The longer you put on the walls in a small room, the bigger the space will feel." Rather, select a few larger pieces and place them on different walls round the room.

Bring the Outdoors In So your bedroom has access to outside space? Lucky you! Keep the connection to the outdoors with drapery panels and window treatments that frame the view instead of distracting from it. "Use window treatments made from fabric with subtle details and feel, and make certain that you can pull on the panels all of the way back," clarifies Karla Amadatsu, creator of the British Columbia design company Kerrisdale Design. The length of this draperies should just barely touch the floor; this allows you to observe the continuity of the flooring under the drapery panels connecting the indoor space to the outside area. When window remedies break and puddle on the ground, she explains, they give your eye a place to stop and create a branch.

Believe Horizontal Minimizing color distraction on the walls tv wall mounts toronto . floors and furnishings is among the ways that Linda McDougald, lead designer in the South Carolina-based company Postcard from Paris, made this very small bedroom feel larger. The other major visual trick she employed was to add horizontal timber planking into the walls. "The space had a great deal of height," McDougald says, " so to balance it we added planking, which fools your eye into thinking the space is wider than it is."

Get into the Art of the Matter Strategically hanging artwork is among the simplest ways to make a room look bigger. The artwork gives your eye something to focus on outside the physical perimeter of the space and has the effect of expanding distance. "Do not overload the walls," warns Allison Marvin, an art adviser whose firm, Sightline, is based in Washington, D.C. "The longer you put on the walls in a small room, the bigger the space will feel." Rather, select a few larger pieces and place them on different walls round the room. Doing this makes your eye move around the room and you notice the architectural constraints of the space less. When hanging art above a mattress, Marvin recommends maintaining the artwork inside the width of the mattress itself and hanging it about six to eight inches over the headboard. Layout by J.D. Ireland Interior Architecture Design

Emphasize Height If you are blessed with high ceilings, take full advantage of these and choose a tall bed to anchor the room. "The height of the bed takes focus on the quantity and height of the ceilings," explains Melanie Miller, ASID, president and creator of The Design Atelier in Atlanta. To pull off the effect, select a delicate bed with a lot of architectural interest to add height. A bed without a footboard, which visually marks the end of the mattress, ensures you won't be adding heft into the space. "A wooden four-poster mattress will look heavy and command too much attention," she clarifies.

Choose Cool Colors We've said it hundreds of times before: trendy colors make walls recede and have the effect of expanding a space, whereas warm colors make rooms look cozier. But did you realize that white paint comes in trendy colors and warm hues too? "Using cool white onto the walls is sharp and makes the room feel spacious," says Miller who paired the white walls with blue tones and earthy neutrals, giving this bedroom a beachy vibe. As she puts it, the color scheme is really what makes this room feel light and airy.

Be Bold Pale walls and furniture that is light in scale obviously make a room look bigger, but that does not mean that big, bold furnishings don't have a place in tiny rooms too. In fact, based on Los Angeles-based interior designer Betsy Burnham, adding drama with color and choosing furniture that is slightly oversize can give a feeling of spaciousness too. "Using color in balls on furniture with increased scale makes you pay attention to the pieces inside the room, which means you are not thinking about how little the room actually is," she explains. By highlighting a couple of things, your eye will probably visit those pieces and not the limits of this distance. "Embrace the distance you've got," she states, and set super-dramatic colors with simpler accessories and bedding.

Work Pattern The same goes for pattern: A deliberate program in a little space can help the circulation of the space and trick your eye into thinking there's more to the space. To pull it off, you need to get a great deal of natural light in your area, advises San Francisco designer Angela Free, and also be very restrained with the positioning of pattern. Skip placing pattern on the bed, which would be overpowering in a little space. "The patterned rug and window treatments have been tonally related," she explains, "therefore there is a connectedness that makes the room feel calm rather than busy."

