Instead, start looking for tables or dressers on legs, advises Laurie Woods, ASID.

Bring the Outdoors In So your bedroom has access to outside area? Lucky you! Keep the connection to the outside with drapery panels and window treatments that frame the view rather than distracting from it. "Utilization window treatments made from cloth with subtle details and feel, and be certain that you can pull the panels all the way back," explains Karla Amadatsu, founder of the British Columbia design company Kerrisdale Design. The length of this draperies should just barely touch the floor; this allows you to see the continuity of the floor below the drapery panels connecting the indoor area to the outside space. When window remedies break and puddle on the floor, she describes, they give your attention a place to stop and create a branch.

Think Horizontal Minimizing color distraction about the walls custom made mirrors for bathrooms . floors and furnishings is among the means that Linda McDougald, lead designer at the South Carolina-based company Postcard from Paris, made this very small bedroom feel bigger. The other major visual trick she used was to include horizontal timber planking to the walls. "The space had a lot of height," McDougald says, " so to rip it out we additional planking, which fools your eye into believing the space is wider than it is."

Get to the Art of the Matter Strategically hanging artwork is one of the simplest ways to create a room look larger. The art gives your attention something to concentrate on outside the physical perimeter of the space and has the impact of expanding distance. "Don't overload the walls," cautions Allison Marvin, an art adviser whose firm, Sightline, is situated in Washington, D.C. "The more you put on the walls in a little room, the bigger the distance will feel." Rather, select a few bigger pieces and set them on different walls round the room. Doing so makes your eye move around the room and you notice the architectural limitations of the space less. When hanging art over a mattress, Marvin recommends keeping the artwork within the width of the bed itself and hanging it around six to eight inches over the headboard. Design by J.D. Ireland Interior Architecture Design

Emphasize Height If you're blessed with high ceilings, then take whole advantage of these and select a tall mattress to anchor the space. "The elevation of the bed takes focus on the volume and height of the ceilings," explains Melanie Miller, ASID, president and creator of The Design Atelier at Atlanta. To pull off the effect, choose a delicate mattress with a great deal of architectural interest in order to add height. A mattress with no footboard, which visually marks the end of the bed, ensures you will not be adding heft into the space. "A wooden four-poster bed would appear heavy and command too much care," she explains.

Pick Cool Colors We've said it countless times before: Cool colours make walls have the effect of enlarging a space, while warm colors make rooms look cozier. But did you realize that white paint comes in cool colors and warm hues too? "Using cool white onto the walls is crisp and makes the room feel spacious," says Miller who paired the white walls with blue tones and earthy neutrals, providing this bedroom a beachy vibe. As she puts it, the colour scheme is really what makes this room feel light and airy.

Be Bold Pale walls and furniture that is light in scale obviously make a room look larger, but that does not mean that big, bold furnishings don't have a place in tiny rooms too. In fact, according to Los Angeles-based interior designer Betsy Burnham, adding drama with color and choosing furniture that's slightly oversized can help give a sense of spaciousness too. "Using colour in balls on furniture with greater scale enables you to pay attention to the bits inside the room, so you are not considering how small the space really is," she explains. By emphasizing one or two things, your eye will go to all those bits and not the constraints of the distance. "Embrace the distance you have," she says, and set super-dramatic colours with simpler bedding and accessories.

Work Pattern The same holds for pattern: A deliberate application in a small space can help the circulation of the space and trick your eye into thinking there is more to the space. To pull it off, you need to get a great deal of natural light in your area, advises San Francisco designer Angela Free, and be quite restrained with the placement of pattern. Skip placing pattern on the bed, which might be overpowering in a little space. "The patterned carpet and window treatments have been tonally related," she explains, "therefore there's a connectedness that makes the space feel calm and not active."

Be Understated Avoid large applications of layout, like the wallpaper above, and choose motifs that are subtle and not as visually jarring. Too many accent colours and wood tones chop up the space and force you to see where one architectural component (such as a door) ends and another begins.

