Bedroom Talk

How do I make my bedroom look larger?

I have a bedroom that is 9x11. Inside of my room I have a bed, a wall of closets (so I can't use that wall), a large dresser, a set of book shelves, and craft boxes. All of this in my room makes it look so small! I'm renting the house I live, so I can't paint or make too many changes to the room, but I'd like to make it look larger or just give myself more space. Any suggestions?

Public Comments

1. mirrors help and lighter-colored paint
2. paint it a light color
3. if you have the space, put the dresser in the closet. hopefully you can still hang shirts above it, if it's not too tall.
4. smoke, mirrors and one of those disco balls. makes my room look huge!!!
5. Light colored paint and mirrors.
6. a nice wall or ground mirror makes any room appear bigger. try it:)
7. I heard wall mirriors make a room look bigger
8. mirrors. lots of mirrors. try putting mirror doors for your closet doors.
9. You can remove some things that you don't need as much. or you can try to put all your things on one side of the bedroom. tough guy is being mean. don't listen to him! :)
10. Move some of the stuff to other rooms or organize it better. Find out what you really need and what is important and keep that. Maybe sell some less important stuff on eBay.
11. Can you put the dresser in the closet and the craft boxes somewhere else in the house?
12. Get a smaller bed.
13. put up mirrors, that makes it look larger. Store the craft boxes in plastic containers under the bed.
14. Will the dresser fit into the closet? I have seen this done to free up floor space and make a room feel more open.
15. Since you can't paint it... You should try putting in some light-colored sort of transparent curtains to illuminate the room and try to get more smaller storage units that you can fit into your closet or something so you won't need as much furniture.
16. see if you can get the dresser to be inside the closet . I did it with mine and it adds to the room on space . Then I got a bed where a box is under the bed ,where you can pull out baskets and I put my books in there and other stuff. Which eliminates to many shelfs in the room . And put the craft boxes in the closet on the top shelf or under the bed . Long to the floor curtains . with long draperies to it . that will strech the room in lengh. I also got a closet shelf system from Rubbermaid put into my closet this helps to get more use out of the closet and space! And is affordable Good luck to you .
17. Mirrors...I would suggest mirrored closet doors since its the whole wall. Or maybe a full wall mural...that can add the appearance of space to a room also.
18. I suggest a closet organization system to maximize how much you can fit behind closed doors. Consider storing your craft boxes and/or bookshelves in another part of the house, and maybe sell the large dresser and replace it with one that's a little smaller or maybe a different shape to match the proportions of the room.
19. ONE WORD: MIRROR
20. Take out the bookshelf or craft boxes. Can you put them in your closet?
21. Mirror one wall or Paint 3 walls the same color and the 4th on a diffrent color
22. add a bunch of mirrors the reflection gives off the illusion to make the room look big if u can use nails in ur apartment u can drill mirrors onto an entire wall and it will look bigger also avoid putting pictures on the wall this will make ur room look small bcuz it will look cramped one or two is fine but a whole wall full of them will cramp ur room also push everything in ur room 2 the edge of ur room like dont have ur bed in the middle but up against the wall this gives u more space in the middle and makes the room look bigger color also makes the room look smaller
23. Light neutral colors on walls and ceilings make a room look bigger but since you can't paint, try getting extremely organized with your book shelves and craft boxes. There are plenty of cheap, organizers out there in all sizes to keep everything in it's place and keep what space you have looking uncluttered. For instance, use baskets on your bookshelves for magazines, or smaller paraphanalia, like office stuff, pens, pencils, etc. Keep everything off of the floor. Mirrors on the walls give the illusion of more space also. Get rid of everything that you really haven't used in over a year. Make one wall a focal point with a favorite picture or poster and keep the other walls simple and not cluttered. Get a coordinated look on the bed that is tailored and don't pile it up with too many pillows or stuffed animals. In other words, keep everything to a minimum! Most people have too much junk for the space they are filling. Have a yard sale and make some dough for the room makeover!
24. Can you put any of that stuff in the closet? You said you can't paint b/c you rent - but can you paint the bookshelves or the dresser a lighter color (if they are dark)? You might consider hanging light, solid colored fabric like a curtain over a false window, just to lighten the room a bit if you don't have any mirrors, or in addition to mirrors.
25. Since you rent your option to paint or use mirrors is somewhat limited. You might ask your landlord about painting the room. If you give them the option to approve of your color choice they might let you paint. As others have suggested, you might try putting the dresser inside the closet. You might also consider raising your bed so that you can put the craft boxes under the bed. You can get inexpensive full length mirrors. You might mount the full length mirrors on the closet doors using easy to remove adhesives like "Command Adhesive".
26. First of all People she made it clear that she is renting and not owning so she "CAN'T PAINT THE ROOM IN ANY WAY"!!!!!! take some stuff that you really don't need anymore out of your room and make a yard sale i'm sure you will sale somestuff... but if you don't want to sale anything just move a lot of your book shelves to another room.