How to Make Your Bedroom Look Bigger

If your bedroom feels small and crowded, you may only need to make a few changes to make your bedroom look bigger instead of looking for a new house.

Just a few simple changes can make your room feel completely different.

Here are a few ways to make your bedroom look bigger and more spacious.

Clutter
Clutter of all types makes any room feel smaller.

Remove all paperwork, extra pillows, unnecessary accessories, small pieces of furniture, boxes in the corner, and easel picture frames.

A fewer quantity of items that are larger makes a bedroom feel bigger and less cluttered.

Instead of easel frames, wall mount a few of your most important photos to reduce clutter.

Find a hidden place for your everyday items such as your purse, cell phone, keys, and coat instead of just dumping them on any empty horizontal surface.

Bed
Everyone loves a large bed, but do you need a tall bed?

Tall mattresses are popular, but they make your bedroom feel smaller because the ceiling is closer to the bed.

Consider using half height box springs on your bed to bring it down to a reasonable level.

Four poster beds also create a visual barrier in your room and make it seem smaller than it actually is, so avoid beds that extend vertically into the air at the foot board (tall headboards that are flush with the wall are fine).

To maximize space, use a wall mounted headboard #ad and no foot board to gain a few precious inches of floor space and make your bedroom look bigger.

If you sleep in a twin sized bed, use a daybed that is pushed against the wall to allow more floor space that will make your bedroom seem bigger.

For a really tight space, consider getting a loft bed #ad which is like a bunk bed except there is only one bed on top and an open space below.

Another bed option for a small space is a murphy bed #ad that folds up into the wall when not needed allowing for more floor space.

Entertainment Center
If you have a matching bedroom furniture, you may have a large entertainment center for your TV.

These entertainment centers are usually deep to accommodate an older TV.

Consider relocating your entertainment center to another room and using it for storage.

You can get a wall mounted TV and a low and shallow media storage unit to make your bedroom feel bigger.

If your entertainment center has a top and bottom part, consider removing the top part and only keeping the bottom part so the room has more open space.

Flooring
When selecting flooring for your small bedroom, make sure to select flooring, and perhaps a rug, with little or no pattern.

A bold pattern floor or rug will feel cluttered and draw attention to the limited amount of floor space.

Additionally, instead of having furniture that extends all the way to the ground, select furniture that has legs.

Furniture legs allow you to see some of the flooring underneath the furniture, making the floor space look larger and the bedroom feel bigger.

Another option is to decorate with wall mounted furniture such as wall mounted nightstands. Wall mounted furniture does not touch the floor at all, which will make your bedroom appear bigger.

Multi-functional Pieces
When decorating a small bedroom, you can increase your floor space by using multi-functional pieces of furniture.

Multi-functional pieces of furniture allow you to have the function of two pieces of furniture in the floor space of one.

You can position your dresser next to your bed so your dresser functions as both a dresser and also a nightstand.

Another option is to put a mirror over your desk so your desk functions as both a desk and also a vanity table.

You can even decorate your bedroom with a platform bed #ad with storage drawers underneath instead of a separate bed and dresser.

Bedding
Brightly colored or bold patterned bedding with many colors and shapes (such as a large floral pattern) tends to draw too much attention and makes a room feel cluttered.

Opt for simple solid or smaller scale geometric bedding in a light color to brighten your bedroom and make it feel larger.

White sheets are always in fashion.

Avoid using bed skirts that hide the flooring underneath, making the room feel smaller (unless you are trying to hide ugly under bed storage).

Feel free to add some personality and color with interesting and/or colorful throw pillows and blankets.

Light
A dark room feels smaller, so ensure there is plenty of light in your bedroom.

Avoid heavy and dark curtains made of thick material.

You might opt for thinner window coverings like blinds or shades that take up less room.

You can use sheer curtains to provide some privacy and hide an ugly view but still let the light in your bedroom.

Keep your curtains open as much as possible to let daylight inside.

Have several sources of light in your room instead of just one overhead light, such as lamps and wall sconces.

Put all of your lights on dimmer switches so you can control the light level during different times of day. Make sure that all of your light bulbs are the same color temperature (it should say on the package) so that your bedroom lighting does not feel weird.

You can even add a skylight or solar tube #ad to bring in more light.

Reflect Light
Mirrors reflect light to make your bedroom brighter and create an optical illusion that the room continues through the wall.

Since mirrors make a bedroom feel larger than it is, consider having at least one large mirror in your bedroom.

Opt for one or two larger mirrors instead of multiple smaller mirrors.

If appropriate for your decor style, you can even use mirrored furniture.

Mirrored furniture bounces light around the room, making your bedroom feel bigger.

Another option to allow light to pass throughout the room is to use some furniture that is clear.

You can have Lucite or hard clear plastic furniture (just make sure it does not look like outdoor furniture or a blow up pool lounger).

The light going through the furniture will make it nearly disappear.

Ceiling
Draw attention to your bedroom ceiling in order to bring your eye up in the room and make it appear taller and bigger.

If your ceilings are taller than 8 foot, consider adding a unique light fixture, add architectural detail such as a ceiling medallion, crown molding, and/or paint it a light color other than white.

You can even install a storage cabinet that reaches all the way to the ceiling to utilize as much vertical space as possible in your small bedroom.

If you have curtains, hang your curtain rod towards the ceiling to make the windows appear taller. Also hang your curtains to where they overlap the wall instead of the window and are barely covering the window when completely opened to make your windows look bigger. For a designer touch, the width of your curtain panels should be 2-3x the width of your window (a 75" wide window should have 2 curtain panels, one on each side of the window, that are approximately 75-100" wide each).

Colors
Instead of decorating with dark and rich colors, select lighter and brighter colors for your small bedroom in order to make it feel bigger (which is especially true for your bedroom wall color).