Small House Design Ideas: How to make a small home feel bigger

From small bedrooms to compact living rooms, finding design ideas to suit a small home can be a challenge. But with some clever layout planning, decluttering and space saving furniture, you’ll find there are plenty of options to help make a small room feel bigger and feel full of life and style. If you're finding that you're short on space in your home, here are some decor and styling solutions for a small home.

How to make a small home feel bigger

Declutter & organise

Before you begin trying to create a beautiful open space, make sure you’ve done a thorough declutter and have decided on what furniture and accessories you really want to keep. Once you know what’s staying, you’ll have a better idea of what furniture you need and what space you have available.

Try different layouts

Now you’ve got the foundation of the room, think about the layout. Will the items you have work better in a different arrangement? Can you find areas that will work as multipurpose spaces? You might be limited to what you can do due to certain features of your home but there’s no harm in trying a few different layouts and you might find it provides inspiration for decor styles or colours.

Paint colours for small rooms

It’s generally known that whites and neutrals will help make rooms appear larger thanks to their reflective nature and the calming effect these even-toned colours bring. Opt for light, soft hues of your favourite colours and if you need a touch of contrast, add bright and bold shades to accessories or add textures and patterns to soft furnishings.

If light colours are not your style, there’s no reason you can’t also embrace the dark hues. If you choose the right dark colour it can help blur the edges of a room, changing the perceived depth of the space. Make sure to consider the complementary colours and shape of furniture you use so your room doesn’t suddenly feel boxy.

Furniture Ideas for a small space

Furniture with longer legs

Being able to see the floor space beneath your furniture will help create the illusion of more space. Choose sofas and tables with slim exposed legs, such as those on our Fraser or Cooper ranges. This will help lift your seating, tables and bookshelves and will also provide you with some room for additional storage if needed.

Another great tip for improving the airflow and visual space of a room is to make sure your furniture has room to breathe. Try not to press furniture against the wall as this will help trick the subconscious and prevent the room from feeling stuffy.

Extendable kitchen or dining tables

Even in a small home, you can still put family at its heart. Provide the sought-after flexibility you need with an extendable dining table. With the flick of your wrist, you’ll be ready to entertain, welcoming more guests to your table. The simple transformation works in reverse, too, giving you the ability to hide the extra inches when you’re not using them.

Glass dining tables

Glass furniture is an obvious way to create spatial illusions, opening up a room and connecting vicinal spaces. As a bonus, our Reflection glass dining tables are incredibly modern thanks to their mix of translucent material, curvaceous shapes and solid oak features.

Interior design ideas for a small house

Mirrors

Using mirrors to elongate the room is one of the oldest tricks in the book - and for good reason. This always effective ploy is even more convincing when placed opposite a window, allowing the light and movement of the outdoors to bounce off its surface.

Lighting

Good amounts of light - especially the natural kind - will always fill a room with more depth and feel much bigger than dark spaces. If you’re ready for some DIY, replace walls and solid doors with glass or enlarged windows. Otherwise, we recommend pointing your furniture towards natural sources of light.

Utilise wall space

If you want to accentuate your space but are worried about objects swallowing up limited tabletop surfaces, opt for hanging accessories such as art, lights, floating shelves and hanging plants.

Clever storage ideas for small homes

You can organise your small home by using furniture in ways that you might not have thought about. Vertical storage options like our tallboys minimise floor use but still give you a nice flat top to decorate as you please as well of plenty of drawer space - perfect if you don’t have room for a chest of drawers in your bedroom, or are looking for extra storage on the landing.

Think about utilising storage space under furniture, under a high bed frame with plenty of room for boxes and bags underneath.

Our nests of tables are multi-functional and can be spread throughout the house or look lovely layered together, ready to be pulled away when needed. They can also double up as seats, as can our blanket boxes. Use them as toy storage for your children’s room while adding pillows on top for a comfy makeshift loveseat, else, place it by a window and you have the perfect place for a spot of reading.

Console tables, on the other hand, are a bit more slimline than sideboards, so are easily slotted into tighter spaces without sacrificing storage ability.

Whatever the size of your home, Oak Furnitureland provides a fantastic selection of furniture to suit your space. Shop our full collection today.