one of the best ways to create an illusion in any space. Mirrors reflect light and create depth for the eye. You can use a simple mirror to hang opposite a wall that gets natural light, so it can reflect off it. This will create the illusion that there’s another door or window in the space.
Choose the right shades of paint
Contrast of colors is the key to tricking the eye. You can use one color, but accent it with different shades of that color. Also, you can go with light and dark shades. The sharp contrast of the light and dark breaks the room up and makes you think you’re getting more space than you really are.
Use Area Rugs
A large area rug will define a space within a room. It helps to break it up into sections, giving a buyer the illusion of more square footage.
Using videos or digital pictures can hook potential buyers into wanting to know more about your living space. For small rooms, it can be difficult, unless you use these simple techniques to make them see it in a different light.