DOES A SMALL room decorated like a monk’s cell—white walls, sparse furnishings—really seem larger than it would if adorned more luxuriously? No, say design experts. “Fabric, textures—so often people feel that if they put all this in, it’s going to make [a small room] feel claustrophobic,” said London interior designer Nicole Salvesen, of Salvesen Graham. “It actually has the opposite effect. You’re making [the room] feel more considered, which gives it a grandeur, small or not.” Here, designers debunk this and four other truisms of designing a small room to disguise its size.
Myth: White (or at least, light) paint is a must
Truth: A rich color on walls and ceiling fools the eye. You won’t feel closed in, said interior designer Sindhu Peruri, of Los Altos, Calif., because when darker paint is used to dissolve a sense of defined geometry, powder rooms and closet-sized bedrooms will appear larger. Playing down architectural details helps too. Hadley Wiggins, a designer in Peconic, N.Y., said she plays with the perception of a room’s size by painting window sashes and trim the same color as the walls, “allowing the eye to travel continuously instead of stopping on some jarring focal point or moment of contrast.”
