Small room? Use paint to make it appear larger

Redecorating before you put your home on the market is a time-honoured way of increasing its appeal. Making each room feel fresher and improving how it appears in photographs will make the right impression with buyers but a new coat of paint can also alter spatial perceptions.  

Home sellers can make small rooms appear larger with the most basic of decorating equipment. A tin of paint, a set of brushes and a roller is pretty much all you need to trick the eye and impress potential buyers. Here’s how:  

Seek out the palest shades: the most skilled interior designers can actually make a small room feel bigger by using dark hues as it can add depth but if you’re not an expert, save shades of maroon, navy and emerald for another time. Creating the illusion of more space can be achieved by repainting using the palest colours on the spectrum. White, cream, greige, grey and pastels will all lighten, brighten and make walls feel further away.  

Colour drench the room: despite their diminutive nature, small design details can bring the walls of a room in. This is especially true if you have skirting boards, architrave, dado rails, picture rails and coving painted in a different colour to the walls, or if they’re stained dark brown. The aim is to make everything merge and recede, so deploy the colour drenching technique. This is when you paint all the details and surfaces the same shade. In small rooms, this should be a pale neutral.  

Consider painting the furniture: too much furniture in a room can make it feel cramped but it’s essential to have some items, as a bare room is less appealing than one set up for its purpose. If you have wooden furniture or laminated items, repaint them using a specialist product matched to the same shade as the walls, to give them a camouflage layer. This will help soften hard edges and allow cabinets, chairs, shelves and storage to blend into the background.  

Opt for a finish with sheen: both natural and artificial light are essential when trying to make a small room feel bigger. You’ll want the light to bounce around the room, not be absorbed by your choice of paint finish. Avoid anything described as matt, flat or chalky and instead opt for something with a sheen or slightly shiny finish - silk or semi-gloss are ideal.  

Buy a specialist paint: making a small room feel bigger using paint is a tried and tested method, and paint manufacturers are making it easier by producing specialist products for the task.  Lumni from Tikkurila is a light-enhancing interior emulsion with light-refracting pigments for a brighter appearance, while Dulux’s Light + Space Matt reflects up to twice as much light around a room thanks to Lumitec technology.  

Consider painting the floor: you’ve got pale-coloured walls, pale-coloured woodwork and a pale-coloured ceiling, don’t let a dark floor undo all your hard work. Check to see what’s under your carpet. If you have floorboards or a floor covering that can be sanded back and/or primed, consider painting the surface a light shade to match your interior.   

If you’d like advice about getting your home ready for sale, and for an accurate property valuation, please contact our team.