There are so many different things you can do to make a room look bigger. That is why this post is so long. How you hang your curtains, or the kind of ceiling lights you use can play a role in making your room feel more spacious. There is a range of different ideas here to help you transform your space – from simple ideas to the more full on makeover project ideas.

1. The Right Color Choice

Color can play a big role in how a room looks and feels. Light colors make a space feel larger, spacious and bright. While dark colors will make a space feel cozy, secluded, and relaxing. So with a small space, you’ll want to use light colors. This applies to the paint on the walls, the furniture you choose, along with decor pieces such as curtains and area rugs.

The Art of Blending: The more you can blend everything together in a room, the more seamless it will look. This means it will feel like a larger place. To blend a room you’ll want to try and have items with a similar color (just like the bedroom in picture (2)). Say you have white walls, then you’ll want white (or slightly off white) curtains. Then you’ll want to blend the color of the walls with the color of the furniture and the rest of the room.

In the bathroom, you can have the same colored tiles for the floors and walls – creating a really seamless design for the space (6).

You can still add pops of color here and there. Plants are a good way of bringing in shades of green. While wooden pieces bring in warm brown tones.

2. A Clutter Free Design

When it comes to small spaces you really want to keep it clutter free. This doesn’t just apply to keeping it tidy, but this also applies to the design of the space.

For decor pieces in a small room, you’ll want to go with fewer and larger pieces. This helps create a clutter free look. Instead of having 2-4 potted plants, see if you can get one large plant.

Say you want to hang up some pictures or paintings. Instead of creating a gallery wall with a number of pieces, it would be best to go with one or two large framed pieces. Not only does this create a less cluttered design, but larger pieces will make a room feel more spacious – check out the large canvas piece in the bedroom in picture (2).

3. Storage as Decor

If you need to store things out in the open, then look to get storage pieces that look good. This way your storage pieces will also act as decor for the room. Look for a matching set. Here are some ideas for good looking pieces:

• Wicker hampers, baskets, or trunks
• Wooden crates and barrels
• Galvanized or copper bucket
• Glass jars
• Wire baskets

4. Smart Storage Design

When it comes to storage, built in storage is the ideal solution. Not only are built in units designed specifically for your space, meaning they are designed to efficiently use the space you have, they are also designed to blend in with your room. And with built in storage units, you can make the most of the height in your room and build floor to ceiling storage units – just like the home office in picture (4).

Use as much of your walls as possible. Either through built in units, or by hanging up shelving that goes all the way up the wall.

And make the most of the corners in your room. Either with corner shelving units, or a corner couch, corner desk, or even a corner gallery wall. To see more corner ideas, and some pictures, have a look at my post here: Making Use of The Corners In A Room.

My storage page has links to my room specific storage posts for more creative ideas such as: over the door storage hangers, and putting hooks and railings on the inside of closet and cabinet doors.

5. Window Treatment and Design Ideas

How you style your curtains can play a big role in how spacious the room feels.

• 1. Fit your curtain rod as high up near the ceiling as possible
• 2. Use a curtain that is long enough to hang up high and reach just a few inches above the floor. By hanging a long curtain from up high you create the illusion that the room is taller than it is.
• 3. Try and get a curtain rod that is slightly wider than your windows. You don’t want your curtains to block out any part of the window. This lets in as much natural light come in as possible.
• 4. When it comes to the material for the curtains, a light colored one works best. The more it blends with the wall color the better as it creates a seamless look in the room. Or another option is to play with stripes. Vertical stripes can make the space feel taller, while horizontal stripes can make the space feel wider.

6. Getting The Lighting Right

To make a room feel spacious you are going to want to make sure it is well lit. You want to have the entire space lit up, there should be light reaching all corners of the room.

A modern and tidy way of lighting a room is through recessed lighting. Recessed lights are fitted inside of your ceiling. This means all of the light fittings are hidden away, leaving you with a clean and modern look.

You can find specific lighting ideas over on my lighting page.

