A room can feel smaller than it really is, but it’s usually not about the size, it’s about how you place your furniture. You can make a space feel bigger by thinking about how walls, floors, and furniture work together. Every piece of furniture has a visual weight, and where you put it changes how the room feels. By moving things around or choosing the right size, you can open up the space and make it feel more balanced and comfortable.
The two-thirds rule
Oversized sofas can press uncomfortably against walls, while tiny ones leave a room feeling empty and disconnected. You can create balance by following the ‘two-thirds rule’, where your main furniture piece spans roughly two-thirds of the wall it sits against. This proportion feels natural, almost instinctively pleasing, because the eye perceives the layout as deliberate rather than awkward. For example, a three seat sofa placed along a medium wall in your living room maintains flow while still offering plenty of seating.
Visible floor lines
Heavy block-style furniture can swallow floor space visually, making a room feel compact. You create the illusion of openness by selecting sofas and armchairs with raised legs. Allowing light to pass underneath reveals more of the floor and tricks the brain into reading the space as continuous. Even in smaller living rooms, a lifted couch or chair opens up the area, making it easier to move around and giving the impression of airiness without removing furniture.
Consolidating mass
Visual clutter shrinks a room faster than large furniture ever could. You can streamline the layout by integrating storage into main furniture pieces. Options like ottoman beds combine sleeping, storage, and seating functions, removing the need for bulky chests of drawers that break up the floor plan. Consolidating multiple uses into one proportional piece simplifies the silhouette of the room, making it feel more open while maintaining functionality.
The vertical trace
Low ceilings can make a small room feel constrained, but you can extend perception upward by drawing the eye vertically. Hanging curtains from floor to ceiling or installing tall shelving units encourages your gaze to travel upward, creating the illusion of loftier proportions. Even modest rooms feel more spacious when the vertical space is used intentionally, balancing the horizontal furniture layout with an upward line that the eye follows naturally.
The rug anchor
Small rugs can unintentionally fragment a space, creating disconnected “islands” of furniture. A larger rug that accommodates the front legs of sofas and chairs unifies the seating area into a single zone. This cohesion helps your eye read the space as one continuous area, making the room feel larger and more organised. The right rug anchors your furniture proportionally, guiding movement and giving the layout a considered rhythm.