Dear Olivia,
When I bought my home, I was impressed with the size of the living room. But now that we’re moved in, the room seems small. I knew that adding our furniture would close the room in a bit, but this is next-level small. Help!
Sincerely,
Needs More Space
One of the dangers – if you want to call it that – of buying a home that was vacant when you toured it is that the rooms can seem much, much bigger than they really are. As you’ve discovered, a couch, a couple of chairs, and a coffee table can make a room that seemed big seem really small.
But there are other factors besides adding your furniture that can make a room feel a little too cozy. Here are three common mistakes that might make your living room seem small.
Outsized Furniture
Start by evaluating the size of the furniture pieces (and how many pieces) you have in the living room. Even very large rooms can feel cramped if the furniture you have is too big or there are too many items.
This doesn’t mean that you need to sell all your current furniture and buy new, smaller stuff. But what might help is editing what you have in the room. For example, if you have a couch and two side chairs, try removing one of the side chairs. Likewise, if you have a coffee table and a couple of end tables, see how you can make do without one of the end tables. Sometimes, editing the furniture you have in the room can really help open it up.
Dark Paint
There’s a trend with paint right now to go very bold and dark with wall colors. And while the result of that can be a very rich and modern-looking room, it can also make the room look and feel like a cave.
If your living room feels small, you might need to update the paint with a lighter tone. Again, you don’t have to make wholesale changes here – perhaps leave one wall a dark, rich color and repaint the other walls a lighter tone.
Related to this is dark furniture, which can also make a room seem small. If your couch has very dark fabric, you might consider adding a lighter couch cover to help elevate the color palette and brighten the space (adding more lighting can make the room feel larger too, just FYI).
Too Many Decorations
Perhaps the easiest thing to fix that might be making your big living room seem so small is to edit the decorations in the room.
If the walls are covered with artwork or family photos, it can look a little busy and make the space seem cluttered and small. The same goes for tables – try to avoid covering them with photos and other items. Having some “free” space on tables and walls can do wonders for making a room look and feel larger.
So, give these tips a try and see if they help make your space feel more like the big living room you fell in love with. For more tips on decorating and staging, feel free to get in touch with me at 307-856-3999!
~Olivia