7. Good Looking Wall Design Ideas

Add decorative elements to the walls:

• Why not add some wainscoting. It can be the same color as the wall. You can even play with the height of the wainscoting. Having it only cover the bottom third or quarter of the wall can create the illusion that the space is taller.
• Or add some texture to the walls to create subtle depth. You can create subtle textures with paint (Textured Wall Painting Ideas) or use wallpaper.
• Crown molding is a good looking finishing touch

8. The Illusion of Mirrors

Hang up a large framed mirror. The larger the better (following the clutter rule above – larger pieces make a room feel more spacious while smaller pieces make a room feel cluttered). Not only do mirrors add a sense of depth to a room,  but they bounce light around making the space feel larger.

9. Choosing the Right Materials

Keep in mind that glossy materials, either for countertops or cabinet doors, help bounce light around the room making it feel more spacious. What would be even better is to use glass furniture pieces. Glass countertop for a coffee table, or a glass side table. Because of the transparency, it creates the illusion that the furniture isn’t really there.

When it comes to materials for flooring or walls for the bathroom or kitchen (tiles), you will want to go with larger pieces. Say you are tiling the bathroom floors and walls. Then go with large tiles. They are more expensive and harder to install, but because you have less grouting you are left with a modern and sleek looking design. And don’t forget what I mentioned earlier in the color section about blending to create a seamless design. In the bathroom, if you can use the same tiles for the floor and the walls, you’ll create a more seamless design in your bathroom – making the space feel larger.

10. Using Stripes

Just like in fashion, stripes can create an illusion of width or lenth in a room. Striped curtains, furniture, wallpaper, or area rugs can create the illusion of a larger room.

11. Using Furniture To Make a Room Look Bigger

If you can, pull furniture away from the walls as this will make the space feel more open. The empty space can be replaced with a narrow side table or console, just like in picture (5).

Also look for furniture pieces with legs, verses bulky boxy items. A couch or bed with legs is better than ones without.

 Here are some other home design posts to get more ideas from:

• 7 Ways on How To Make a Room Feel Cozy and Relaxing
• How To Hide The Ugly Things In Your Home

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6

The post How To Make A Small Room Look Bigger: Creative Design Ideas and Tips appeared first on Home Tree Atlas.

To create a relaxing and well designed room, there are just some things that shouldn’t be seen. Like a WiFi router, ironing board, or cords and cables. I’ve put together this post that is full of ideas on how to hide the eye sores and ugly things in your home.

Good Looking Storage Options

Sometimes you can’t store things away in a cabinet or in a closet so they are out of sight. Instead you have to store them out in the open. This doesn’t mean you have to make the space ugly. You can simply get matching good looking storage containers that you can use to hide items with. These good looking storage containers will also act as decor pieces for the room. Here are some ideas:

• Wicker baskets, hampers, trunks
• Copper or galvanized bucket (can be used as a trashcan, to store magazines, or firewood)
• Wooden crates or trunks
• Wire baskets
• Enamel containers
• Matching glass jars
• Leather containers

Secret Rooms

Maybe you have things in a room that are too big to store in baskets or wooden crates. Say you have gym equipment in the living room, a home office in the bedroom, or laundry machines in the bathroom. All of this should be hidden away when not in use, that way you can enjoy the rest of the room and make it a relaxing place.

The easiest way to hide everything is to hang up a curtain. Bookshelves or a folding divider are some other options. For more ideas, and for some pictures, have a look at my post here: Ideas Mood Board: DIY Room Dividers.

Don’t forget, you can always give your closet doors a makeover to help style a room: DIY Challenge: Give Your Closet Doors a Makeover – Ideas and Design Tips.

Cords and Electronics

One of the most common things that people want to hide in their homes are cables and cords. Some quick ideas include hanging up wall trim that blends in with the walls (just like the hidden TV cords in picture (3)), or use copper pipes. For photos and more ideas have a look at my post here: Creative Ideas: How To Hide Wires and Cords.

Picture (2) shows how Ana hollowed out a book to hide her WiFi router. Other ideas for hiding a router include using decorative boxes, putting it inside of a wicker basket, or building a dedicate wall unit.

• How To Make Your Router Disappear: 6 Inventive and Creative Ideas on How To Hide A Router and Modem

For items that you don’t use to regularly, like your printer, these can be hidden away in cabinets and consoles or filing cabinets – just like the printer in picture (4)

Simple DIY Idea

Why not hang up a canvas piece, a framed picture or a mirror. But hang it with hinges so that it can swing open. And behind it you can hide thermostats (7), breaker boxes, or even an ironing board if you have a large enough wall piece.

