How to Maximise your Space

 Analyse your Movements 

If you have a floor plan, highlight your daily movements throughout your home – the routes you take in the morning, or when you get home from work for example. This will help you to see the flaws in your existing home plans and how the system could be improved by knocking a wall down or just moving furniture around. If you do not have an existing floor plan, you could stick tape down on the floor as you walk through your home. 

Knock Down Walls 

Once you’ve analysed your movement, you may decide to knock down one or several walls. Removing walls to make two smaller rooms into one larger space will help you to maximise your space while creating a contemporary open plan design. You can still create separate areas that have different functions if you arrange the furniture and rugs well. The open floor will just make your home more spacious. If you’re thinking of doing any other renovation, having flooring parallel to the longest walls is another way to make a room look bigger. 

Maximise your Space 

Enhance your space by bringing furniture into the centre of the room. Identify areas in your home that are wasted and make them more functional by adding storage units or making small structural changes to use the space more efficiently. For example, when renovating, replace a few steps at the bottom of your stairs to wind around and end facing the front door. This is practical for when you’re leaving the house and will create a space for a shoe rack or coat closet. 

If you have little space for storage on the floor, use shelving or hooks to make the most of dead space. This will free up cluttered areas in your home without taking up extra space that you may not have. Acknowledge the areas in your home that are unused and utilise that space to open up your home. 

Ceiling and Walls 

Blending your walls and ceilings together by painting them the same colour is a good idea to open up your home. Having no defined difference between all the walls makes them flow into each other and creates the illusion of a larger room. Painting your walls and ceiling a lighter colour optimises the look of a smaller room. These techniques will make your home feel bigger without any renovation needed.

Blend the Inside with the Outside 

If any of your rooms in the back or side of your home are quite small, extending the floor outside will fix that. The continuation of a room from the living area to the outside at the same level is a great hack to open up your space and gives the room a new lease of life, especially during the warmer months. Open up your patio doors and it will feel like the room leading outside is never ending. 

Subtle Lighting 

Use different types of lighting throughout the room instead of one large spotlight. Alternating between general, task and accent lighting will open up your space. Try and have as much natural light as possible too. Mirrors are an effective way to create a more open area as they bounce the natural light around the room.