Space is one of the most coveted luxuries, especially in crowded cities where compact living has become the norm. But small doesn’t have to mean cramped. With clever design tricks and optical illusions, you can make any room feel larger, with no major building works or remodelling required. We asked six interior designers to share their top impactful hacks for maximising small spaces.
Let there be (layered) light
Light placement and style can be an extremely effective way to make a room look bigger if you know what to embrace and, more importantly, what to avoid. The first trick, says London-based interior designer Polly Ashman, is to steer clear of harsh overhead lighting. ‘Spotlights are ceiling acne,’ says the founder of Polly Ashman Design. ‘No one wants a spotlight right on their head; it is not flattering. Instead, use low and mid-level directional task lighting to highlight parts of the room, including corners and cornices and really push everything out to create the illusion of more space. Wall lights are good for highlighting art and joinery and drawing the eye to the edges of the room. It’s all about layering light to deliberately highlight the features and areas of the room you want to make more of.’
As for natural light, Ashman says that there are ways to let more into an otherwise dull or dark room. ‘An internal window like the one we did between a typical London townhouse hallway and living space enhances natural light, creates a visual connection between rooms and adds depth, making the space feel larger while maintaining clear boundaries between different areas in a home.’
Mirror, Mirror
Another trick for making a small space or room look larger, and one intrinsically linked to lighting and light placement, is the use of reflective surfaces. This is a hack that can be effectively deployed by using furniture such as tables with reflective or mirrored surfaces or by cleverly positioning and angling mirrors in a small room for the ultimate reflective optical illusion.
Then, there are other, more intricate ways of utilising reflective surfaces that are baked into the design itself. Studio Duggan’s recently completed Clapham house is a prime example. ‘In this marvellously cosy double reception room, we clad the reveal of the opening in smoked mirror panels to add a little drama and blur the separation lines a little,’ says founder Tiffany Duggan. ‘It’s such a cool trick.’
Natural Beauty
Access to nature and fresh air can be a game-changer when living in small spaces, says Zoe Bailey, senior associate at London-based design practice StudioMorey. This doesn’t mean you have to have access to outside space, although, if you do, then there’s a plethora of ways to maximise impact and make use of space that might not be underutilised. ‘Explore untapped potential like unused roof terraces or lightwells,’ adds Bailey. She highlights a StudioMorey project in Clerkenwell where a small urban roof terrace was brought to life with decking, a simple table and chairs and string lights to create a magical, additional space. Nature and biophilia can be effectively used inside, too, as a way to highlight room features to give more depth and a sense of space. ‘If you are lucky enough to have good height despite having a small footprint, make use of all the walls going up to the ceiling,’ says Bailey. ‘Consider something like wooden vertical shelving which allows the eye to be drawn to more areas of the room, and even better if you can incorporate plants.’
The Fifth Element
It’s all too easy to think of a room as having four walls. Sophie Pringle, creative director of Surrey-based interior design practice Pringle & Pringle, wholeheartedly encourages the use of the ceiling when it comes to adding height to a room. ‘Use the fifth wall to create interest and impact depending on the feel you are trying to evoke,’ she says. ‘Play with stripes or a pattern to create an illusion or architectural details to add interest and give your eye another focus. Alternatively you can take the colour of the walls up and over the ceiling to avoid the room feeling too broken up.’ Sometimes known as colour-drenching, this technique will, she says, effectively elongate the look and feel of the space.
It doesn’t have to mean just using paint, however. Pringle points here to an example where blue wallpaper used on the walls runs into paint in the same shade. Proof that mixing textures and materials but matching colours can still have the desired effect.
The art of distraction
It is a misconception that small spaces require small pieces of furniture. The size of the pieces doesn’t matter nearly as much as the position, usability, and visual interest of your furniture choices, says Ed O’Donnell, co-founder and creative director at Soho-based interior design studio Angel O’Donnell.
‘A neutral base, which can be a dark neutral if you prefer, softens the dimensions of a room, while the shapes and colours of the furniture can draw the eyes in different directions so that you experience the room’s full length and breadth.’ He adds that ‘these visual pockets of interest’ can act as very effective distractions in a narrow room, which, in turn, make the space feel bigger than it is. On the subject of furniture, he adds that built-in pieces such as bespoke banquettes and shelving units are a great solution for making the most of a small space.
Border force
The more zones you can create, even in a small space, the better the proportions of the room will feel. One great way of achieving this is to use rugs, says designer Christian Bense. ‘I find that an area rug is a great way to make a small space seem bigger,’ he says. ‘You are further demarcating the room and creating a smaller internal border – it tricks the eye into seeing the white space around the room and it defines a new ground for furniture to sit on.’