Ironing Board and Hampers

An ironing board can be a pain to store. You can always hide them in the back of a closet, or hang them up on a wall. More creative ideas include hiding them in a decorative wall unit just like the one in picture (6) that folds out. Or how about saving yourself all of the hassle of unfolding and folding the thing up, and have an ironing board fitted into a draw – just like the one in picture (5).

• Wrestling With Your Ironing Board: Ideas on How To Store It and Hide It

Clutter Trays

Maybe you have a few items laying about that you can’t really store away. For example TV remotes in the living room, or wallets, keys and glasses on the bedside table. Use clutter trays, nice wooden bowls or trays, to group together these items. This will help create a tidy and clutter free space.

And lastly, get creative with the extra spaces you have in your home. Check out the doghouse that was built under the stairs: Weekend Build: DIY Staircase Dog House.

Here are some other storage posts to get more ideas from:

• Hidden Storage Ideas: James Bond and Home Decor 
• Helpful Laundry Room Storage Ideas and Solutions
• How To Make A Small Room Look Bigger: Creative Design Ideas and Tips
• Search all of my storage posts for more ideas

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The post How To Hide The Ugly Things In Your Home appeared first on Home Tree Atlas.

It’s not very common for people to hang an indoor hammock in their home. Maybe it is because of a lack of space, or not knowing how to put one up – or maybe most people are renting their places. At the end of this post I go over a few tips on how to set up a hammock in your home, even if you are renting.

Living rooms and bedrooms are good places to hang up a hammock. By a window, since you’ll be bathing in natural light during the day, and you can look out and see the day go by.

Don’t forget that the style of hammock you hang up will impact the whole look and feel of the room. There is the more bohemian macrame hammock, the minimalist black or white ones, or the colorful hammocks that liven up a room.

How To Decorate Your Hammock Space

If you want to create a relaxing hammock area, then see if you can close off the space. Either by hanging up a curtain, hanging up fabric from the ceiling to create a canopy, or by surrounding the hammock in book cases – Ideas Mood Board: DIY Room Dividers.

How about surrounding your self with greenery. Put large potted plants around the hammock or hang plants down from the ceiling.

Fill your hammock space with inspiration pieces, by hanging up a gallery wall of framed pictures and photos.

Soften the space by adding more fabric. Hang drapes down around the hammock, and add an area rug underneath it.

Hang up some string lights to add some soft lighting at night.

How To Hang a Hammock Indoors

If you want to have a hammock but need to avoid damaging the walls or drilling, then the only option is to get a hammock with a stand. It does take up a bit of floor space, but you don’t need to drill into the walls or ceiling.

If you don’t mind drilling a few holes in the walls, then all you need to do is to drill and fit 2 hooks into opposing wall beams or in the ceiling. You can find the hammock hooks in the Amazon window below.

Here are some other posts to get more ideas from:

• 7 Ways on How To Make a Room Cozy and Relaxing
• How To Make Your Bedroom Cozy: Easy Ideas
• Relaxing and Cozy Living Room Ideas

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The post How To Add a Relaxing Indoor Hammock in Your Home appeared first on Home Tree Atlas.

Electronics can be a bit of an eyesore when it comes to home design. One thing that you can’t really store out of sight and closed off, since you’ll want a strong signal, is your WiFi router and modem. But there are a lot of creative ways you can go about hiding it.

1. A simple way of hiding it is to stick it behind a tabletop picture frame, just like in picture (1) above.
2. Another easy way to hide your router is to buy a decorative box. Either cut out the back, or have the opening (the top) of the box be at the back so that the wires can be fed through. Just like the decorative box hiding the router in picture (2).
3. A popular way to hide a router is to use book covers. You normally see books on shelves, so why not hollow out some book covers (3), or just one (4), that your router can fit into. Or make a faux book cover (see the video below).
4. You can always hang up a picture frame, canvas piece, or a framed mirror on a wall. And when you do hang it up, use hinges so that it can swing open and you’ll have space behind it to hide your router (5) (or breaker box, thermostat, etc.). Hidden Storage Ideas: James Bond and Home Decor
5. Or how about building a decorative wall storage unit with shelving and a door (6)
6. You can stick your router to the underside of a kitchen wall cabinet, or to the underside of your media cabinet or desk (7). Another option is to attach the router to the back of cabinets just like in picture (8).

