Clever Ways to Make Your Home Look More Spacious
It’s no secret that an expansive home is a luxury in Indian metros. Here is how you can skilfully leverage what you have
Admit it. Everyone loves a big home. In jam-packed Indian cities, open spaces in homes belong to the sepia-toned past, and come with a hefty price attached these days. Worry not! You too can easily shape your secret dream. Choose to open up your home and enjoy the luxury of unending space. Get down to making the crouching inches in your pad a bit more expansive and leverage the area skilfully to spell sheer fluidity of space, even in modest confines. Here is how you weave in some smart aspects while doing up your cocoon.
Bring in the sunnies
Nothing surpasses the effect of natural light spilling into your apartment. Opt for large glass windows as sunshine infuses a sense of warmth and verve and lifts the mood of the decor. “A lick of photosensitive paint on the walls can also let you play up the sunshine and create different moods throughout the day,” shares home makeover expert Shafali Choudhrie Diwanji of Mumbai-based Studio SCD.
Nothing surpasses the effect of natural light spilling into your apartment. Opt for large glass windows as sunshine infuses a sense of warmth and verve and lifts the mood of the decor. “A lick of photosensitive paint on the walls can also let you play up the sunshine and create different moods throughout the day,” shares home makeover expert Shafali Choudhrie Diwanji of Mumbai-based Studio SCD.
Stow away spaces
You can burrow into the walls behind the doors and along the small passages in your home to create cabinets. Painted the same colour as your walls, they merge in unobtrusively.
Tip: Avoid creating storage spaces at eye level and above. This means go easy with cabinets atop almirahs and hefty box beds.
You can burrow into the walls behind the doors and along the small passages in your home to create cabinets. Painted the same colour as your walls, they merge in unobtrusively.
Tip: Avoid creating storage spaces at eye level and above. This means go easy with cabinets atop almirahs and hefty box beds.
Tile up
Play with a pale palette to maximise the space in your home. Use lighter, softer colours for tiling tight spaces. Try tiling the walls in your kitchen/ bathrooms up to the ceiling for the added impression of height and space. This idea works very well as extended tiled splashbacks in your kitchen area as well. “Light colours give a feeling of freshness and openness to a space,” says interior designer Minnie Bhatt.
Play with a pale palette to maximise the space in your home. Use lighter, softer colours for tiling tight spaces. Try tiling the walls in your kitchen/ bathrooms up to the ceiling for the added impression of height and space. This idea works very well as extended tiled splashbacks in your kitchen area as well. “Light colours give a feeling of freshness and openness to a space,” says interior designer Minnie Bhatt.
Choose a palette
Opt for soothing monochromatic colours. Engage a palette of lighter hues, such as baby pink, powder blue, fleeting sunshine, pistachio greens or all-time favourite whites, ranging in shades of pearl and ivory. The visual continuity of these pale colours on walls makes for an easy eye movement and is a great way to create the illusion of space.
The same dictum applies when you choose the patterns and textures of upholstery. Similar patterns and colours even in wallpapers and in home linen link spaces visually, making one area melt into another.
Opt for soothing monochromatic colours. Engage a palette of lighter hues, such as baby pink, powder blue, fleeting sunshine, pistachio greens or all-time favourite whites, ranging in shades of pearl and ivory. The visual continuity of these pale colours on walls makes for an easy eye movement and is a great way to create the illusion of space.
The same dictum applies when you choose the patterns and textures of upholstery. Similar patterns and colours even in wallpapers and in home linen link spaces visually, making one area melt into another.
For monochrome palettes, opting for cousin colours in shading the walls and ceilings doubles the visual space instantly. “Opt for lighter tones in veneer and stick to similar shades in all the rooms,” suggests Mumbai-based interior designer Mona Dogra.
Go mirrors
Creating an optical illusion by using mirrors is one of the best tricks in the book to bring in a sense of an expansive space. All you need to do is to create a feature wall by simply pegging a mirror that complements the room’s decor.
