How to make rooms look larger
We all crave the feeling of space. However, if there are rooms in your home that feel a little smaller than you would like, paint provides an easy solution.
Thoughtfully chosen colour schemes and clever colour placement can create the illusion of added space without making any structural changes.
Discover inspiration for paint colours and wallpapers that will make a room look bigger and learn how to use them in your scheme.
Combine tonal variations to elongate the space
Painting the walls, ceiling and woodwork in slight variations of the same colour creates a cohesive, monochromatic scheme.
Using a tonal approach will elongate the length of your walls, seamlessly blending them into the ceiling above and skirting below. Consider continuing the same colour palette across the doors, door frames and cornices to further create an uninterrupted feel.
Organised into 18 families of related shades, our Colour Scales palette provides the perfect tool to create these sophisticated, tonal colour schemes. Each family features shades that are stepped in strength, achieving a harmonious colour combination when used together.
Consider introducing a mid-tone on the walls, then paint architectural features such as the cornicing and window frames in the paler hues. This nuanced approach will complement the way natural light highlights different aspects of the room, drawing the eyes upwards to deliver a spacious feel.
Explore our Colour Scales collection to create elegant, tonal schemes.
Choose light-reflecting paint colours
Before selecting paint shades, it’s important to carefully examine the light in your room. Consider where in the space the windows are, and which walls have natural light directed on them. Also observe how the light moves across the room throughout the course of the day.
Introducing shades that reflect a lot of light can enhance the size of the room. They can also help to brighten up dark or shadowy areas of the space, producing a balanced, harmonious feel overall. East and west-facing rooms particularly benefit from a more considered colour placement, as they experience varying natural light from morning until evening.
It is generally the palest shades in our palette that reflect the most light. Consider opting for delicate, off-whites like Shirting, Joanna or Flint to create a sense of increased space. Or consider the subtle hues of pale blues and cool greens like Pearl Colour and Gauze.
Another good way to reflect light back into your room is by using paint finishes with a higher sheen. Consider painting kitchen cupboards, skirting boards, window frames and banisters in Intelligent Gloss (87-90% sheen) or Intelligent Satin (30-35% sheen).
Drench every surface to maximise a room
Colour Drenching is one of the simplest ways of decorating, allowing you to paint every single surface in the same colour. It also provides an easy way to make rooms appear larger.
Using one shade everywhere means there are no colour contrasts that might draw your eye to a particular area of the space. Instead, colour-drenched schemes provide an uninterrupted, encompassing backdrop of colour that often seems to expand the size of a room.
If you’re seeking a scheme with more impact, consider ‘Double Drenching’. Here, you can introduce a palette of bold, related hues with varying undertones to create striking colour combinations.
Although ‘Double Drenching’ involves subtle contrast due to the inclusion of more than one colour, the overall effect feels cohesive and immersive. This style of decorating means incorporating every aspect of the space into your scheme to create an all-encompassed finish.
Utilise darker hues to create a visual illusion
If we want to create the feeling of space, many of us instinctively avoid dark colours. We fear dark colours will only make a room appear smaller, but the opposite is often true.
When embraced all over, rich blues like Hicks’ Blue or Royal Navy take on an almost bottomless depth. Such shades create a sense of walls being further away than they actually are, transforming both the look and atmosphere of the room. A palette of sumptuous, inky blues provides an inspiring backdrop for a bedroom scheme, evoking the soothing expansiveness of the night sky.
Deep forest greens like Puck or Jewel Beetle can give a similar effect. Painting the ceiling in these impactful, dark hues creates a canopy over the room, enveloping the space in never-ending colour.
Also, consider incorporating a textural element with the use of wallpaper. Wallpapers with especially dark grounds like Rose Garden – Puck or Lily Pads – Hopper seem to recede into the background. They allow brighter accents and furnishings to stand out with greater emphasis.
Introduce vertical stripes to draw the eyes upwards
If your ceilings feel too low, using vertical stripes on your walls can create an instant feeling of height. A classic, striped wallpaper like Broad Stripe will naturally draw your eyes upwards, making smaller spaces feel more expansive.
Attic rooms with pitched ceilings can often feel quite restrictive. Introducing stripes on sloped walls and inside tiny alcoves can give the space a considered, intentional look, blurring the line between wall and ceiling.
For those who prefer paint over wallpaper, tongue and groove panels can work just as effectively. Wooden panelling is a great solution for high-traffic spaces like bathrooms, hallways and boot rooms.
Paint the panelling, walls, woodwork and furniture in one bold hue like Pleat for a relaxed, playful scheme. Our Intelligent Satin finish is a durable, hard-wearing option that resists everyday wear and tear.
Paint floorboards in lighter colours
Painted floorboards can instantly elongate a room because of their ‘built-in’ stripe, which draws the eye along the room’s longest length. Choosing a lighter shade for your flooring lifts the atmosphere of a space, whereas darker colours can make it feel more grounded.
Intelligent Floor Paint is a water-based alternative to traditional floor paint. Unlike oil-based paint, it dries within four hours making floor transformation projects a lot simpler to achieve.
Painting the floors provides another great opportunity to reflect light within your scheme. Complement your walls with a pale, related neutral tone that will bounce light around the space and make your room feel larger. Versatile shades like Slaked Lime or Portland Stone – Pale work well on floors, as they coordinate harmoniously with most colours.
The elegant satin sheen (30-35%) of our Intelligent Floor Paint will also enhance the natural light in the room. Consider accompanying your painted floors with Intelligent Satin or Intelligent Gloss on the skirtings and/or lower walls to create a light, bright and airy environment.