Just be careful not to cover up the vents on a router that stop it from overheating.

• Creative Ideas: How To Hide Wires and Cords
• How To Hide The Ugly Things In Your Home
• Search all of my storage posts for more ideas

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

The post How To Make Your Router Disappear: 6 Inventive and Creative Ideas on How To Hide A Router and Modem appeared first on Home Tree Atlas.

First impressions. The first impression of your home is not just important for visitors and potential buyers, but to you the person living there. Would you rather come home to a well lit cozy feeling and well designed front door, or a dark ratty tatty front door. Welcome yourself home everyday by sprucing up your front door.

A Grand Entrance

The larger you can make your entry way the better. It will look grander, and create the look of a luxurious house. This can be done with double doors. Or just with one door but have side panels on both sides of the door and even have a panel above. And create a thick frame around the door way, that includes a door frieze and cornice (this is a decorate frame that goes above the door just like in picture (7)).

These side panels can be purely decorative. Or if you get panels with windows in them, they can help bring natural light into the house during the day. A glass panel on the side of the door also allows you to see who is at the door.

Lighting Your Home

Front door lighting plays an important role for 2 reasons. First, having a light on at night deters intruders. And second, it makes it easier for you to see your keys and getting inisde when you come home at night. Plus it makes your house look good.

The most common way to light the front door is to use a wall. See if you can create symmetry for a more uniform design – so have one wall light on each side of the door. Wall lights tend not to be too bright, so having an added ceiling light can be a bonus.

Door and Side Panel Design

When it comes to the door design, and the side panels, you have two design options: 1) trim, and 2) glass panels. You can get doors covered in decorative trim that creates patterns, just like the green door in picture (5). The door in picture (3) shows a different style of trim work.

The second design feature is the glass and windows. As mentioned above, glasswork helps bring in light and helps you see who is at the door. Different door designs provide different levels of privacy. The door in picture (5) has a small beveled and frosted glass window. While the doors in picture (1) and (2) have huge glass panels with less privacy, but bring in more light.

You can get quite decorative with glass and window panels, either for your door or side panels. Some design options include:

• beveled glass (decorative glass panels)
• decorative metal grill inserts (2)
• frosted or stained glass (6)
• curved wooden screens
• you can even get decorative and decorate glass doors with decals or use a white board marker for different holidays (4)

Make It Feel Good

You want to have a solid and heavy door. And also look for a solid door handle (and door knocker), made out of a premium material like brass. You will definitely feel the difference when you open the door, and it adds a nice luxurious touch to your home.

See if you can add plants to your front door area, and try and create symmetry. So have matching large potted plants on both sides of the door. Or for a more bohemian, green flavor, why not add hanging plants.

Decorative Elements

Try and create symmetry for your front door area. That means having a panel on both sides if you can. The same goes for light fixtures and decor pieces such as plants. Here are a few design and decor ideas that you could add to your front door:

• The style of the house number you put up will say a lot about the style of the house. You’ve got more modern house numbers, like the ones seen in picture (4), and then there are more traditional styles such as the numbers on the door in picture (2). And if you want to keep symmetry, then stick the numbers in the center of your door.
• How about fitting a brass handle plate, or footplate, just like the door in picture (1)

Playing With Color Ideas

More modern homes will have tall front doors, probably without glass panels and trim, and will be in a neutral color such as black, grey or white.

When it comes to choosing the color for your front door, you will need to take into consideration the color of your house. If your house is made up of a lot of different colors, then it might be best to go with a neutral toned down color (white, black, grey, cream) for your front door so it won’t clash with the colors of the house.

But if you have a neutral and uniformed colored house, just like the one in picture (1), you could go with a bold color for the front door. Since the house is neutral in color, the front door will really stand out and be a design feature.

You can also play with the colors within the door, see how the side panels in picture (3) are painted black but have touches of cream paint on the frames.

