Want to make positive changes at home during quarantine? Besides walking more than ever for exercise (and your sanity), why not take a few minutes to walk through and evaluate your home and how you might use a room differently ... or more efficiently? Being required to stay home allows us to really think about how we experience and use different spaces. There are many ways to update a space and, in this exercise, I'd like to tackle how to make a small room feel most comfortable (and larger). Before and after pictures are always fun to illustrate these tricks.
Think of furniture placement for the most efficient use. This room clearly has a strong traffic pattern and too much space was devoted to the walking path from the front door. This caused the pair of love seats to be crammed under the TV making for a very small seating area and difficult TV viewing. Adding a long sofa against the back wall created much needed additional seating and still allows one to comfortably walk through the space. The bench cushion provides a linear visual which contributes to the longer, larger feel. We added two fairly sizable swivel chairs in a warm grey velvet to make conversation and TV viewing much more comfortable. Small spaces don't necessarily need small furniture, but we did opt to keep the existing narrow trunk for the coffee table to accommodate the necessary traffic flow.
Use as large a rug as possible. We replaced a small rug with a much larger rug to better define the now much larger sitting area. This alone makes a HUGE difference. Oftentimes, small spaces crave large rugs.
Lighting is always a great way to create ambiance and new energy in a room. Even though this room has plenty of daylight and overhead lighting, we added a pair of lamps, making the area much softer and more inviting. (New LED light bulbs can be tricky, so make sure to choose the "warm light" bulbs as it feels better…and makes everyone look better!)
Color. Light walls and neutral colors work well to create visual harmony in a smaller space, but that doesn't mean the absence of color! We capitalized on the orange and teal accent colors in the otherwise neutral rug and added an orange velvet kidney pillow on the sofa to provide an unexpected pop of color and a focal point. We also chose frosted glass teal lamps and deep blue porcelain urns on the mantle. We moved the existing teal bookcase to the entry creating the visually pleasing triptych of teal.
Plants. Plants are a fun and peaceful way to bring a natural element into any space, not to mention another great color! We added more plants to the large bamboo in the corner and it creates a nice oasis. Fresh foliage from top to bottom creates a strong vertical in the corner and we repeated it again next to the fireplace. This plant not only balances the green in the corner, but it also helps to hide the electrical cords hanging from the TV.
Art. Large art can create depth and provide a strong visual in a small room. In this case, the three prints were spaced fairly far apart trying to "feel" bigger, but they actually looked like three small pieces of art instead of one big one. We moved them closer together so they now appear as one long piece and have much more presence on the wall.
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