Kristina Wolf's House of Design

Interior Design, Accessorizing, and DIY Tips

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9 Colors That’ll Make Any Room Feel Larger

9-colors-that'll-make-any-room-feel-largerHere in the Bay Area, people get used to living on a smaller scale. Apartments and homes can require ingenuity in order to make them feel spacious. Fortunately, there are “tricks of the design trade” that can make a smaller room appear more spacious. This is typically done with color and furnishing size.

9 Color Choices and Tips To Make a Small Room Feel More Spacious

Today, we’re going to focus on color and how the colors you select can make a room feel larger and more spacious than it actually is. Here are 9 ideas to try in your small rooms.

  1. All white. We’ll start with this one, though it’s often the only choice people think about. White is bright and open, which is one reason why it makes a room feel larger. There is another reason though; an all white room is monochromatic, and monochromatic palettes can make a room seem bigger because they blend the edges and keep it from looking compartmentalized.
  2. Opt cool over warm. If you are thinking about adding color, especially if it’s a darker color, opt for cool shades over warm ones. Warm tones jump out at you. So, if you have warm red, orange or yellow walls, the walls will seem “closer”. Cooler colors, like green, blue and violet will have more of a receding feeling, which opens a room up a bit.
  3. Stiffkey Blue. Want to be a little more daring? Farrow & Ball’s Stiffkey Blue is a rich blue color that will take you far from the idea of all white or all neutral palate. Ideal for a living room or bedroom, it creates a soothing ambiance.
  4. Appalachian Brown. This one might surprise you given the fast-held belief that small rooms should always be painted light colors. Benjamin Moore’s Appalachian Brown is a rich, dark hue but it still manages to make the room feel bigger because the color is so saturated, blending a room’s dimensions. Consider using a high-gloss finish for light play and movement, and paint moulding/trim in the same shade with a slightly different finish. Don’t paint them white or it will chop it up and make the room smaller again.
  5. Cut in a white ceiling. If you have a particularly small room and you choose to put color on the walls, cut in a white ceiling which will help to raise it a bit and give a sense of extra space.
  6. Horizon. Benjamin Moore’s Horizon reminds us of a beach sky when the sun is hidden by the clouds. It will work with any of your furnishings and accents. The muted gray looks almost white until you put it on the walls where the softest blue peeks out.
  7. Select smaller furnishings. You don’t have to go miniature here, but smaller (always comfortable, though!) furnishings will be more proportioned to the room, making it feel larger. Consider a love seat and svelte arm chair rather than a sectional or oversized sofa.
  8. Curry Yellow. We mentioned yellow as a warm color, and typically it is. However, you can also find cooler shades that will make your room appear larger while still feeling much warmer than the all-white option. Porter Paint’s Fresh Curry is a good yellow option.
  9. Shades of Spring. This is a two-for-one tip. Look out your windows and take palette cues from there. Using a shade from the outdoors will connect your interior with the exterior, making it seem larger. Benjamin Moore’s Shades of Spring is a lovely green to consider.

Half Painted Walls and Beyond

There are two types of people in this life: those who plan their next color scheme the minute the final coats of interior paint are drying and those who pass out at the thought of painting on their own. Well, I have a secret for you: half painted walls can be the happy medium for those of you in the latter crowd – and the result will be a living space that has all the benefits of a fresh new look, and added architectural interest.

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Here are examples of how and why half painted walls can be a wonderful design solution for your interior spaces.

The literal half-painted wall. Meaning you measure how high you want the line, tape it off, and start painting above or below the tape line – is our first example. Like accent walls, this can be a good option for those of you who want to add a bright or bold color, but worry it will be too dramatic on an entire wall space. By painting the brighter color on the bottom, the boldness will be broken up further by furnishings, so the exposed areas become a nice pop of color. If your ceilings are low, painting the bottom half of the walls the color you want and leaving the top half white will make the room appear more spacious.

Half-painted walls also work if you want to provide a textured bottom to your wall, such as beautiful wood wainscoting, beadboard, or other wall applications; then you can paint the top half the color of your choice.

Precise sections of wall. You can also tailor specific sections of your wall for painting. For example, this living room in Amsterdam uses bright orange on the section of wall framing the grey couch. The grey and orange look great together. Cutting the orange section short of the door way keeps it a more distinct and intentional part of the design. What could have been garish becomes totally stylish when you know how to balance proportion and impact, and half painted walls can accomplish that.

Artistic interpretations of the half-painted wall. What is most appealing to me is some of the style-forward artistic ways that people are using color on their walls. Treating the wall as a blank art canvas, and using fun color combinations, unique application techniques and/or non-traditional boundaries (or lack thereof) is such a creative way to add color, texture, dimension and a whole lot of interest to your space. Look at these examples from decoesfera.com. The site is in Spanish, but you can easily cut-and-paste it into Google Translate to read the full blog. Here are some of my favorite examples:

  • Purposely uneven. Forget about the tape. Just roll or brush your color of choice in the general dimension/shape you want and let the loose and feathered edges become their own design statement.
  • Water color. Look how gorgeous it is when you make a section of your wall a watercolor canvas. It’s a wonderful and soft way to add color and becomes a modern work of art on its own.
  • Get a little funky. Check this idea out: one color is applied (almost traditionally) in a section behind the bed. The other color was applied with a textured technique on the top third of the wall and moves to the adjacent wall. It looks fantastic and will definitely solicit appreciative comments from guests.