Here are some other posts to get more ideas from:

• Driveway Lighting Ideas: From The Road To The Front Door
• Home Style And Safety With Outdoor Security Lighting
• Search all of my outdoor posts for more ideas

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The post Welcome Home: Front Door Ideas and Designs appeared first on Home Tree Atlas.

I have written a long post on the many different ways you can make a room look bigger. This post is going to do the exact opposite – it is going to show you how to make a space feel cozy, secluded, and relaxing. You might want to do this because you have a small room, and instead of trying to make it look bigger you can embrace the size and make it truly feel like a cozy place. Or you are doing this because you just want to create a more relaxing room. Either way, the ideas in this post will help you transform your room into a cozy relaxing space.

1/ Relaxing Colors

If you want to create a cozy room, then you’ll want to paint the walls a nice dark color (such as navy, rose, or a dark grey). Not only will this make the room feel cozy, but it will also make it look more luxurious. Darker colors make a room feel secluded, relaxing and cozy. While light colors make a room feel bright, spacious, and livelier.

If you only want to create a relaxing room at night, then an alternative is to paint the walls white. When night comes you can turn on a modern mood lamp (get yours here) that will paint the walls in a relaxing color.

2/ How To Create Cozy and Relaxing Lighting

Avoid using ceiling lights when you want to create cozy lighting in a room at night. You can hook your ceiling lights up to a dimmer switch or how about using table and floor lamps instead. For a more whimsical look, hang up some string lights or use LED string lights wrapped in lace.

The ultimate way to create relaxing lighting is to use candles. To reduce the fire hazard, put your candles inside of a lantern. Or use a large glass bowl filled with water and have fairy lights float in it.

3/ Ways to Soften the Space

The more fabric you can add to your room, the softer and more relaxing it will feel. Some ways to do this include:

• Bring natural light in during the day but have privacy at the same time by using sheers or lace curtains.
• Hang up a tapestry on the walls (or frame a piece of fabric)
• Create a canopy by hanging fabric down from the ceiling
• Layer area rugs

4/ Ways to Bring in Natural Materials

You can bring warmth and color into a room by using natural materials. Add wooden pieces either by having wooden furniture pieces or decor items (wooden planters, wooden storage containers, wooden picture frames, etc.).

Bring in shades of green into the room by having potted plants. You can even create a curtain of plants by hanging pots of plants down from the ceiling.

5/ How To Hide Things Away

You don’t want to have a messy space if you’re trying to create a cozy room. So you’ll want to hide everything out of the way, and be left with just the pieces that create a relaxing environment.

Maybe you can’t hide everything out of sight. Instead get good looking matching storage pieces. This way they will also act as decor pieces for the room. Here are some good looking storage ideas:

• Wicker baskets, hampers, and trucks
• Enamel or galvanized buckets
• Wire baskets or glass jar.

Another way to hide things is to have a room divider. Maybe you have a home office space or gym equipment in a bedroom or living room, or laundry machines in a bathroom. All of this can be hidden away when not in use. Hanging up a curtain is one way of doing this, book shelves and folding wooden dividers are some other options. Have a look at my post here for more ideas: Ideas Mood Board: DIY Room Dividers.

6/ A Sanctuary in a Sanctuary

The whole room doesn’t need be a completely relaxing and cozy space. Instead you could carve out a little cozy nook instead. This could be a reading nook or more of a day bed – just a small secluded space where you can relax.

This nook can be created in a corner of a room, by a window, under the stairs, or built into a closet space. Or how about just hanging up a hammock. And to close yourself off from the rest of the house, hang up some curtains, or put up some book shelves, or check out the DIY room divider post I linked to above.

• A Cozy Getaway: Reading Nook Ideas
• How To Add a Relaxing Indoor Hammock in Your Home

7/ Inspiring Place

Surround yourself with inspiring or memorable art pieces or photographs. Do this by creating a gallery wall, hanging up a collection of framed pieces. You can check out my vintage gallery wall post or my Pinterest gallery wall board to see examples and ideas on how to create your own.

Here are some other posts to get more ideas from:

• How To Make Your Bedroom Cozy: Easy Ideas
• Relaxing and Cozy Living Room Ideas
• 3 Super Easy Ways To Create Romantic Decor in Your Home

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The post 7 Ways on How To Make a Room Feel Cozy and Relaxing appeared first on Home Tree Atlas.