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

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

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.

Maybe you want to hide things away for security reasons. Or things need to be hidden just to make the room look better and keep it clutter free. Either way, this post has a whole list of creative and inventive hidden storage ideas for you to use around the house.

Hinged Wall Storage Poster

A framed picture, mirror, or canvas piece can hang on the wall to hide something. But don’t hang it like you’d normally would. Instead use hinges so that the framed piece can swing open.

You could hide a thermostat, keys just like in picture (1), sockets, a breaker box, or hide a shelf of items (2), a router, use it for gun storage, or anything that’s on the wall. You could even hide an ironing board if you have a tall enough canvas piece.

Going Beyond Draws

Draws are designed to be just one empty box. Things get lost and messy, unless you are able to create some sort of organizer to keep things separated. There are simple draw insert, but you can take it a step further.

It really comes down to what you want to store away. Have a look at the flour and sugar draw in picture (3). The grilled draw in picture (4) lets the vegetables breath in the draws. I’ve seen a draw fitted with a chopping board and a hole in it, and under it was a pull out trash can.

You could fit a knife block in a draw (5). Or how about fitting a fold out ironing board (6).

To create extra draw space, look to the baseboard. This is the space underneath the cabinets, and it can be turned into extra draws – just like the ones in picture (7).

Staircase Storage

The space under each step can have a draw that pulls out (8). Another idea is to give the space under the staircase a makeover.

You can either have a door that opens to a small storage space – which is what most homes will have. Another option is to have a shelf that pulls out with a small room behind it – seen in picture (9). One last option is to have large draws that pull out and have separate storage sections.

Getting Creative With Built In Units

Built in storage units can be fitted and hidden around the home. They can be fitted in between the studs just like the pull out cabinet in picture (10). Another big build would be to fit storage into decorative kitchen molding (11). And floating shelves can be made so that they pull out giving way to hidden storage (12).

Or how about the clever hidden storage space built into the bathroom sink countertop in picture (13). And check out the pull outs under the kitchen sink in picture (14) storing washing up items.

In Plain Sight

Books seem to be a common way of hiding things on a shelf. You normally see books on a shelf, so why not cut the covers off of some books and create a box disguise – just like the one in picture (15).

Hanging up a wall unit is a simple way of storing and hiding away common house hold items, such as laundry supplies (16), a flat screen TV, or electronics.

Another way to store things out in the open but not have them create a cluttered and messy look is to use good looking and matching storage containers. Use matching wicker baskets on a shelf, or glass jars, wire baskets, or galvanized buckets. Wicker hampers and trunks, and wooden crates are some other decorative ways of storing items out in the open.

How about fitting a trap door in the floor. This can either be done outdoors on a deck or patio – seen in picture (17). It can even be done inside. Maybe it’s just a small storage space hidden under the floor. Or it could be a space saving way of getting into your basement.

Under Cabinets, Tables and Desks

You can’t see the underside of your tables, cabinets, or desk. Which means you can hide things away here. Routers can be attached to the underside of a desk. A paper tray can be fitted under the kitchen wall cabinet to store paperwork. You could even fit a small shelf under your desk or cabinet to store small items.

Inside the Closet and Cabinet Doors

The inside of closet and cabinet doors can be modified for extra storage space. Kitchen cabinet doors can be fitted with railings and hooks to store rolls of paper tissue, tin foil, or cling film. While bedroom closet doors can be fitted with railings on the inside to hang up scarves (Creative Ways of How To Store Scarves), jewelry, or other pieces of clothes.

You can also buy over the door storage organizers. These are used mostly over a door to a room, but they can be fitted to the inside of a closet door.

Under the Bed

If you have a bed with space under it, this can be a place to store items too. IKEA has a number of storage units on wheels that slide under the bed. Or use wicker baskets to store things away neatly under the bed.

• If you want creative ideas on how to hide wires, then have a look at my post here.
• Want to hide a router? Look here.
• And here is a post on how to hide the ugly things around your house.
• Search all of my storage posts for more ideas

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

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The post Hidden Storage Ideas: James Bond and Home Decor appeared first on Home Tree Atlas.

It’s pretty surprising the number of ways you can create storage for your scarves. The 15+ scarf storage ideas in this post have been divided up into A) ideas on how to store them out in the bedroom, and B) ideas on how to store and organize them in your closet.

Creative Open Storage Ideas and Solutions

• Hang up towel rails or a decorative curtain rail on the wall, and tie scarves to them, just like in picture (1)
• You could also use shower curtain rings as hooks on the railing
• A more DIY approach would be to hot glue gun clothes pegs (see if you can get some vintage looking ones) onto a plank of wood (2). How about spray painting the whole piece to give it a more uniformed look.
• A ladder is a unique way of hanging up scarves in a bedroom (3). If you have extra space on the ladder you could always hang up magazines, blankets, or clothes. You could also screw in some hooks on the sides to add more storage.
• A wine rack makes for a good mini cubby system for your scarves (4)
• Wooden crates with dividers can hang on the wall, just like the tie holder in picture (5).
• Or how about getting draw dividers so you can store your scarves in a draw neatly. You could DIY your own draw dividers by cutting up PVC pipes (6).
• Create an accessories wall area by hanging up a mirror and a small shelf. And a railing can be used to hang up your scarves (7).
• For a more natural and rustic look, how about framing some dried tree branches that can be used as hangers (8). This can hang in the bedroom of by the front door.
• Another rustic idea is to use pallets just like the wall hanger in picture (9)
• Your scarves can add a bohemian touch to your bedroom or by the front door. Hang up some string or cord on the wall, and drape your scarves to create a curtain of different fabrics (10).
• The PVC pipes or round storage boxes can hang on the wall. Use different size pipes and boxes, and paint them to create a decorative wall storage space (11).

Storing Scarves Inside Your Closet

• You could always hang up the towel or curtain rail on the inside of your closet door (A)
• A coat hanger can be used with shower rings as a space saving scarf storage idea (B)
• A DIY way to create a large stackable mini cubby system is to cut PVC pipes and stack them in your closet (C)
• There are over the door storage organizers that have pockets for you to put your scarves into. This can hang over your closet door or over the bedroom door.
• You can get your own round coat hanger here and use shower curtain rings to create a space saving scarf hanger, just like the one in picture (D)

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

• Redesigning Your Closet: Ideas and Steps on How To Organize Your Closet and Clothes
• Unique Closet and Entryway Shoe Storage Ideas
• Budget Friendly, Clever And Creative Storage Idea: From Lazy Susan Towers to Room Divider
• Search all of my storage posts for more ideas

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