Mirrors Make a Room Look Larger

If you're looking for inexpensive ways to make small rooms appear larger, you can always use the trick that realtors use when they stage rooms for an open house; they use mirrors to make rooms and spaces appear larger than they actually are. For instance, if a room doesn't have much to offer in square footage, you can strategically place mirrors—or mirrored panels or tiles—on a wall, or even as a framed group placed at the base of a wall. The mirrors will allow the room to look brighter and larger by reflecting natural light during the day.

Place several lamps in the room and allow the mirrors to reflect the light at night. If the room is very small, place one side table on an angle, with a simple chair next to it at the same angle, with a floor lamp behind, but slightly to the side of, the chair. Insert a 100-watt bulb in the lamp and make sure that the shade is appropriate for the lamp, and allows light to penetrate the shade. Now, place a large mirror on the wall behind the lamp and allow the mirror to reflect the bright light, illuminating the room. Place another mirror on the opposite wall, allowing the mirrors to reflect each other, and making the room appear brighter and larger.

To test the theory, take a photograph of your room before you place mirrors. Then, place mirrors around the room in various positions, reflecting natural light and lamplight, and then take another photograph. Don't move furniture, curtains, wall hangings, or what-nots. Just take two sets of photographs of the room; one with mirrors, and one without. Then, compare and contrast the two scenes in the photographs and you will see quite a difference in how the room appears larger with the mirrors, as opposed to how the room looks so much smaller without them.

If a room has little to offer by way of decor, you can place mirrors next to a lamp, plant, or wall hanging to replicate the effect of having more accessories. But, more importantly, you can make a small space appear larger if you use mirrors to reflect windows. If you have a small room with one window, Place a large mirror on the opposite wall to reflect the mirror, and make it appear that there are two windows in the room, and not just one. Adding the appearance of more windows to a room tricks the visitor into thinking that the room is actually larger than it is.