Home remodeling projects tend to take up not just your time, but your budget as well. But while it seems impossible to remodel even just a small room without spending a small fortune, there are cheap ways to change the look and feel of an entire room, even if your intent is to make a small space appear larger than it actually is.
However, be warned: what you save in dollars can and will cost you in time and effort. In other words, while you won’t need to spend a small fortune, you might need to sacrifice a couple weekends to do this right.
Remove All Trash and Minimize Clutter
Decluttering is perhaps the single, cheapest way to maximize the use of any available space. And if you don’t already organize your stuff and immediately get rid of trash, now is the time to start doing it.
Clutter is something that can get out of hand really fast. It tends to take on a life of its own. One day, you’re lounging in a clean and well-organized living room, the next, there are suddenly piles of random stuff scattered everywhere you look.
Here’s how to prevent this from happening: first, identify which room in the house you’d like to make ‘bigger’. Then, take a long hard look at that room and then organize all the stuff inside into three categories: ‘Trash’, ‘Keep’, and ‘Maybe’.
Your first focus should be on Trash. This is where any and all decluttering efforts begin. Take a big container and fill it up with all the trash you can find in this room. Once this is done, you’ll have a clearer view of the room you’re trying to organize.
The next is Maybe. This category comprises everything that you’re not sure whether you want to keep or not. Set these aside for later.
The last category is Keep, which simply means everything that you simply cannot let go of.
Look again in the Maybe pile. Anything that you haven’t used in the last 6 months to a year is probably unnecessary and either belongs in the Trash or in a separate room in the house.
In the process of decluttering, you have to let logic, and not your emotions, take over. If your end goal is to make your small room appear bigger, it’s going to be absolutely worth it to significantly decrease the amount of stuff that takes up valuable real estate in the room you’re renovating.
With less stuff to worry about, it becomes easier to organize the room, minimize visual clutter, and create new possibilities with your newfound available space.
Invest in Durable Storage Boxes
Anything that doesn’t have to be visible and doesn’t add anything to the room’s allure is a candidate for storage. In small rooms, it can be quite easy to run out of storage space. That’s why you’ll need different kinds of storage boxes.
Some storage boxes come with interesting patterns and colors that can actually add to the room’s look and feel. These are the type that you can put on display, either in one corner of the room, or tastefully arranged via available shelves and other surfaces.
You can also opt for buying wheeled storage boxes that can be put under the bed and then easily retrieved whenever necessary.
For clothes, electronic equipment, camera equipment, and other sensitive stuff that need to be protected from dust and moisture, waterproof storage boxes should do the trick. If your stuff need extra protection from the elements, throw a desiccant gel pack in the storage box to guard against moisture and any possibility of mold.
Putting things in storage minimizes visual clutter, which is a great visual trick for making any space look larger.
Respect the Middle Space
Imagine that your walls are divided into three separate spaces: the bottom, the middle, and the top. In the spirit of creating the illusion of space, the middle of your walls should be absolutely naked.
This means anything attached to the wall, whether it’s art, extra shelves, or DIY decorations, should be placed on the top or the bottom thirds. Unless it’s a mirror, which is a notoriously convenient way of extending illusory space, it belongs in either the top or the bottom part of the wall.
The same principle goes for any furniture. Pick furniture that doesn’t take up too much space by reaching for the ceiling, like mid-level dressers, or a minimalist bed frame without the elaborately wrought iron headboard.
If you do have stuff that minimizes space from the floor to the ceiling, make them stick to the walls.
Less stuff in the middle of the room and walls means more visual breathing space, reinforcing the illusion that the room is actually bigger.
Any of the above-mentioned methods can be highly effective at creating the illusion of a bigger space. Feel free to try these techniques on any room in your house.