The easiest way to make your house feel bigger

Our two young daughters are growing at rapid speed, which means our house is shrinking at an equally alarming rate. We’ve outgrown our home and are in desperate need of renovating.

However, until that happens, I’ve been exploring ways to help create a more spacious feel, so we all think we’re living in a much bigger house.

When the girls were little, I simply told them they lived in a huge house, and they believed me. Now, they’re not so easily convinced.

Fortunately, there’s a host of techniques that can help, many of which do not involve knocking down walls, installing floor-to-ceiling glass or adding another level.

Painting the interior one neutral tone throughout was undoubtedly effective. We battled our way through the never-ending charts of very similar off-whites and found one to capture the perfect combination of warmth, freshness and contemporary style.

We even chose a cooler version for the floorboards, and the result was spectacular. Suddenly our house felt enormous. But the feeling was short-lived.

We replaced brown venetians with off-white plantation shutters and opted for furniture pieces with exposed legs, creating a more streamlined look. We cleared the clutter from kitchen benchtops and took out most of the books from the hall bookcase. And the house almost doubled in size – but not for long.

Next, we adjusted the lighting by adding lamps and dimmers throughout, and we replaced low-hanging fixtures with more discreet oyster lights. We hung mirrors everywhere to reflect natural light and to create a feeling of endless space. We even bought a big, striped rug in the hope of elongating the living area.

We tried everything but were always let down, as the effect of each trick slowly wore off. Once again, we felt like the walls were closing in on us, and our daughters’ room was set to explode if they got so much as one more Christmas present.

I needed a more drastic approach, and finally, I found it. A technique that’s effective, affordable, and guaranteed to make any house feel permanently palatial.

We went camping!

In other words, a relatively inexpensive and family-friendly holiday that not only offers peace, relaxation and easy indoor-outdoor living but also forces you to live in a very small space. And let me tell you, putting your family into two rooms for a few days with no real walls, no cupboards and no designated living area is a sure fire way to make your actual home take on mansion-like proportions.

An additional benefit to the camping technique is that you start appreciating the many luxuries back home, such as plumbing, an internal kitchen and a proper toilet. Suddenly, your bed is the most comfortable you’ve ever experienced, and if you get up in the night to go to the toilet, you just walk down the hall, instead of braving the elements and trudging to the nearest toilet block or bush.

Now, when we get back from a camping trip, we almost lose each other in our two-bedroom semi. We roam around our massive house, feeling fortunate to have so much space. Plus, everyone is so excited to see the television, we agree on a family movie in a matter of minutes.

The only trouble is we’ve had to upgrade to a nine-person tent as our previous one (much like our house) quickly became too small. I was worried the new tent might undo all the good work in creating our big-house feel, but luckily it’s still smaller than our semi, so all is well.