5 ways to fake a bigger living room in less than 10 minutes

Spaciousness is about size and perception.

It’s not always possible to take out walls, especially if you’re renting, but there are a number of little decorating tricks you can use to visually elongate a living room.

The right combination of colour, light and furniture can transform a claustrophobic living room into a cosy and inviting area.

Make the most of reflection

Placing a large, framed mirror opposite your windows will optically double the size of your living room.

Mirrors bounce light around, giving the impression that even a cramped space is open. They don’t have a to cost a small fortune, even a minimalist mirror will do the trick.

Glass or lucite furniture will have a similar effect. Furniture you can see through will make anything beyond it appear further away, so ditch the timber coffee table for a glass one.

Undress your windows

Any room feels bigger when it is well lit, either by natural or artificial means. Coloured, or thick curtains can make a room feel enclosed. Remove them to let in as much sunshine as possible, or replace with some sheer fabric.

If the lounge is lacking in organic vitamin D, pop down to a department store or your local opshop to pick up an extra floor or table lamp.

Additional light will make the living room look immediately larger.

Create the illusion of height

If you’re apartment-dwelling, or otherwise unlucky in the high ceiling department, you can fake it.

In the same way that vertical stripes on clothing help short people to appear taller, artwork or shelving mounted in the top half of a wall helps a wall. Drawing guests’ eyeballs upwards will help it feel loftier.

Another way to trick your eyes is to raise curtain rods above window frames.

If it’s outward space you’re lacking, the same trick can be applied to the perimeter of the lounge. Shuffle furniture that’s pressed against walls inward by a few centimetres to create space.

Use coordinated, soft colours

Dark and warm colours tend to have a cocooning effect on a room, whereas white and cool tones will keep it airy.

If you have the ability (and funds) to paint, soft blue and green tones will do this best.

Contrasting colours are useful for breaking up a space, but what we want to do here is the opposite. The more closely you can match your furniture to the tone of the walls and other decor in the room, the more it will blend together. Furniture with neutral fabrics, as opposed to bright patterns, will aid this.

Have less stuff, have bigger stuff 

Decluttering is the most obvious solution to a cramped space. The more pieces of furniture you squeeze into a room, the less roomy it’s going to seem.

If lounge space is limited, try to pare it back to the essentials: couch, coffee table, TV, book shelf. This goes for ornamentation as well. Put the knick knacks away and don’t stack up every available surface. The clearer the surfaces are, the bigger the space will look.

It might seem counter intuitive, but the bigger your furniture is, the better. A handful of big pieces will look infinitely better than lots of small ones cluttered into every corner.

• This story originally appeared on stuff.co.nz