“To expand the areas visually, bring in a collage of mirrors on an entrance wall or living room for a touch of glamour,” says Diwanji. “You could even mix up the mirrors in style, size, frame and fill an entry wall to illuminate a dark passage.”
Creating an optical illusion by using mirrors is one of the best tricks in the book to bring in a sense of an expansive space. All you need to do is to create a feature wall by simply pegging a mirror that complements the room’s decor.
“To expand the areas visually, bring in a collage of mirrors on an entrance wall or living room for a touch of glamour,” says Diwanji. “You could even mix up the mirrors in style, size, frame and fill an entry wall to illuminate a dark passage.”
Play up clever reflections to your advantage. Though do keep in mind, vastu devotees desist from placing mirrors in front of beds or opposite main doors (for it is said to attract negative energy), but a skilful placement of an ornate mirror even in the bathroom goes a long way in opening up enclosed spaces.
Use translucent blinds
Opacity in decor is a space gobbler. Elbow aside cumbersome curtains and thick drapery in favour of neat, slick blinds in light colours and translucent textures. The play of natural light during the course of the day will liven up interiors in more ways than one.
Which Window Blind is Right for You
Opacity in decor is a space gobbler. Elbow aside cumbersome curtains and thick drapery in favour of neat, slick blinds in light colours and translucent textures. The play of natural light during the course of the day will liven up interiors in more ways than one.
Which Window Blind is Right for You
Install svelte sliders
Doors that open up into spaces take up precious inches. Replace the separators with sliding glass or wooden doors to visually expand the area of your nest. This brings in fluidity of space especially in space starved apartments in big cities. “It is a good idea to bring in sliding doors to increase the visual area of your home spaces,” says interior designer Karishma Malkani.
Doors that open up into spaces take up precious inches. Replace the separators with sliding glass or wooden doors to visually expand the area of your nest. This brings in fluidity of space especially in space starved apartments in big cities. “It is a good idea to bring in sliding doors to increase the visual area of your home spaces,” says interior designer Karishma Malkani.
Bring the outside in
The green from the outside is soothing, healing, therapeutic and welcomed anytime. If you can seize a bit of nature and showcase it in your home, do it. The leafy fingers, dappled sunshine and the fresh airs create a zone of freshness and the outside expanse adds to the illusion of more space inside.
How to Live With Plants
The green from the outside is soothing, healing, therapeutic and welcomed anytime. If you can seize a bit of nature and showcase it in your home, do it. The leafy fingers, dappled sunshine and the fresh airs create a zone of freshness and the outside expanse adds to the illusion of more space inside.
How to Live With Plants
Go for low furniture
Maintaining low sofas and couches in the key areas facilitates uninterrupted eye movement. The trick is to keep the gaze moving across and through the confines of the different spaces in your house. “Furniture of lower height draws the eye above. This creates an illusion of greater space and airiness,” says Diwanji.
Maintaining low sofas and couches in the key areas facilitates uninterrupted eye movement. The trick is to keep the gaze moving across and through the confines of the different spaces in your house. “Furniture of lower height draws the eye above. This creates an illusion of greater space and airiness,” says Diwanji.
Maximise the inches through these simple solutions to create a comfortable home … your piece of paradise midst the urban humdrum.
Also read:
Smart Storage Solutions for All Spaces
How to Style Up Your Small Kitchen
Tell us:
Share your tips on how you have maximised space in your house in our Comments.
Also read:
Smart Storage Solutions for All Spaces
How to Style Up Your Small Kitchen
Tell us:
Share your tips on how you have maximised space in your house in our Comments.
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It’s important that your home be an expression of your personality and unique taste. If you’re looking to maximise the space, the rule of thumb is to ensure there’s a unified palette. The less variety of materials and colours used, the more spacious your home will look, like it has been done in this space.
Tip: If you opt for the same flooring leading away from the lounge into the private areas of your residence, there is a visual connect. A break in the texture of the flooring segments spaces.