How to make a small space feel bigger with paint

Do you have a small space that you want to make feel bigger without breaking down walls? Get ready to make your way to the paint store, because we have solutions for you. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t all involve white paint.

If the space you’re looking to paint has any sloping ceilings or awkward angles that you’re not sure how to work with, we have the answer for you: continuity. According to interior designer, Kevin Isbell, you should ‘treat everything below the highest point in the room as a wall surface and paint them as such’. This should be done to avoid the eye being drawn down and making the ceiling feel lower and the space smaller.

You don’t have to avoid bold, jewel tones just because your space is small. So, if peacock blues and

emerald greens are your thing, go for it. You may be surprised to find that it could make your space feel bigger than you expected. Remember that if you do decide to go with a darker paint, to try and keep the accessories in the space light as this will help balance out the space.

Not only are murals fun and creative to do, but they’re a neat decorative trick that can be used to create a sense of space. By painting a mural on one wall of a small space, you will increase the room’s depth. ‘This allows for more colour and visual interest in a space’, says interior designer Sara Barney.

Paint everything! We’re talking walls, ceilings, baseboards, mouldings, the works. By doing this the walls will appear to recede, making the space look and feel larger than it is.

We don’t all have homes with rooms bathed in natural light. Although natural light is always first prize, we all know that we can create a mood and illusion of space through the use of

artificial light, but have you ever considered pulling off an illusion like this using paint? Kevin suggests painting the transition spaces leading into a room that has a lack of light in a darker colour. ‘The act of walking through a darker colour will make the adjacent room appear lighter by

contrast,’ he says.