Be Understated Avoid large applications of layout, like the wallpaper above, and choose motifs that are subtle and not as visually jarring. Too many accent colors and wood tones chop up the space and force you to see where one architectural component (such as a door) finishes and another begins.

Hang a Chandelier If you're set on a more traditional bed with a headboard and footboard, light is another way to emphasize the high ceilings. "Dropping a ceiling down fixture is a wonderful way to apply height in a room and make the room feel bigger," states New York-based interior designer Jana Happel. The chandelier draws your attention up and leaves your gaze dip around the area. Opt for a fixture with easy lines that's large enough to create an impact.

Get a Leg Up Who isn't looking for a way to eek more storage in the bedroom? Bedside tables do not have to be wimpy small stands which are barely large enough to hold a stack of books. Substantial bits with drawers include needed storage, aid to maintain surfaces clear and also provide lots of room for a reading lamp and decorative touches like a calming picture. But be careful when selecting these pieces; a chest that sits directly on the ground will make your little room seem even smaller. Instead, start looking for tables or dressers on thighs, advises Laurie Woods, ASID. "If a table is on thighs," she explains, "you find the ground extending beneath the furniture and that helps to visually expand the space" Same is true for a table that has an open plate by which you may see the wall: It gives the piece a floating texture and takes your eye to the back wall instead of stopping your gaze in the front of the table.

Stash Extra Stuff "Nothing closes you in more than clutter," notes designer Betsy Burnham. "It's really important to maintain surfaces clear and also have space to breathe or for your eye to proceed," she adds. Furniture that has concealed storage is a great way to keep things neat and tidy. Avoid hefty pieces such as leather storage benches that sit right on the floor and elect for a footed bed with storage drawers like this one from Crate & Barrel. The built-in storage is like gaining six dresser drawers, and since the mattress is about toes you still get air circulating under, so it won't visually overwhelm the room. Keep your bedding tightly tucked under the mattress to keep up the streamlined appearance.

Get Floored To attain a more spacious feel in only an afternoon, switch out your patterned carpet for one in a light shade. The light oatmeal-colored carpet that San Francisco designer Martha Angus picked for this bedroom has a subtle interlocking diamond and tassel design. "It moves the light round the area," she notes. "It's just like a bounce light at a fashion photo shoot. The light from the windows reflects off the carpet and onto the glistening furniture, which makes the space look airy and light"

Reflect the Light When designer S. Voula Goutsos of the Vancouver design firm Olive E O took on the particular room, the mirrors were already set up. "We chose to keep them and work around them, because they revealed what was going on out," she clarifies. (What was going on outside was an amazing harbor view, where anyone would want to empathize.) "The mirrors take the sightlines beyond the boundaries of their actual physical area of this room and, needless to say, they reflect light, but I enjoyed them since they lent a sparkly feel to the room." To accomplish this look, apply mirrors directly to the surface of the wall, then frame them with molding. Go to get a symmetrical arrangement, Goutsos recommends, to create equilibrium and calm and, of course, only place mirrors at a spot where they will reflect something beautiful.

Connect With the Rest of the House That large dark panel in the rear of the bedroom is really a sliding barn door. Architect Ron Sutton installed the big doors in the entrance to his bedroom rather than a more conventional framed door. "The doorway opens up the whole room to the stairwell and different parts of the home," he explains. "It expands the space since the landing becomes part of the space, but what's more, it creates another direction of light that dances around the space and makes the room feel really large." Of course, Sutton managed to design his own contemporary dream home, but making a more open room can be done in a conventional house also. In case you've got the ability to change the entry door to your bedroom, elect for a wider-than-average door or perhaps a pocket door, both of which will cause you to feel as if the space is physically bigger than the space itself.

Jump Table Lamps "When a lamp comes off the wall," states Sutton, "it frees up space on the bedside table." Meaning, in the event that you truly don't have room for big nightstands, don't clutter them together with lamps. Sutton recommends choosing sconces with flexible arms. "You do not need to be as accurate about positioning, if the lamps themselves can adjust," he says.