How to Make a Small Bedroom Look Bigger: 50 Clever Tips

How to make a small bedroom feel bigger – here are 50 clever tricks every small home dweller needs.

Following on from my previous post on creating the illusion of space in your living room, this post looks at the ways you can improve space in a small bedroom. Some of these ideas can apply throughout the home too. 

And keep reading to discover how to fix the most common issues with a small bedroom that many homes experience. 

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When faced with decorating and furnishing a small bedroom, it can be difficult to figure out how to include all the bedroom essentials, whilst retaining space to move around comfortably.

Let’s look at the ways you can achieve a bigger looking and feeling bedroom, without compromising on style, design or comfort.

I’ve put together 50 of the best tips for updating a tiny bedroom and giving it a spacious new atmosphere.

Image: rio-regalsystem.de

Once you know how to do this you can apply to any smaller space in the home, and any room within it.

It’s the perfect way to increase space, and the feeling of it, in any small home.

Follow these clever tricks on how to make a small bedroom feel bigger without compromising on style, comfort or aesthetics.

50 Clever Ways to Make a Small Bedroom Feel Bigger

1. Make a Small Bedroom Feel Bigger and Choose a Focal Point

Pick one bold piece of furniture such as a bed, patterned rug or the perfect wardrobe to draw the eye through the tiny bedroom.

Focal points are a great way to create an illusion of space and make a small room feel bigger.

They are a feature, whether original or brought in through furniture or accessories, and create an anchor within the space.

Image: Original Bed Company

They give the room a sense of purpose, of being. They set the tone and atmosphere.

In fact, a focal point can be a way of creating a whole decorating scheme.

Choose just one point in the room and design the space from that. It’s the perfect way to create a sense of drama and interest too.

Focal points are an interior designers best trick for giving bland, uninteresting rooms the wow factor they crave.

And in the case of a small bedroom, they give an illusion that the room is bigger than it really is and make a small room look much bigger.

The eye is drawn away from the small footprint and focuses more on the interesting and inviting focal area.

Image: Sweetpea & Willow

So to create a focal point in your small bedroom, you can do some of the following.

2. Place the bed against the window to draw the eye to that point. The window then becomes the focus of interest – a feature that naturally lends itself to feeling larger than it is, due to its natural light.

3. Add a large headboard on the bed for extra attention and you’ve created a fantastic focal point for any small room.

4. Furthermore, let light come through the features – a cut-out pattern in the headboard for example – and the eye will naturally see further and beyond, with this type of optical illusion.

5. Create Height in Small Bedrooms

Image: i-liv

Many of these ideas go against everything we naturally believe about decorating small rooms.

A small bedroom can feel claustrophobic, so our natural tendency is to fill it with small items.

That’s not always the best way. And sometimes we need some clever tricks to help the room feel bigger.

Small bedrooms tend to come with small windows. But there is a way to make this smaller space feel roomier.

Naturally we feel it best to add a small blind or short curtains so we can see the window within the wall.

Now, whilst we need to be able to maintain all the natural light, we can also play around with dimensions.

Let’s think about how we can create the illusion of height (and therefore, space) in our small bedroom.

Even if you don’t have a very high ceiling, we can still make use of the height that we do have.

Image: Cult Furniture

Here are a few ideas for making the most of the height in a small bedroom (some of our favourite small bedroom ideas):

6. Instead of wallpaper or paint, use fabric draped from a pole at the ceiling height to draw the eye to the full height of the room. Keep the fabric the same colour as the rest of the walls.

7. Add a canopy over your bed reaching the height of the room. Again keep the fabric light in texture and colour so it doesn’t block light.

8. Use paint or wallpaper to bring vertical stripes into the room that take the eye from floor to ceiling. We will naturally feel the room has more height than width and so will feel larger.

9. Use sheer curtains at a window to bring in light and allow the eye to pass beyond the window and wall into the outdoor space.

All of these tips can give a much greater sense of space in the tiniest of bedrooms.

10. Keep Colours Neutral or Monochrome and Make a Small Bedroom Seem Spacious

It’s the oldest interior design trick in the book.

11. Use soft, neutral colours on the walls and in your accessories, to help the space feel more open.

12. Monochrome palettes are also popular and can be brightened up with pops of colours like yellow or green. Simple colour schemes don’t have to be dull though.

13. Bright, daring colours can give a neutral room a feeling of fun and vivacity, without compromising , or encroaching on the available space in a room. Colour is a great way to give the illusion of bigger space in a bedroom and beyond.

14. Grey Colour Schemes in a Small Bedroom

Image: Secret Linen Store

Immediately we mention a grey colour palette, we see dull, dreary and boring walls in our minds.

But, in fact, grey doesn’t have to be any of these things at all.

15. Greys which are based on red tones can feel warm and inviting.

16. And layered together they create a soft and cosy room decor without overpowering the space. They give the illusion of more space – something we all need in a small home.

17. As I mentioned earlier, it’s easy to liven up a grey scheme by adding contrasting colours like yellow. Or you can keep things calmer by substituting the bring shades for more complementary hues like soft pink or blue.

18. Small Bedroom Furniture Gives an Illusion of Space

Image: Dormy House

The furniture we put in our small bedrooms can have a huge impact on the look and feel of the space. 

19. If we want it to feel bigger than it really is we need to be very careful about the pieces we invest in. 

Similarly, as we don’t have a lot of space in the first place, we want our furniture to work hard for us, providing practical solutions in both function and form. 

It’s most likely we need extra storage, or as much storage as possible. 

20. Firstly, we want to store our belongings of course. And secondly, we want to minimise the clutter as much as we can, creating a seamless, organised space that’s a joy to spend time in. All small space dwellers want to maximise their living space whilst ensuring their homes are as practical as possible. 