Hang a Chandelier If you are set on a more traditional bed with a headboard and footboard, lighting is another way to emphasize the high ceilings. "Dropping a ceiling fixture down is a wonderful way to apply height in a space and make the space feel larger," says New York-based interior designer Jana Happel. The chandelier brings your focus up and leaves your gaze dip around the room. Choose a fixture with simple lines that's large enough to make an impact.

Get a Leg Up Who is not trying to find a way to eek out more storage in the sack? Bedside tables do not need to be wimpy little stands that are hardly large enough to hold a pile of books. Substantial bits with drawers include needed storage, aid to maintain surfaces clear and also provide lots of space to get a reading lamp and decorative touches like a relaxing image. But be careful when selecting these bits; a chest that sits right on the ground will make your small room seem even smaller. Instead, start looking for tables or dressers on legs, advises Laurie Woods, ASID. "If a desk is on thighs," she explains, "you see the floor extending beneath the furniture which helps to visually expand the space" Same goes for a table that has an open plate through which you may see the wall: It gives the piece a floating feel and takes your eye to the back wall instead of quitting your gaze in the front of the table.

Stash Extra Stuff "Nothing closes you into over jumble," notes designer Betsy Burnham. "It's really important to keep surfaces clean and have space to breathe or for your eye to proceed," she adds. Furniture that has concealed storage is a fantastic way to keep things neat and clean. Avoid hefty pieces such as leather storage benches that sit on the ground and opt to get a footed bed with storage drawers similar to this one from Crate & Barrel. The built-in storage is like gaining six dresser drawers, and because the bed is on toes you still get air circulating underneath, so it won't visually overwhelm the room. Maintain your bedding tightly tucked under the mattress to keep up the streamlined look.

Get Floored To achieve a more spacious feel in just an afternoon, turn out your patterned rug for you in a light shade. The pale oatmeal-colored rug that San Francisco designer Martha Angus picked for this bedroom features a subtle interlocking diamond and tassel design. "It moves the light around the area," she notes. "It's like a bounce light at a fashion photo shoot. The light in the windows reflects off the carpet and on the glistening furniture, which makes the space look light and airy"

Reflect the Light When designer S. Voula Goutsos of the Vancouver design company Olive E O took on the room, the mirrors were set up. "We decided to maintain them and work around them since they revealed exactly what was going on out," she clarifies. (What was going on outside was an remarkable harbor view, where anybody would want to empathize.) "The mirrors take the sightlines outside of the boundaries of the true physical area of the room and, needless to say, they reflect light, but I liked them because they gave a sparkly feel to the space." To accomplish this look, employ mirrors straight to the surface of the wall, and then frame them with molding. Go for a symmetrical arrangement, Goutsos urges, to create equilibrium and calm and, of course, only put mirrors in a place where they will reflect something beautiful.

Connect with the Remainder of the Home That big dark panel in the back of this bedroom is really a sliding barn door. Architect Ron Sutton installed the large doors at the entrance to his bedroom instead of a more traditional framed doorway. "The door opens up the entire space to the stairwell and different parts of the home," he clarifies. "It expands the distance because the landing becomes part of the space, but more importantly, it generates an alternate direction of light which dances around the room and makes the room feel really big." Obviously, Sutton was able to design his own modern dream house, but making a more spacious room could be completed in a traditional house also. In case you have the ability to switch the entry door to your bedroom, elect for a wider-than-average door or even a pocket, each of which will cause you to feel as if the space is larger than the room itself.

Skip Table Lamps "When a lamp comes off the walls," says Sutton, "it frees up space on the bedside table." Meaning, if you truly don't have space for large nightstands, do not clutter them with lamps. Sutton recommends picking sconces with flexible arms. "You don't need to be as precise about placement, if the lamps themselves could adjust," he states.