Painting Tricks to Make Your Room Look Bigger

Can Paint Really Make a Room Look Bigger?

Grab your paint brushes and swatches – you’re about to uncover the biggest secret of home renovation. You don’t have to knock down walls to make a space feel bigger – all you need is the right colour and a plan. Using paint thoughtfully, you can create the illusion of height and openness in a small room.

These are the tips that designers use to make rooms look bigger:

First Step: Choose the Right Colours

Before anything you have to choose your colour palette. 

Take a tip from artists – only use white as a primer and a base. 

While crisp white walls can work great in the right setting, relying on pure white alone can leave a room feeling unfinished. Instead, try soft neutrals (Chalky taupes, muted greys, soft sage, and warm off-whites). These tend to look soft without feeling hollow. 

1. The Horizontal Split

There’s a reason designers return to this trick time and time again.
By painting the lower half of the wall a deeper shade, and lighter shades above, the proportions of the room shift. The darker base works as an anchor for the visual space, while the upper half lifts it, creating the illusion of added height.  

We’d recommend painting the split just below the midpoint of the wall – this will keep the room feeling tall, rather than just sliced in two. 

2. Vertical Detailing Can Add Height

Vertical wooden panelling, painted stripes, or even different architectural elements (vertical radiators, wall molding, etc) can be a subtle way to draw the eyes upward in a room without overwhelming the space.

Thin vertical lines painted along the wall are the perfect no-construction way to add this element. 

3. Extend the Paint from the Door Frame

If you have painted door frames, then this is the perfect touch to add a bit of height to your room. Instead of stopping the colour at the top of the frame, slightly extend it above. Even just a few inches can be enough. This small change blurs the line between the end of the door and the wall – encouraging the eye to draw upward. 

There are several ways that you can do this. A clean rectangular extension can give your room a more modern/architectural feel. If you’re looking for something softer or more elegant try turning the extension into an arch. This is a wonderful way to add depth and create an intentional focal point within the room. In smaller rooms this draws height without adding clutter or weight. 

4 Paint the Ceiling a Lighter Colour

This technique goes along with the horizontal split. 

When lighter shades are used higher in a room, they reflect more light and lift the space. Paint the ceiling one shade lighter than your walls to create an upward pull that makes the room feel taller. 

The trick here is to use a subtle contrast – choose a colour from the same family as your walls (and never pure white – unless it truly compliments the scheme). Soft creams, warm taupes, and pale almonds work great here. 

Crown moulding adds a great touch as well. It works as a great architectural element, while still drawing the space upward.

5. Colour Drench Your Space

If you want your room to feel larger, calmer, and more composed, then remove the boundaries – all of them! 

Rather than allowing the eye to stop at every change in surface and texture, you fill your room with a single continuous tone, from top to bottom to everything in between. 

The saturation of all surfaces creates the illusion of an expansive space.  When the ceiling is painted the same colour as the walls, the horizontal line that separates the two disappears. 

If the full saturation is too much, then you can soften the effect by choosing a ceiling shade that is just slightly lighter than the walls – this keeps the look still creating a subtle lift.