Image: French Bedroom Company

So make sure you select sleek pieces of furniture with lots of storage options. 

Furniture items to consider:

21. Under bed storage will give large amounts of storage space without filling the room with extra furniture. 

22. Don’t forget the side of the bed too and invest in clever built-in shelving where possible.

23. Invest in modular furniture which can be flexible, and gives you the opportunity to buy just the pieces you need, creating storage suited to your needs. 

24. Furniture which hangs from the wall is a great idea in a smaller room, saving floor space and deceiving the eye into thinking the room is bigger. 

25. Carefully placed lighting will help too. Hang bedside lights from a wall, instead of on a bedside table to keep surfaces clutter free. 

26. Try a tall headboard to give an illusion of space and draw the eye up the room, making the most of wall space and ceiling height. It’s a simple trick that many of us ignore. 

27. Create the Illusion of Depth with your Interior design

There are many tricks to making your small bedroom seem bigger and one of them is to trick the eye. 

Give the illusion of depth in a small room (and this can be applied to any room in the house) and it’s easy for it to feel more spacious. 

Even if we don’t have a lot of space, we just need to make our brains feel that we have. 

And we can do that in one particular way.  Let the eye travel. 

Give the illusion of depth in both the design of the room and the items you fill it with. What does this mean?

Well, one idea is to allow the eye to see further, let it go past or through an item to the wall behind. It’s a simple optical illusion.

28. You can do this will perspex or glass furniture. 

Image: My Furniture

29. You can raise items off the floor or have beds and bedside tables on legs. Allowing the eye to see the wall beyond will help the room feel more spacious. 

30. You can put pieces in with cutout designs, like Moroccan patterning for example on a headboard. 

31. Moving away from block, hard and solid pieces will prevent the room feeling overrun by furniture. Instead you’ll achieve a lighter, brighter room which doesn’t feel oppressive. 

32. Combine these items with all the tips we’ve mentioned above, and you will definitely be creating a room design that feels bigger than its actual dimensions. 

You’ll have colour, a focal point, light and space. All the elements we long for in a smaller bedroom, and indeed, a smaller home. 

Whether structural or cosmetic, these changes should help make even the smallest rooms feel airy and pleasant.

Need Help with your Small Bedroom Decor?

Let’s investigate the answers to some of the most common questions regarding the interior design of a space-challenged bedroom.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I use dark colours in a small room?

Image: English Blinds

Yes! I know we’ve talked about using light, neutral colours in a room to help it feel bigger, and that’s certainly the case, but we can still use a dark hue. 

33. Embracing the small dimensions is sometimes all we can do, and using a dark, powerful colour will definitely give the room impact. This is a great trick for a downstairs bathroom for example, where they tend to be very small. 

Where is the best shop to find small bedroom furniture items?

Image: Cult Furniture

There are so many stores that stock the perfect pieces for a small bedroom, it’s not difficult. 

34. The best way to find your favourites, is decide on your style. Nordic? Country? French? Traditional? Whatever your likes, plug them into Google and see what comes out. There really isn’t one answer to this question. 

Should I use patterns in a small bedroom?

Image: Art by Desenio

Yes, but keep them to a minimum. 

35. Add patterns and print as accessories in your small bedroom and you’ll soon be able to add personality with overcrowding the room. 

36. Bedding, a few scatter cushions, art on the wall. These interior accessories all lend themselves to being filled with pattern and print so have fun with them. 

Just because you have a small bedroom doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice fun and endearing accessories like this. 

Lighting Tips and Tricks for a Small Bedroom

Image: Lights4Fun

38. Invest in a sleek floor lamp that won’t take up much floor space but will fill the room with light and give the illusion of a bigger space.

39. Do use more lighting than you think you need in lots of different ways. Layer your lighting; add table lamps, wall lights, floor lamps and fairy lights where to can to really add plenty of artificial light. 

40. Use mirrors to bounce this light around the room. It’s the oldest trick in the book and a very clever way to give a room depth. It can make a huge difference to the feel of a small bedroom. 

Using Art in a Small Bedroom for Visual Interest

Image: Abstract House

41. We all want to inject our personality into our home no matter what the size. Just because you might not have much wall space in a tiny bedroom, doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice you wall decor. Create a gallery wall of your favourite small items, and use the height in the room.

42. Stick to one colour palette in your wall gallery. Try not to mix it up too much and you’ll create a greater feeling of space. 

43. If you have white walls, add colour into the room with your wall decor. Keep it simple and use just 2 or 3 colours. 

44. It’s a good idea to use picture shelves, positioned high on the wall to display your art and photographs. They draw the eye up the room, creating height and that all important illusion of space. 

More Small Bedroom Furniture Ideas

Image: http://www.terenzisrl.it/IT/shop/

45. Keep the furniture open rather than closed. Choose pieces without cupboard fronts or hard closed doors.

46. If you can, go for a platform bed! It’s a great way to elevate the biggest piece of furniture in the room and an easy way to make your tiny space feel bigger. We love this idea for a child’s small bedroom, for example.

47. Multi-purpose furniture is essential in a small bedroom and we love foldaway beds that reveal hidden shelving.

49. If you don’t have any seating but do have a good view, invest in a window seat – one that doubles up as storage as well of course.

50. If your small bedroom also doubles up as your home office, invest in a small but functional dressing table that can also act as your desk during work hours. 

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If you love this post, we know you’ll also like our 27 small home interior design tips and our 30 ways to make a small kitchen seem bigger, and how to decorate a small downstairs toilet, or how to maximise space in your small home, plus small hot tubs for small gardens, and our small home lighting tips.

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