When it comes to decorating small rooms, you might want to go with the ‘less is more’ approach. Naturally, when space is a limited resource, you would want to practice prudence while curating a design that is deliberate! And this strategy will yield desirable results in most cases. However, the room would still require a few functional elements to be of any use and even to create an illusion of space – and a carpet can help significantly in evoking this feeling of airiness.
Let us take a look at some tips on how to use a carpet to make your room look bigger.
Carpet vs Rug: Know the Difference
Before going into the detail of how to use a carpet to make your room look bigger, let’s understand the fundamental differences between a carpet and a rug. Typically, carpets are installed, that is, affixed to the floor and span from wall to wall. On the other hand, rugs are smaller, do not cover the entire floor space, and can be moved from place to place.
As you may have figured out, when you said you needed a carpet, you were probably visualising a rug! We don’t blame you for it as the lines separating them have been blurring for some time now. And if you were caught in this confusion, don’t worry too much about it as we have also covered a few rug styling tips for making rooms look larger.
X Mark the Spot
Start by identifying whether you need to carpet just the small room or your entire home. Of course, the latter would be more costly but also bring about uniformity across your home. Either way, the use of wall-to-wall or broadloom carpet opens up the space and makes it look roomy by creating a sense of visual continuity. There are no interruptions cutting through the carpets. Think how vast and expansive rolling hills appear just because they spread out endlessly, the carpet would mimic the same within your room.
In the case of rugs, there are several ways in which you can place them around your home. Check out the different use cases near the end of this blog to know how to position them at various spots.
Colour between (Carpet) Lines
It is no classified secret that light colours reflect more light and make the area seem airy. As such, you might have already painted the small room in light and bright shades! Follow the same route while picking the carpet colour. That is not to say that you must get white or off-white carpets. However, soft and warm shades such as beige, cream, camel, etc., are classics that never go out of style.
On the other hand, if you wish to try donning the contemporary look, you have a variety of shades available in pastel to modernise the room. Do be mindful of cleaning the carpets as often as you can because light colours are also quick to show dirt and stains, which would be unsightly.
Play with Patterns
In addition to the colours, the carpet patterns also make a world of difference in opening up or crowding your room. Your first consideration in this regard should be that the patterns are scaled to the size of the room. In other words, large prints work for large rooms while small rooms should sport smaller prints. However, this is not a rule of thumb that needs to be followed strictly.
For instance, small rooms with minimal furniture would look larger when paired with a carpet having large prints. On the other hand, a cluttered room – no matter how large – should feature a carpet having small prints. So, go by your intuition and settle on the pattern depending on the room’s layout. Some designers even recommend that you forgo this entirely and settle for plain, solid carpets to bypass the confusion.
Styling Rugs to Make Rooms Look Larger
As shared already, carpets and rugs are not quite the same. So, we have rounded up a few hot tips that you can follow while using rugs to make rooms look bigger. We would like to preface it by stating that the size of the rug depends on the application, so here are some use cases for better illustration:
- Living rooms often follow an open-plan floor space. And so, you want a rug that is large enough to act as the focal point but small enough to not overwhelm the room.
- Bedrooms can either have a statement rug on the sides and bottom of the bed or a small runner rug with no furniture legs on it.
- Hallways or stairways have little to no furniture, allowing you to pick runner rugs with big, bold patterns. Leave about a margin of some 12 inches on the side to make the space look visually elongated and spread out.
As for the age-old question – do furniture legs stay on or off the rug, the answer is pretty nuanced. You could have all furniture on the rug, the front furniture legs on the rug, or no furniture legs on the rug. The design varies from decor to decor.
We hope that you now have a grasp of how to use carpets to make a room look bigger. Use this knowledge wisely to make your home look spacious and welcoming!
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