How to give the illusion of space and light in your small home

It's not always easy to make your small space seem light-filled and airy but rest assured it can be done! We've rounded up all our tips and tricks that we have up our sleeves for maximising light and space in your small home. 

1. Monochromatic colour room scheme

Small rooms can look crowded and cluttered quickly, one way to avoid this is to stick to a monochromatic colour scheme. This simplifies the look of the room and gives you more scope to add some well-chosen colourful accents to brighten up the room later. Painting your walls a light colour keeps the room feeling bright and less enclosed. This works especially well in small bathrooms, by keeping walls white and having a black towel rail and mirror frame, the room can be made to seem a lot bigger. This approach works well for a small study or bedroom as well, especially with wall hung furniture (which we’ll get on to later in this post…)

2. Unified flooring

Keep all the flooring the same throughout the whole space so that the eye is drawn through the space as a whole. Once you start introducing different flooring, the space is cut up and divided making it seem a lot smaller. One type of floor allows you to keep a consistent theme and makes the space seem more unified.

Check our our Pinterest board for loads more ideas

3. Furniture that is wall hung or on legs 

As we mentioned earlier, a space seems bigger when furniture is hanging. Why is this? Well, hanging furniture means more floor space. Once you store things OFF the floor, it makes space for other things. For example, our wall hanging desk allows you to see more floor and, in rooms with little space, this makes all the difference. Check out our wall hung bedsides for a clean minimal look in the bedroom and allows easy access to under bed storage. 

4. Keep window dressings minimal

To fill your room with light, you need to maximise the amount of natural light that comes in. One trick is to make sure your curtain poles extend beyond the windows so that when they are open none of the drapes are obscuring the window. Or why not branch out and ditch the curtains and use drapey blinds or see-through privacy blinds. See what works best in your room but try to pick the option that lets the most light in.

 5. Lighting at all levels

In addition to letting as much natural lighting in as possible, don’t rely on just one source of light. This means lighting on different levels. Try floor lamps and desk lamps and hanging lamps! We have a very big collection right here at Urbansize so if you’re in need then look no further.

6. Glass

The more glass you have in your small space, the bigger the room feels. This means replacing your shower curtains with glass shower screens in the bathroom!. In the living room, try out glass or lucite coffee table tops and glass room dividers which will serve their purpose without shutting out light or blocking out space. Pop a few lucite chairs around your coffee table for the same effect. If you can, put some French doors into your house, they bring in so much light!

 7. Mirrors everywhere

A strategically placed mirror can work wonders in a small room. Try placing one opposite a window to reflect light around the room. Try switching out closet doors for mirrored doors to open up a space. Having glass or mirror cut to size is surprisingly affordable so why not try covering a whole wall in mirror for a real statement look.

8. Multifunctional furniture

If you’ve been following our Instagram, you will have seen our multifunctional furniture. We’re all about utilising the space you have so instead of using two pieces of furniture, use one! In need of a side table and a lamp but only have space for one? There’s always a combined option like this one. For more options check out our post here about multi-functional furniture. 

Do you have any top tips for maximising light in small spaces? We'd love to hear!